Spiritually charged yet physically depleted and running on adrenaline, I steered the oversized van into the parking lot of a South Carolina Pizza Hut.
I and the students with me were several hours into our drive home to Southeast Florida following an incredible week of Summer Camp with 700 other students from church youth groups throughout the United States.
The kids had said their goodbyes to new friends, exchanging numbers and promising to stay in touch after spending six action-packed days and nights together. It was a week filled with inspiring worship and innovative biblical teaching, wacky relays, a rousing camp talent show and a funky costume contest. Several of my students made life-changing spiritual decisions and all of us felt a closer connection to our heavenly Dad.
The theme for the week was Servanthood—allowing God to minister to others through us.
I planned our meal stop after the lunch rush so we could get in and out and back on the road as quickly as possible. As my jovial, chattering students filed into the restaurant, we barely noticed the tables cluttered with half empty plastic cups, crumpled napkins and crusty dishes. Focused on exuberantly sharing their camp experiences with each other while keeping an eye on the restroom lines, the kids were totally unaware of their surroundings. Soon we realized we were the only ones in the dining room, and our group occupied most of the tables.
Fifteen minutes passed, then twenty, and soon the chatter died down long enough for us to realize we had not seen a server and we hadn’t even been offered menus.
At that moment I saw a pregnant young woman emerge from the kitchen and briefly stop behind the counter near the cash register.. Being careful not to cast a glance our way, she disappeared back into the kitchen without a word. By this time thirty-five minutes had passed and the kids were hungry and cranky. I was frustrated and antsy to get back on the road. By the time she appeared again, we had logged forty-five minutes at our stop, and still had no menus.
I approached the counter intending to complain. In that moment God helped me to see the situation through his eyes. No longer did I see a dirty restaurant with lazy employees ignoring a dining room of restless students and their anxious leader.
Instead I saw an overwhelmed expectant mother, not much older than the students in my group, tired and alone and dying to prop up her swollen feet.
Instead of explaining the rush we were in and asking why she was not taking care of us, I heard myself asking if she had a damp cloth I could use.
Without a word I started going table to table gathering dirty silverware, stacking plates and plastic cups and delivering them to the counter. One by one I noticed my students slowly and quietly beginning to follow suit. Once the dishes were cleared I washed the table tops with the cloth she had given me. This continued until every table in the place was clean.
The mood began to transition from impatient exasperation to compassionate assistance. Each student’s silent service was an act of pure worship, filling us with reverent gratitude, and I believe it made God smile.
The meal we received from that South Carolina Pizza Hut brought with it the realization that God had given us the perfect setting to flesh out the biblical principle of Servanthood we had just learned at camp.
What an amazing gift!
Julie Smith Searer
Northport
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Brace Yourself
January 2012
We are driving home from lunch after church in a driving rain, As usual I’m sitting in the back seat of our van beside our six-month old baby, Rachel. She is strapped in her rear facing car seat and is having a serious crying episode.
After several minutes of trying to comfort her, I realize that she has a very soiled diaper. No wonder she is screaming. I said to my husband, Bob, who is driving, “Brace Yourself, I’m taking her out of her car seat for a minute to change her diaper.”
I place her on the carpeted floor and change her diaper and remove her stained pants. I think I was still leaning over tying the dirty items in a publix plastic bag when I hear Bob yell, “WATCH Out!”
Our van is T-boned, hit right in the back seat drivers side door. The impact busts out the window beside me and sends our van spinning in the middle of the intersection (Bahia Vista and McIntosh. Rd.)
“Oh my God,” we are in a wreck and Rachael is not in her car seat. Glass is raining over both of us. All I see is little Rachael in mid-air seemingly suspended there for a moment, her bright blue eyes looking right into mine. And then wooosh…she sails out the window…floating like a frizbee through the rain…across that intersection landing in a puddle, on her bottom, screaming and crying.
I am screaming, “my baby, my baby.” My sweet Bob, who doesn’t know Rachael has been ejected, turns around to see about us only to find me stuck in my seat yelling and pointing across the road screaming, “Go get her, please. Go get her.”
A kind man in a light blue sweater, who sees the accident, gets out of his car to help. He cautions about not picking her up. Try telling a daddy he can’t pick up his crying baby who has been thrown 30 feet through the air, landing in a puddle inches from the metal base of a utility pole.
Bob says he knew she was “whole” when he put his hands under her to lift her into his arms. The kind man in the blue sweater, holds a poncho from sea world over Bob and baby and walks them back as I crawl over the front seat and out of the van.
The ambulance arrives with the EMT’s who see our baby bleeding from the mouth, strap her on a back board and take us all to Sarasota Memorial Hospital. Several tests are made while we wait three hours for the storm to pass so that Bay Flight can air lift her to All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg. Only patient and flight crew can go in the helicopter so our pastors drive us to St. Pete.
There are four days of MRI’s, ct scans and other tests. Everyone is amazed there are no broken bones, internal hemoraging. The bleeding from her mouth turned out to be a small glass cut. Doctors and specialist kept coming in and out of Rachel’s room, all amazed and totally not accepting that she is really ok. They all keep telling us that when someone is thrown from a spinning vehicle the ending is always sad, severe injury or death.
Yes, finally everyone agrees. This is a miracle.
Bob and I are so thankful that our baby was not seriously injured and following checkups have confirmed she is 100% fine. She truly was touched by an angel. When we share her story people can not help themselves from wanting to touch her.
She is now eight-years-old and we look at every day as a true gift. Thank you for reading Rachel’s story and pass it on. Choose to live your life today to the fullest. Brace yourself and live today with passion.
Dundie Crisp The Paddocks, Sarasota
We are driving home from lunch after church in a driving rain, As usual I’m sitting in the back seat of our van beside our six-month old baby, Rachel. She is strapped in her rear facing car seat and is having a serious crying episode.
After several minutes of trying to comfort her, I realize that she has a very soiled diaper. No wonder she is screaming. I said to my husband, Bob, who is driving, “Brace Yourself, I’m taking her out of her car seat for a minute to change her diaper.”
I place her on the carpeted floor and change her diaper and remove her stained pants. I think I was still leaning over tying the dirty items in a publix plastic bag when I hear Bob yell, “WATCH Out!”
Our van is T-boned, hit right in the back seat drivers side door. The impact busts out the window beside me and sends our van spinning in the middle of the intersection (Bahia Vista and McIntosh. Rd.)
“Oh my God,” we are in a wreck and Rachael is not in her car seat. Glass is raining over both of us. All I see is little Rachael in mid-air seemingly suspended there for a moment, her bright blue eyes looking right into mine. And then wooosh…she sails out the window…floating like a frizbee through the rain…across that intersection landing in a puddle, on her bottom, screaming and crying.
I am screaming, “my baby, my baby.” My sweet Bob, who doesn’t know Rachael has been ejected, turns around to see about us only to find me stuck in my seat yelling and pointing across the road screaming, “Go get her, please. Go get her.”
A kind man in a light blue sweater, who sees the accident, gets out of his car to help. He cautions about not picking her up. Try telling a daddy he can’t pick up his crying baby who has been thrown 30 feet through the air, landing in a puddle inches from the metal base of a utility pole.
Bob says he knew she was “whole” when he put his hands under her to lift her into his arms. The kind man in the blue sweater, holds a poncho from sea world over Bob and baby and walks them back as I crawl over the front seat and out of the van.
The ambulance arrives with the EMT’s who see our baby bleeding from the mouth, strap her on a back board and take us all to Sarasota Memorial Hospital. Several tests are made while we wait three hours for the storm to pass so that Bay Flight can air lift her to All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg. Only patient and flight crew can go in the helicopter so our pastors drive us to St. Pete.
There are four days of MRI’s, ct scans and other tests. Everyone is amazed there are no broken bones, internal hemoraging. The bleeding from her mouth turned out to be a small glass cut. Doctors and specialist kept coming in and out of Rachel’s room, all amazed and totally not accepting that she is really ok. They all keep telling us that when someone is thrown from a spinning vehicle the ending is always sad, severe injury or death.
Yes, finally everyone agrees. This is a miracle.
Bob and I are so thankful that our baby was not seriously injured and following checkups have confirmed she is 100% fine. She truly was touched by an angel. When we share her story people can not help themselves from wanting to touch her.
She is now eight-years-old and we look at every day as a true gift. Thank you for reading Rachel’s story and pass it on. Choose to live your life today to the fullest. Brace yourself and live today with passion.
Dundie Crisp The Paddocks, Sarasota
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