In anticipation, for my cross cultural training to prepare for Hungary, I loaded my car for a three week road trip to Indiana.  After re-routing my trip 4 times, I decided at the last minute to depart day earlier than planned because a big snow storm was imminent.  Little did I know leaving early had me face the brunt of the storm in my jeep.  I stopped at Cracker Barrel to catch up with some friends I hadn’t seen in about 4 years. Well, an amazing 4 hours in cracker barrel put me behind schedule enough to have snow coming down in a fashion that made me feel like Hans Solo driving light speed ahead, but in reality, I was barely moving along on the treacherous roads.

 Around 10pm, I decided to call a friend to see if I could find a bed closer to my current location, rather than driving another hour and a half on windy highways. This spontaneous plea which was answered lead me to a moment of thankfulness.  I spent the night in Harrisburg, playing with a puppy and discussing ministry over Earl Grey tea rather than driving on slick and snow covered roads.  I felt rescued and loved.  Little did I know a bigger rescue was yet to come.

The condition of the roads after 3-5 inches of snow was unusually smooth for the “winter storm warning” in which I continued my trek.   I had planned to stay at penn state university to catch up with a student that’s a freshman there. Since I had her winter coat and we had a deep conversation planned, it was worth the detour even if it meant arriving at my final destination late into the night.  We had a brisk walk around campus and state college, hitting all the major sites: the diner, library, and of course, the Nittany Lion shrine!  

I said good bye, and started down the road towards Indiana.  Not too far into the drive my phone rang 570-###-####, “hello is this Lauren? I think you dropped your wallet on pollack street.”  Immediately, I pulled a U-Turn and found a place to meet Chris, this honest young man who had lost his wallet not too long ago, and wanted to ensure that I didn’t go through the same hassle.  It’s not too often in the world today that you find honest people.  The sort that would find a wallet with cash, credit cards, identification and a business card and actually pursue the way of integrity: return the wallet along with all its contents.  Plutarch said “character is simply habit long continued” and so even though I realize Chris may never read this, thank you for showing true character.  I was the recipient of a great grace in this moment.  Without the wallet, I would have no way to continue on my journey, I would have run out of gas and had no resources to pay for fuel.

One again, I’m reminded that the journey is just as important as the destination.  In my next blog, I’ll share about the training, but for now, I’ve got a question: how are you, like Chris, helping others along on their journey simply by being authentically you?