A Gift from Friends

I never mentioned previously that the Shepherds Moms, the daytime women's Bible study in my home church, gave me a bracelet before I left.  It was intended to be a shared gift that will be passed along amongst us as time goes by and we all go different places.  The gift was a bracelet that was engraved with words from Psalm 33:5:

The earth is full of the loving kindness of the Lord.

I've had this bracelet with me for our entire adventure.  I don't wear it every day, but I did wear it on this last trip.  I thought I would share a little story that this bracelet reminds me of.  I know that our European adventure was amazing, we got to see so many beautiful places, but there were definitely some challenging and stressful times over the course of the week. 

One of those times was when we arrived in Rome.  We had returned our rental car and were told that getting into the city was going to be challenging.  We had planned on just taking a cab, but the guys at the rental agency told us that since it was a busy time of day a cab would take too long and be too expensive.  So they suggested taking a bus.  We bought our bus tickets from a guy at the airport who said the bus was coming in 5 minutes.  About an hour later, the bus arrived....that was fun! 

Anyway, we finally made it to the City Centre and then we had to find our hotel on a map and walk to it.  So we were tired, hungry, carrying all our luggage, with 3 children, and trying to read a map in the center of Rome, not knowing how long it would take to get to our hotel.  We stopped in a plaza to look at a map and get our bearings.  A moment later a man came up to us and asked...."Do you need help?" And he spoke with an American accent!  This man and his wife were so pleasant as they tried to help us.  They really didn't have any information to help us, as they were tourists as well, visiting from Vancouver.  They mentioned how they had been in our situation in the past, traveling abroad with children. 

Though they didn't help us much, their friendliness and kindness totally turned our moods around.  God sent us someone for comfort at just the right moment....someone who we could talk to, could understand, and was genuinely nice.  We chatted for a few minutes and then wished each other well, before moving on. 

So this bracelet reminds me that there are kind people everywhere, even in places I might find scary or lonely.  Thanks so much ladies for this gift.  I can't wait to pass it along to one of you.  Miss you.