Friday, September 9, 2016

RUNNING FOR MY LIFE!

Randy and I have had the privilege of hosting or co-hosting many trips with the Senior Adults in our church.  Many of the stories you will see on these posts will involve some of those trips.

On this particular trip, we were co-hosting a trip to New Orleans and had been given "free time" to roam around the French Quarters.  Randy went with a group to find a snack, and I went with a few ladies to just walk and observe the festivities around us.  I decided to leave my purse on the bus and just keep up with my camera.  Randy had our money for the snacks and meals.

As the ladies and I were walking, I saw a fabulous statue!  I whipped out my camera and got a beautiful photo!!  All of a sudden, the statue came ALIVE!!!  He pointed to a can beside him and insisted I put in money!  I was still so shocked he was a real person, I was speechless!  I tried to explain that I didn't have my purse with me, therefore I had no money, but I could hardly get in a word because of his yelling at me!  The crowd began to GROW to watch the theater show unfolding before their very eyes!!

THEN....he began to move toward me still yelling for money or my camera and this time, I began to MOVE!  I held on to two little senior adult ladies' arms (somehow thinking they could SAVE me!!) and we started walking as fast as they could walk while the man chased us yelling and the crowds grew bigger!!  Everyone scurried out of the way as we passed them, until I happened to notice a church on the other side of the square.  We made a beeline for it and walked in praying like never before!!  We stood there shaking (at least I was), while they kept patting me and trying to catch their breath from me making them run!  But in reality, they just thought they were running - the crazy man behind us was running!  BUT...he didn't run all the way to the church, thank goodness, although he was still screaming at me from where he stopped!  (Personally, I think he stopped chasing us because he was afraid someone was going to take his money from the can he had left behind!)

I kept looking out the church door, and every time I did, he saw me and began yelling that I owed him money!  He was REALLY scary!!  After the ladies caught their breath, I put myself between them (I truly thought they could save me) and we left the church (after praying just one more time!), and started moving in the opposite direction from the "statue"!  He continued yelling until we were out of sight and we couldn't wait to find more of our group!!  By the way, I tried to find the photo I took, but I think I hid it!

Lessons I learned:
* Don't take pictures of statues!  They may start chasing you!
* If you are going to run, pick someone who can run as fast as you!

* That God provides what you need when you need it - like a church sanctuary to hide in.

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