Truck Drivers
I sat there...waiting. It was a beautiful day. You know those random days in the winter that are a gift from God. It’s been freezing and the wind blowing like crazy all week, and just for today things just kind of settle down. The wind stops howling and the temperatures rise a little bringing the air to nice, cool temperature that just makes you want to be outside. This day was a day to be outside. I opened up the garage door and took a seat inside that 4,000 square foot building that I have come to know over the last two and a half years.
The first time I walked that building it was full of fire trucks. Now, I watch the Lord fill it with food every week to be distributed each Saturday morning. Food goes out in large quantities...and yet it fills back up every week, ready for another Saturday, even at times that we don’t even know where it is coming from. This building has taught me so much about God. It’s taught me so much about people. About brokenness, pain, and healing. This building has taught my life in a way that only life can teach you about life. I am so blessed.
While I am sitting there, I pull out my Bible and begin to read. This building has also taught me to appreciate the quiet. As soon as I begin, an eighteen wheeler pulls up in the parking lot. Truck drivers contact us every now and then with food they have to get rid of. The driver gets out and starts walking toward me. I recognize him. He lives in the community. Wife...three boys, two of them grown and out of the house, one still a student at Sparkman High School. When we first began delivering food boxes in the winter of 2015, this family was one of the initial ones we delivered to.
“Hey buddy,” the man says. “I just wanted to stop by and talk to you for a minute.” I love it when people stop by and talk to me for a minute. At heart, I am really just a small town guy. It kind of makes House of the Harvest feel like Floyd’s Barber Shop. I stand up to greet him, “Absolutely! Glad you did. What’s on your mind?” He says, “I just got back in town about six days ago from making a run to Las Vegas.” I reply, “Is that right?”
He goes on, “I was stuck out there for three weeks in the hospital. Drove my load out and got extremely sick. Stayed in the hospital for three weeks by myself, couldn’t drive, couldn’t work, couldn’t send any money to my family.”
“Man, I am so sorry to hear that! I am glad you are better and were able to get back home safely.”
“I just wanted to stop by and thank y’all.” Tears begin to form in his eyes. “If it weren’t for this place, my wife and son wouldn’t have been able to eat while I was gone. I just wanted you guys to know how much y’all are doing means to us and to tell you I appreciate it.”
“Thank you, sir. I needed to hear that. Blessed be the name of the Lord!”
I stopped by for twenty minutes that day. Just so happened to be the same twenty minute window that truck would drive by during. Amazing how God knows what we need, and right when we need it.