I am blessed to meet so many different people at my work. They all have their own stories and it’s always interesting to hear them and learn more about them. At the beginning of the week I received a call from a lady named Candice. She was inquiring about the cost of taking a trip to Hawaii. I gathered the details and sent her the quotes. Later she asked if she could make an appointment to discuss the details and finalize the trip. Candice was going to go by herself because she needed some time to just breathe and feel and respond to her feeling without worrying that someone else…

The last few weeks have included many trips down memory lane. One of my co-workers was diagnosed with stage IV ovarian cancer. She is facing it with such courage and calmness. It has provided several opportunities for us to talk as I will be taking on some of her responsibilities that will require being trained in accounting and other office programs. Besides the training we have spoken often about the bigger issues, her health and facing this trial with her family. As she began treatment she said she often thought of Brock and wondered how he felt going through similar things such as ports, chemotherapy and the unknown. I’ve enjoyed…

Two times this week I have had encounters with strangers that were very uplifting and took me by surprise. The first was a man that was looking at the pictures in the office window. I was reading a message on my computer that made me smile and he saw me and walked in the office. He said that my smile made him smile and he wanted to say thank you. It had made his day to see me smiling. I think it was the opposite; it made my day that he would take the time to come in the office and say something. Many people walk by the office and…

On Easter Sunday the church was full of people, many of whom I had never seen before. During the worship service my husband nudged me and said, “Watch that little baby over there,” as he pointed to a table, “he is learning from the adults about praising God.” I looked at the table and sure enough the grandfather was holding the baby on his knee as the grandmother and parents were standing and singing. He was completely focused on them as the worshiped and he watched them without making a sound throughout the whole song. It was a beautiful site which only got better when the grandfather moved and I…

Today we celebrate the greatest Divine Encounter the world has ever seen, The Risen Lord! We’ve all heard the story of Mary Magdalene who was the first person to see Jesus alive again. We read about her joy when He spoke her name and her excitement to go and tell the others. What about the men on the road to Emmaus? Their response was, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” And don’t forget the disciples that touched His nail scarred hands and broke bread with Him. He gave them peace. Think back to your most…

One day at a weekly bible study group, a godly woman asked everyone if they would pray for a young mother in the church that had recently been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She was a single mother with a young son and was in a new relationship with a man who had one daughter. This man had lost his first wife to cancer a few years before and all of them were devastated with the news of her diagnosis. During the surgery the doctor’s found more than they expected and removed as much as they could. They would have to wait for the lab results to determine if she would…

Several years ago when Brocksstory was written I came in contact with a sweet woman named Rachel. She is a friend of the office manager for my brother’s medical clinic in Utah and lives in the Midwest. Rachel had just been informed that her son Dawson had terminal cancer. When my brother heard her story he suggested that she read Brock’s Story in hopes that it would help her through the heart wrenching months ahead. She contacted me and we were able to talk several times through social media and my heart broke for her. Dawson was a handsome young man with the most beautiful smile. When Dawson went to…

My Divine Encounter this week involved pulling a tooth. My oldest granddaughter, Kyrie, had a tooth that was quite loose and had been for a while. She anxiously wiggled the tooth every day and tried to anticipate what it would be like to lose a tooth. I told her she would be able to do something that many of us couldn’t. She would be able to eat a tootsie pop sucker with her teeth closed because the stick would go through the hole that the lost tooth would make. She didn’t quite understand what I was talking about but one night during dinner I received a phone call from Kyrie.…

I needed to stop by the grocery store after work to pick up a few items before I was to be at an evening appointment. There was a store about 3 minutes from my office, but when I thought about what I needed and prayed for time to get my task accomplished, I ended up going to a store across town which was the opposite direction of where I needed to go. While in the store I quickly gathered all the items on my list and made my way to the checkout lines. I looked them over trying to find one with the shortest line of customers and ended up…