God at 4pm

Part of my caregiving journey. How God showed us he cared on one of the worst days.

In 2009 we were already 15 years into Debi's illness and had long run out of financial options.  Things were so bad that I had several financial advisors break out into tears when I explained our situation.  Over the next few years things went from bad to ever so much worse.

We had already reached the end of our rope.  Only to fall and hit rock bottom to have the floor fall out from under us.  We felt like we were in a free fall into a bottomless abyss.

In late September of 2010, Debi had started having severe seizures throughout the night and was passing out up to 20 times per day.  The doctors had no idea what was happening in her body. I could no longer leave her for more than a few minutes at time.

I couldn't do the work our business needed because all of my time was spent helping Debi.  Our business was failing because we couldn't keep up with the major changes going on in the craft industry.  A customer offered to take care of the store but had to quit after 2 months because of her own family situation.

We fell behind on all of our bills.  One night, I found myself going through every nook and cranny including the seat cushions just to find enough change to buy my wife's diapers.  That was one of the most humbling experiences of my life.

Support organizations helped us apply for a program in which the state would pay me as her caregiver.  This would also get her on Medicaid which would cover her medical expenses going forward.  Unfortunately the application process would take several months.  When we met with the social worker to receive final approval we were relieved. But that relief lasted only a few seconds.  She explained the next step, training, would take another four months! After that it would take another month couple of months to onboard into the company that oversees the caregivers. The social worker left us devastated. How were we going to get through the next four to six months?

At 4pm that afternoon, God walked through our door. A man walks into your store. "I am roaming evangelist”, he started. “I was walking through this town on my way west.  I was just walking down the other side of the street and the spirit pointed out your store and told me to go in there.  So what is going on?".

We explained our situation and the meeting earlier that day. He cried and said he wished he had money for us. All he could do was buy us some tamales for dinner. But he gave us exactly what we needed that day.  A complete stranger walked into our store to tell us God loved us.

However, this was no ordinary stranger! This man was none other than Nicky Cruz, notorious gang leader turned evangelist. At 4pm on this exact day God sent Nicky Cruz walking into our craft store in Woodland Park, Colorado to tell us that God was with us.