Heather

2 AM. Large winter storm blowing in. It is raining and it will surely be snowing soon.

So I do what any wanna-be-photo-geek does: I decide to set my iPhone in the window to take a time lapse video of our front lawn as the storm blows in. So I go to our front window, pull up the blinds (which is made difficult by the fact that they are broken) and I use an extension cord to plug in my iPhone so the battery won't die.

As I am lining up the shot about to hit the shutter I notice someone walking down the road. I thought "That's odd, it is below freezing outside and raining, who is walking around in this weather?" As I watch she turns up our driveway and starts to walk across our lawn.

Our doorbell rings.

I answer it and the woman says that her mom has kicked her out of the house, could she use my phone. "Of course" is my answer! She calls her boyfriend to come pick her up.

My roommate and I invite her to come inside and stay warm. She turns us down at first (I don't blame her for not coming into a stranger's house in the middle of the night) but she soon allows herself inside to wait.

We get to talking. She said that she saw me in the window and decided to come to our door to ask for help, and I explained to her what I was doing in the window. She opens up and says that her parents didn't like her boyfriend (the man she wanted to marry) so they said "You can leave him or leave the house." She choose to leave the house.

I then gather up the courage to say "I don't know where you come from or what you believe, but I am a Christian and I believe in prayer. Do you mind if I pray for you?" She said that she too was a Christian and would appreciate some prayer.

So in our living room at 2:15 in the morning with a winter storm brewing outside I was praying with my roommate and a stranger, someone who was at that instant homeless and clearly broken by the events that had just taken place.

Her boyfriend finally got there and she ran through the rain to his truck. I realize that if I hadn't been standing in the window at that moment she would still probably be out in the cold. I fully believe that God put me there at that exact moment to be a light in her deep darkness.

I will probably never see Heather again, but she will be in my prayers tonight and for a long time to come. May she will be in your prayers too.

Matthew