"Never neglect to show hospitality to strangers for some have entertained angels unknowingly." - Hebrews

Here's another true story about a friend of mine from church. This happened two years ago in my town in Texas. Jimmy is in his mid-forties. He's tall, big build, shaved head, with tattoos all over him. He used to be a biker in the wrong crowd, but along the way found Jesus, and now is 'Gentle Ben.' Jimmy had been talking to a gal on the internet, and she wanted him to move to Missouri so they could live in the same town to date.
He was struggling with the decision, and wasn't sure what to do. (He also had separately prayed for a long time for an angel encounter - it's just something he really wanted.) He was working two jobs to make ends meet and was praying about moving. When he came out of Wal-Mart (one of his jobs) that Sunday afternoon, there was a big man waiting for him next to his truck. He asked Jimmy which way he was going and when he answered to church across town, he asked him for a ride.
Once driving in the car, the man said his name was Gabriel, and told Jimmy all the things he had been praying that no one knew but him. He had this wonderful countenance about him, and also told Jimmy that God didn't want him to move at this time. When they got to the cross street, Jimmy stopped to let him out. As he drove into the parking lot, Jimmy looked around, but the guy had vanished in thin air. There was no where he could have dodged into. I was in church that night, and it hit Jimmy as he walked in, that he had just been driving with an angel...
The rest of the story is, that Jimmy lost sight of what the angel had said and moved to Missouri. Things did not go well with the woman. He was working at a juvenile detention center for older boys, and one of them tried to kill him with a baseball bat to the head, and he was in a short coma. After a few months in the hospital, my pastor lent him the money to come back to our town, and I saw him a few weeks ago, and he's dating a new lady. He says he's going to obey God next time... it's for his own good...

"Pass it forward."

Here is an uplifting story I would like to share... When I worked at the Austin American Statesman in the nineties, I worked with a lady in her thirties, who everyone really liked. When I met her, I asked how long she had been at the paper. She answered, 'which time?' She went on to say she had marital problems earlier, and relayed this story. She said she LOVED her job, and LOVED Austin, and all of her family and friends are in Austin. So when her husband came home and said, 'We're moving,' she was completely upset. Upset that he had looked for a job without telling her. Upset that he accepted a job in Amarillo without telling her. Upset that he had rented a house sight unseen. Also upset because they had two young children, making the move even more difficult. She was furious. She actually had decided that she would not go because of all of this but did not tell her husband. Out of curiosity, she did go up to Amarillo with him just to look at the town to see where HE would be moving. She had been reading a book about angels, but her husband had not seen it.
When they got to the rent house with the realtor, she said it had been empty and no one had been inside for awhile. And it was locked. When they got to the master bedroom, the floor was covered with white feathers. The realtor looked so embarressed and said she could not imagine how they got there. No one had even had the key. But my friend knew how. It was the exact scenario she had recently read in her book. AND she had asked God for a sign about it all. Long story short, she moved up there with him and the kids, they were there a year, and moved back to Austin, and she got her job back.
After I heard the story, I asked God if He would send me feathers too. And He does. Every so often I will find a feather in the most odd place, and then I know that God is telling me He's with me. If I save them in my pocket or purse, they disappear. It's the strangest thing.

So, I'm passing it forward...