By Jewel Tyler


When I turned the corner that lead to my apartment complex, I noticed a young man standing at the bus stop, with no coat on. I thought to myself, oh my God sweetie, don’t you know that no buses run this time of morning and where is his coat?

I had been contemplating with myself if whether or not I was simply going to head home or stop and fill up my gas tank, because the gas station was right at the corner behind the bus stop where this gentleman was standing.

The Holy Spirit spoke ever so softly to me, fill up your gas tank now. Well, I was not going to be disobedient; I pulled into the gas station and pulled up to the pump. There was a line at the window of people paying for gas and other items. I was startled by a young man asking if I had an extra coat or blanket in my car that I could give him, it was the young man from the bus stop. I could see that he had tear drops frozen on his face and mucous that had drained from his nose down on his lips that was frozen. I told him “no I did not have a blanket or an extra coat,” but I explained to him that no buses ran this time of morning, and I asked “why are you standing at the bus stop?” I paid for my gas and we continued to talk as we both proceeded to my truck, he started explaining to me that a police officer had come by earlier to put some gas in a water jug and he had asked him for help and he continued explaining his conversation with the officer “you know he had to have a blanket or something but he wouldn’t even stop to talk to me or help me.” I shook my head and said “my Lord,” I explained to him that the police officer was helping me; I had ran out of gas and had been sitting in my truck freezing. And it hit my Spirit like a ton of bricks, (but you at least had the shelter of your vehicle and a coat to cover you what does he have?). I asked him if he needed some money to catch a cab where he needed to go. He replied “I have nowhere to go, I was evicted today, I got laid off from my job and was not able to pay my rent for the past couple of months.” Boy did I know how that felt I had just went through that and had lost my house, and then got my apartment and was laid off again, and finally got the job I was currently working on and almost lost my apartment in the process. But God blessed me right on time every time.

I told him to get into my truck so he could warm up. He offered to pump my gas, and I told him no, because he just had on a T-shirt and jeans in this freezing cold weather. He got in the truck and I turned the heat up full blast, he was shivering so horribly, I took off my coat and covered his body and continued to pump my gas. While I was outside pumping my gas, I was thinking Lord what do you want me to do, I know you had us to cross paths for a reason, it is not just a coincidence that this young man tried to seek assistance from the same officer that was helping me and we were both in the cold freezing, you blessed and helped me so how can I help him? I got into the truck and as he was getting ready to give me my coat and get out of the truck I told him no, I have an idea. I live up the street and I have an abandoned car if you like you can sleep in it I will get blankets for you. (Okay, you know that was my flesh speaking not God). So, I called my brother and asked him to come and meet me outside and bring every blanket he could find in my house outside with him. I told him don’t even ask I will explain when I get there. When I arrived my brother was standing outside of the building with a large pile of blankets, I explained to him what was going on and introduced him to the young man his name was Dewayne, he looked like he was in his early twenties. He got in the car and covered up with all of the blankets. My brother asked me to take him back to the gas station to get some juice to drink. I did and when we were on our way back to the apartment, we didn’t say a word, and it was as if it hit us both at the same time. We looked at each other and my brother said “Sis I am not going to sleep anytime soon, and I said “neither am I” “Let’s get him out of that car and into the house, this is crazy.

When we arrived at the apartment and parked my truck and retrieved my luggage we stopped by the car and woke up Dewayne and gathered all of the blankets and told him to come into the house, it was just too cold for him to even sleep in the car. He followed us into the apartment, he could not stop thanking us over and over. Once inside the apartment, I made up the sofa for him to sleep on in my den. My brother invited him into the kitchen and offered him some dinner, he refused and I encouraged him to eat, I told him my brother was an excellent cook and if he had not eaten anything all day, he really needed to eat and I also fixed some hot herbal tea for him to drink. After awhile when the food started heating up, he stopped refusing and had dinner and drank a couple of cups of the hot tea. He talked with my brother explaining to him about how the police officer had come and how it was just a coincidence it was the same officer helping me. And how rare it is today for someone to come and help a person like we were doing for him, he broke down and began to cry telling us about how is father had abandoned him and all of the problems he had experienced in his life. We comforted him and told him how God works, and there are good, God fearing people that just have unconditional love and compassion for all humans period.

I took my suitcase to my bedroom and started removing my clothing and separating what had to go to the cleaners and what I had to wash the next day. Because I would be off again to another city Sunday afternoon. I was interrupted by my brother; he came to tell me that he was going to walk Dewayne out to the car he was insisting that he needed to get his deodorant from my car that had fell out of his pocket. I went into the living room and asked him why was it so urgent for him to get his deodorant, I told him “honey you need to get some rest,” he persisted that I offered him so much help and assistance he just did not feel right, he began to ramble, finally I told my brother take him to the car and gave him the keys.

(to be continued)