Friday night I stayed over night with my friend Kara. We had been Black Friday Shopping all day, and I was just too exhausted to go home. Part of me is glad I stayed, but part of me wishes I could have been with my family that night. Something very important happened while I was away. I wasn't there, but this is how my Momma explained it to me.
Around 3A.M., Dad woke up instantly to the sound of our Ford Excursion starting up, the diesel engine is far too recognizable. His first thought was "Where is Shanna going?", but then looked next to him to see her there sleeping. His next thought was "What are the kids doing?", but when the Excursion started pulling away, he grabbed the "Family and Farm Protection Weapon" (aka: Dad's big gun) that was sitting next to his bed, and, forgetting pants, ran outside. He screamed at Momma to call 911. The Excursion had just gotten out of our drive way and was heading down the section when it stopped, turned around and came back. It was a very drunk guy driving it. The cops were on the way, so Dad brought the 23-year-old guy into our kitchen. Mom was sitting in the family room and said that she could smell the alcohol on him from that far away. Apparently the kid was at a party in Nebraska City (about 45 minutes from my house), and was on his way home (he lived in Syracuse), but got a little lost. He had crashed his car, and didn't have a cell phone with him, so he started walking. Apparently he had been walking for 3 hours before he got to our acreage. He couldn't stand the cold any longer, so he stopped at our farm and started checking to see if the vehicles were unlocked. Mine was locked, as well as Dad's car and the Dodge, so his last resort was the Excursion. Of course, it was unlocked and the keys were in the ignition. (My parents have this carefree attitude when it comes to locking vehicles; they think that stuff like this doesn't happen on farms in the middle of no-where.) He said that he sat there for a while, but then decided to take off. He quickly changed his mind when he saw my officious Daddy running after him with a large gun and a lack of pants. (You would think that after almost 30 years of being a Firefighter that Daddy would learn how to quickly put on pants, but apparently not...). In our kitchen Daddy had a long talk with this kid, since the cops were in Syracuse (20 miles away) when Momma called them. Daddy shared the gospel with this kid, and told him that if he kept doing the things he was doing, that his life was going to get worse and worse. Daddy told him that everyone is born into sin, and that we all need a Savior, and that Jesus is that Savior. He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, so that we may be in the presence of God.
It is scary to think about what could have happened. That kid could have had a weapon, he could have broken into our house, he could have wrecked our Excursion. But none of that happened, and my Daddy got to share the gospel with that kid. He may absolutely ignore my Dad's little speech, or he may take it to heart. I pray that he takes it to heart.
P.S. This was one of those. "Haha! Annastazia was right!" moments. I always lock my car and bring the keys in the house, and I have been telling my parents for a fairly long time that they should do this as well. Maybe this is the attention-getter they needed.
P.S.S. Ugh. We're moving again.
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