Do you know those memories from growing up that you just remember so clearly? The ones that make you smile when you remember them, they’re the ones that get brought up at family functions and everyone laughs?
One of those memories for me is singing special music at church with my whole family. Aaron and I were pretty young if memory serves me right, and I have no clue how they made Drew do it with us, but Mom and Dad thought it would be a great idea if the five of us sang together one Sunday. So naturally we went to Christian Supply House, bought the tape popped it in the car, and every time we drove somewhere we would listen and practice.
The song they chose for us to sing was Angels Among Us by Alabama. Now to this day I can sing this song by memory, and when Aaron and I are in the car together with our parents we belt it out and they just shake their heads at us.
I always just sang along, and didn’t ever give it much thought until we were in the Philippines last month. Everywhere we went it seemed like God was placing angles among us to help us. We stayed at a wonderful women’s dorm for a bit of our trip, and the ladies that worked there and lived there took such good care of us.
At one point they even took us to a jeepney, a covered pickup truck taxi thing, and told the driver where we were going.
this is a jeepney
Then at our next hostel we made a friend who made sure we knew what we were eating before we took a bite. Just to make sure, if you’re ever in the Philippines and they is a brown thing on a stick by a bar-b-q, it isn’t a brownie!
And then there was Ricky. This man was one of the biggest blessings to our team during our stay in the Philippines. We met him on a bus going to San Filepe, we weren’t entirely sure how we were going to get from the bus station to the hostel, but God did.
We were talking to the bus driver when Ricky cut in and asked us where we were going, so we told him what hostel we were staying at, and he shook his head at us. Already he kind of reminded me of another Ricky I may know. (That would be my dad if you didn’t know.)
Once we got off the bus he took us over to a bunch of tricycles and made sure all 6 of us and our bags made it onto 4 trikes. He knew one of the drivers, and made sure he knew where to take us, and we exchanged phone numbers with him in case we needed anything.
Once we got settled into our hostel we got a text message from him making sure we were ok, and that we felt safe where we were. He offered to come pick us up if we didn’t feel safe and take us to a hotel in town.
Now for most strangers, they would feel like they had done their duty to a lost looking group of girls from America, but not Ricky. Later that week he contacted us and told us he wanted to show us around San Filepe and take us to dinner. We didn’t have many other plans, so we agreed.
That Sunday Ricky picked us up in a rented out jeepney, and took us on a 3 hour tour of the mountains surrounding his home town. He smiled at us as we constantly oohed and ahhed over the beauty and majesty that it seemed like God had set aside just for us on that day.
Then he took us to dinner at a very tasty local place and insisted on footing the bill.
He then took us to our hostel, helped load our huge packs into the jeepney, and took us back to bus stop at about 8:45 PM so we could catch the overnight bus back to Manila.
Surely that’s where the story ends right? Nope, there’s still more.
We convinced him to leave us at the bus stop even though it was dark, and with much reluctance he did. We promised to text him once we got on the bus. Fast forward about two and a half hours to 11:30 PM to us still sitting at the bus stop, wondering what in the heck we are going to do.
We prayed fervently for a bus to come and they did, but we should have been more specific because it was never the right bus. So with no real options we sat and waited, and I bet you can guess what happened.
Up pulled Ricky in the jeepney, wondering what we were still doing there. We told him that no buses had come thorough going to Manila, and he started picking up our bags and carrying them.
We asked what he was doing, and he said “We will drive you to the next town, to the bus station.” The looks on our faces were probably priceless, we tried to talk him out of it, but he was having none of that.
So as we climbed into this jeepney with all of our possessions, the only thought in my mind was how much of a blessing this man had been to us.
Later as we talked about everything Ricky had done we talked about how much of Dad mode he had gone into. It was totally true, I have seen my dad react so similarly when I am in need of something.
Yet how much greater is the Fathers love for us. We are sons and daughters of the creator of the universe. He takes care of us so much more than we could ever know. He provides for us when we are sitting at a bus station alone, and a little worried. Sometimes he sends us a bus, but sometimes he sends us something a little sweeter and sends us a Ricky.
Our team with Ricky
Love you guys!
Audrey
