Pam Padgett ... teacher
2 Chronicles 16:9 For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro
throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them
whose heart is perfect toward him. ....
Many years ago when I first started going to college God showed Himself strong on my behalf. Although this has been shared before, I'd
like to share it again since it so strongly shows the power and mercy of God.
My older sister had been at college two years when I started
attending the same school. She dated a man who was a member of a
fraternity, and had become a member of the fraternity's
"women's auxiliary", assisting with fraternity social functions. She
was very excited for me to join the social circles she was in, and
especially wanted me to meet members of the fraternity.
The
first week of school my sister invited me to go to a student bar where many
of the fraternity guys gathered on Thursday nights. I went, but found
what was going on there to be so bad (lewdness, drunkenness, etc.) that I
was unable to stay and walked back to the dormitory.
A
week or so later my sister asked if I'd go to an outdoor luau with one
of the freshmen "pledges" at the fraternity. The luau site was about 20
miles away near a river, and there would be a campfire. The setting
was very appealing to me, plus I was excited about having a date, and I
agreed to go.
Then, a few days before the luau, my
sister told me that arrangements had been made for one of the other
fraternity guys to take me to the luau because my date would be spending
the day at the luau site building a hut for us ... a young man I had
never even met was building a hut "for us"!
Suddenly the reality of this luau became very clear to me.
This was not going to be people sitting around a campfire roasting
marshmallows. The lewdness and drunkenness I had seen at the student
bar was probably mild compared to what would be going on at this luau
... and I wouldn't be able to walk home.
I told my
sister that I couldn't go along with this and did not want to go, but
she kept insisting that it was too late for me to back out, that it was
too late for this guy to find another date.
I turned
very strongly to God, asking Him to somehow get me out of this
situation. There seemed no way out. At one point I asked God to
let me have appendicitis, preferring to be in a hospital having surgery
than to go to this luau.
The morning of the luau I
woke up and checked to see if I might have any pain that would indicate
appendicitis, and was disappointed that I felt fine. I kept praying for
God to somehow work this out. Time was really running out! When I
looked outside, it was raining a little, but not much. However, the rain
became heavier and heavier as the day went on.
Around
2 pm I received a call from the fraternity guy who planned to take me
to the luau site. He told me how sorry he was to have to tell me this,
but the luau had to be cancelled. The luau site had been totally
flooded, washing away all the huts that had been built, which would include the hut my date had built for us. He
told me how long the luau had been held at this same site (many years) and, although there had been rain at times in the past, nothing like this had ever happened before, flooding and causing the luau to be cancelled.
I rejoiced, knowing that God had delivered me.