The first time I met Ben I was traveling to Fayetteville to sign some papers with my soon to be ex husband regarding the one home we thought we would sell before foreclosure. For some odd reason I stopped by to send off something to my daughter 30 minutes early, but the post office was only 6 miles out of the way. Yeah there was a reason I had to leave early, I had a few more stops before my appointment. See Ben was walking along the highway packing a huge backpack and it was starting to get warm. It took me a while to make that U-turn then three point turns to go back and pick him up. God told me to pick him up, so I did.

As we shared our stories, I found out that Ben left his good job in Jersey to come down to this area to take care of his dying mom. Well she passed on about two years ago and this was when all the layoffs started to happen, so jobs have become scarce. He found it difficult to find work. His divorce took everything and he had to sell his car. His mom did not own a house or a car, so Ben started to walk to different friends homes and he even walked to Georgia and picked up a tent. Mind you he cannot get on unemployment because he chose to leave his job, he is also in his late 50's. This man lives on complete faith for every meal, maybe a place to stay and hopefully a ride to his destination for the day. He is a good Godly man, and I really respect how he is handling his valleys.

I asked Ben where he was going it wasn't far from where my appointment. He told me that he was going to the blood bank in town for money to get a bus to go up to Virginia just for a Sunrise Easter Service at another friend’s church.  As we pulled up to his destination, God told me, “Give Ben that $5 you have in your wallet”. I was like, “Ok Lord, but you know I have been saving it for a car wash for a long time. “ So as he grabbed his home and all his belongings out of my back seat, I pulled out my $5 and gave it to him. We both blessed each other and he went on. This was on a Monday.

Wednesday after church, this sweet little elderly lady named Alice came up to me. She insisted on giving me some money. My pride got in the way and I argued a little bit with her that I was really fine. As her eyes swelled up and she began to cry, she told me for the third time, “God told me to give it to you.” It broke my heart and my pride, so I took it. When I opened the wad of money up she had given me $50! God blessed me 10 fold what I had given to Ben.

Almost two months later, I am driving home from the strawberry patch. I see a hitchhiker and I know what I must do, it was scorching hot today. The closer I get, I see that it is Ben. I was so excited to see that he was well, and I was excited to talk about God with him again to share what He has been doing in our lives. I told him I was only going up the road about 3 miles, and asked where he was going. He was traveling about 40 miles away, I told him that my car gets good mileage and I would take him. He was so joyous he wanted to hug me, but I was driving.