The Man Who Just Showed Up

 

The Man Who Just Showed Up

 

Immediately after graduation from college I got my first job. I was twenty-two and was slated to be the director of a chapter of InteVarsity Christian Fellowship on a college campus in a small city in North Carolina.

 

Now that I had a job, I wanted to build some equity, so with a little help from my parents I bought a small run-down house in a rougher part of my new town. As it turns out, it was a lot rougher than I had thought.

 

My neighbors were very sweet, but across the street was a brothel and I actually took occupancy of my house by removing a prostitute and all her drug paraphernalia. Drug dealers routinely used the sidewalk in front of my new house to do their transactions. I often heard gun shots. The neighborhood was full of abandoned houses. I was the only white person for blocks.

 

The house itself was a real renovation project. No electricity. No running water. It should have been a tear-down, but being young and naive, I didn’t know any better. Well, about a month after I moved in there, I was doing some clean up and these two women walked by and asked if they could use my bathroom. I was trying to be a good neighbor, so I said, “Sure, c’mon in.”

 

They did and while one of them talked to me in one room the other stole my wallet. They immediately ran out of the house with me behind them. They got away and later my empty wallet was found in the woods behind a neighbor’s house. It turns out the two women were prostitutes.

 

When the police showed up, it was a messy story with them believing I had been soliciting the prostitutes. I was able to explain it eventually, but now I had zero money and no identification. And I was supposed to fly out the next morning to Wisconsin for a conference.

 

One of my neighbors having seen the police, came over to see what happened. I told him the story and though he hardly had any money at all, he immediately went to an ATM, took out forty bucks, and gave it all to me. He was so generous and I was so thankful.

 

Then this man who appeared to be just randomly walking down the street looking for a reason to stop, pulled up. He was an older black gentleman who somehow looked too old and too young for his firm, weathered features. We began to talk and I explained what had just happened and added, “I have no ID and I’m supposed to fly out tomorrow to Wisconsin for a conference.”

 

This guy responded, “Getting a new ID is a difficult process. But, I know how to do it. There’s some steps involved, and you have to do them in the right order, but I can help you.”

 

I was new to the city and had no idea how to do something this, let alone find my way around to these places. I had very little time and very little trust left after my earlier mistake, but I trusted him. We hopped in my car together and he directed me.

 

First, we went to a government building to get a paper, and then to the DMV to get something else, and then to another office, and back to a government building. There were four places, and I would never have figured this out in time to fly the next morning without this guy.

 

Forty-five minutes later I had my ID. I don’t know if he was an angel, or God just said to a regular guy who happened to know this particular information, “Hey, take a walk down there I need you to do something”. Anyway, I think God put this guy in my path at just the right moment. I never saw the gentleman before and I never saw him again though I lived in that neighborhood for six years. He just showed up that day.

 

When I needed him.

 

Matt, SC