Once or twice a year I enjoy, along with a few dozen of my sisters in Christ, a couple days at the Oregon coast. I was driving back to our beach house after some shopping with several of them when the call came in on my cell phone. It was my twenty-two year old daughter, out of breath. “Are you sitting down?” she yelled.
My daughter Ashley and her husband Brian had met in the year 2000 at Florida College. Two of a kind, it was no coincidence when they were both voted “most spirited” man and woman of their class. In 2001 they moved to Rhode Island and were married on a sunny August afternoon in 2002. After enjoying Brian’s large, exuberant extended family in Rhode Island for two years, they began to consider moving the Oregon to be near aging grandparents and to be around for Ashley’s brother and sister’s teen years. They purchased a trailer and packed it with all they owned which they deemed worthy of the trip across the country, including a couple dozen quarts of apple sauce Ashley had canned with her dear mother-in-law, Rosalie, three cats, and the family bird, Snowy.
Ashley and Brian love road trips, and eagerly anticipated sight seeing their way across the country, photographing their own “Oregon Trail” experience as they went. Their covered wagon was “The Moose”; the term of endearment they had given their Toyota truck that pulled the trailer.
Several days into their journey, a huge gust of wind caught hold of the trailer, and as it began to sway more and more out of control, Brian pulled off to the side of the road so as not to endanger other drivers. At that point the trailer hit a mile marker, popping a tire which caused the trailer along with their truck, to flip completely upside down. By the grace of God, they both were able to get out of the crushed vehicle. Ashley grabbed her camera and cell phone, calling me at my beach trip, explaining the scene. When the ambulance arrived the paramedics were confused to find the empty truck and couldn’t find the victims until they realized the calm bystanders taking pictures were the passengers themselves. The trailer had essentially burst, and yet all three cats, and even Snowy the bird had survived the massive tumble.
What advice do you give your daughter when she is over two thousand miles from home, and everything she owns is covered in applesauce and cat litter and lays strewn along milepost 277 in Moline, Iowa?
You do what you would do if you were home. You call your brethren. Dialing information, I asked for the phone numbers of the churches of Christ near Davenport, Iowa. I was given two phone numbers. I was thankful they had not opted for a different scriptural name; otherwise I would not have been able to find them. An answering machine picked up the first number I called. I listened restlessly as it described various ministries, programs, and performances, praying someone would either pick up the phone, or that contact information would be given. Such was not the case. I dialed the second number, racking my brain to try to figure out what I was going to do if I got a similar recording. The message on the second answering machine was pretty basic, but included a contact number. Priceless. Answering on the other end was Art Loeber’s wife, who patiently listened as I emotionally described this very unlikely scenario that I claimed had just occurred. Love “believes all things”, and she believed me.
I don’t know what Art, his wife, and the others in their congregation who helped out were doing that late afternoon when our cry for help went out, but whatever it was, they put it aside. Love does not seek its own. They came valiantly to the rescue with empty boxes in tow to help Brian and Ashley salvage what they could.
For several days these brethren housed, fed, comforted, and generously donated funds to help these two strangers. Love is kind. The Davenport, Iowa congregation lived Heb 13:1-2, when they did “not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.”
When it was time to say good-bye, Brian could barely fold his wallet, and the brethren at the congregation had bonded with them so closely that some were hoping there was a chance they would stay forever. Instead, Brian and Ashley packed a rental car with their three cats, Snowy, and what remained of their possessions and cheerfully completed their journey all the way to the West Coast.
Today Brian and Ashley are happily living at Gleneden Beach on the Oregon coast. Brian is working at a resort as the activities director, and Ashley is selling real estate. They have to travel over an hour to worship, and are considering starting a congregation on the central Oregon coast with another Christian family in the area. What are the lessons we have taken away from this experience?
- This accident was a reminder of the truth that “…not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.” Luke 12:15. The only thing that really matters are those we love.
- Ashley learned that to some degree, she could choose her response to trauma. At the crash scene, once she knew Brian was okay, regarding the rest of the loss she decided, “I am not going to allow myself to become a victim of this.” It is liberating to know one can choose a perspective.
- We learned again how wise God is for planning, before the Creation, a spiritual family for love and support during difficult times.
- We learned how beautiful people are in this family when they put on Christ.
- This accident also reminded us that one of tools for evangelism remains our love for one another. "… love one another, even as I have loved you… By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:34-35
- On the lighter side, Ashley says she learned to pack light. Maybe that’s good advice for life; not merely road trips.
“Let love of the brethren continue.” Hebrews 13:1
Cindy Dunagan
Author of the Journaling Toward Moral Excellence series of journals.
cindy@straightpathspress.com
Journaling Toward Moral Excellence
