A story about God connecting people…
It has become more and more clear to me the way God orchestrates relationships for His kingdom and glory. Bob and I have a long list of such “connections” that are truly a divine work. But that’s another story.
Currently we are traveling stateside, which includes meeting with several supporting churches, speaking, but also driving a donated 15 passenger van to Port Everglades to ship to Haiti. On our way into Florida we took a couple of days for a nice stop-off on Daytona Beach (“World’s Most Famous Beach”) and my favorite beach since age 9.
While there we decided to visit the old, historic Daytona area, which includes quaint little shops and businesses restored to their original glamour. One of those is a candy store that has been there for ages.
As we entered the Angell & Phelps Candy Store, it became very clear to us that “someone” there follows Christ. The greeter at the door, offering samples of popcorn covered in white chocolate, smiled and graciously welcomed us. The Holy Spirit was evident. Then we saw candy bars with scriptures on the wrappers, t-shirts that say simply “Jesus Saves” and much more. The store was a bee-hive of activity as they also make the candy and host tours for people interested in knowing how they do it.
Not only did they have a lot of unique candies (including chocolate covered items: bacon, potato chips, and popcorn), but also white chocolate candies that look like fried eggs and sand dollars! And you can find them online; they ship candy everywhere.
After sampling a few wonderful goodies, and picking up a few items to take with us, I went to the cashier to pay. This is where the connecting began. The woman who waited on us, Hannah Smith, is actually the co-owner with her husband, but she NEVER comes downstairs from her office to wait on customers. Connection time!
Sylvia, the greeter was talking with Bob and learned that we are missionaries. Well, the communications began flowing and before it was all over Hannah told us she’d been praying for a way to help children and she is very interested in our Children’s Home kiddies in Honduras. We learned these 2 ladies worship together and their church takes teams to Honduras.
But sadly, in talking with Hannah, we also learned that her heritage is Middle Eastern and that the children and people being killed there right now are her people.
After a wonderful time of talking and fellowship, Bob gave a prayer, right there in the candy store, as we held hands. And the interesting thing was we didn’t get any negative “looks”. The customers seem to know this is a Christian establishment.
But now we have new Christian friends and we will continue to communicate and stay connected.
A challenge today is this: As you “go through doors” and meet people, just consider that God might be orchestrating the timing and the connections. He does it all the time; we might not always realize it.
How sweet it was that day, in Angell & Phelps Candy Store.
devotion by Gretchen DeVoe, Lifeline Co-Founder
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