A great blessing

3:30 p.m., 95 degrees and my car breaks down. It overheats. It smokes. It loses it's power steering.

Today showed me how good God is and how lucky I really am. Today was the second time my car has broken down in the past month and the second time an incredibly amazing man has helped me. Anything can happen when you break down. You could break down "on the wrong side of town." You could break down in a totally different city or state. Anything can happen and when you're a young woman it's even more scary. Instead of running from these men who happened to be a little dirty looking, blue-collar, older men of a different race or ethnicity than me, I wasn't scared at all (most women I think, would be). I sat in my car today when it broke down and lost it's power-stearing -- I happened to get it to an off-ramp and crookedly park it into the new BP gas station one exit from my house -- I sat there crying. I knew I had to get up and go out there and try to fix it. A guy in a cement truck came over, introduced himself as porkchop (a.k.a Ernest) and sat with me for 2 hours and fixed my car.

As I cried he asked what was wrong and then said, "I am so unlucky!!"
"You're not unlucky! I am here to help you and if you didn't break down here - I wouldn't be here!"

He made me laugh, protected me from creeps and even bought me water without me asking. He showed me pictures of his wife and kids and talked to me about his life.

I feel humbled. I have to admit, I judged this man at first sight. I wasn't scared -- but I judged him. I didn't know what I could get, but he was absolutely wonderful. So, when he said that I was good to go home he went to shake my hand and I gave him the biggest bear hug I could. Never judge anyone by their appearance, even though it is hard and we are all human. This really made me think about that. Only judge someone by their actions. This man could have left me, could have killed me, could have asked for money or demanded money - this man chose to help me. That is the kind of person I always want to be. And the last time this happened another great man helped me. It all was A GREAT BLESSING.