This past Wednesday night, Be and I were eating supper with the Holmans at the Ministry Activity Center at church. Our congregation's Campus Minister/Involvement Minister came to our table with a strange look on his face. He looked at Be and me as he said, "There is a girl here with a big heavy backpack who is needing a safe place to pitch her tent for the night. She is walking across the United States, arrived in Abilene this afternoon, and the Salvation Army will not let her put her tent on their property." After a few questions, we went over to the table where she was eating to introduce ourselves to her. Her name is Cheryllynn, and she confirmed that she is trekking across the USA from New Jersey to California. We agreed to let her put her tent in our yard and use our bathroom, but made no further commitments. It was a strange feeling having someone camp in our yard when we had an empty bedroom, but it was made easier that first night because Jade was staying in the room until Lenna returned from Dallas with Justin. You see Tent Girl and her tent in the photo. Please observe that the tent has no tent fly and is not very substantial. That will be important later.
Thursday she went to the church's building and Derrick showed her around ACU, she sat in on a psychology class, and met some people. As I was walking home after my morning classes to go play golf, she happened to come out of the church office and met me. She was very apologetic, but asked if she could keep staying in her tent in our yard for several more days. Derrick had interested her in staying long enough to attend our 9:00 o'clock service Sunday night that has more than 1000 students in attendance. I readily agreed, went home and told Be, and then left to play golf. This is now Sunday night and Be plans to take her to the Flying J truck stop at Tye in the morning so she can hitch a ride to San Antonio.
Since she has been here several days we have learned a bit about her. She is 28 years old, and is divorced. As she has travelled the USA, she has walked a lot, but has also caught rides (mainly with truckers) some of the time. As I mentioned, she started in New Jersey two months ago, and eventually got to Chicago. Then she started following the old Route 66 west. When she got to Amarillo, she decided to have a look at Texas. She went to Lubbock for a few days, and then came to Abilene. We have learned that when she was deposited in Abilene, she had no clue what to do. So she started crying and praying for God to help her figure out what to do. (I will mention here that before this trip she was not a religious person. But she claims that she has become more so through the sights and adventures that she has experienced.) Quite soon an Abilene city bus pulled up. She took this to be a sign and got on. She asked the driver for suggestions regarding her plight, and he suggested that she come to the UCC for supper and some help. He even made sure that she got on the correct transfer bus, and told the new driver to let her off at the UCC.
We have continued to feel funny with her sleeping in a tent and our room empty, but she seemed to prefer that. She wanted to impose on us as little as possible. However she ate supper with us Thursday and Friday night. Saturday morning she went to garage sales with us, and then Derrick gave us tickets so that we could join him and his family at the Kiwanis Fish Fry. She had lunch with us today, then attended our small group study here and had supper with us. She went to the 9:00 o'clock as planned, and came back soaked at about 10:30 because it had started raining. When she went to her tent, it was soaked inside and out. So her stuff is now drying out in our garage, and she is staying in the bedroom tonight.
It seems that our life is never boring.
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