No Ordinary Day at the Beach

One evening we decided we were going to take a walk on the beach. As we crossed the road, we noticed police cars, fire trucks, and rescue vehicles. At first, I didn't think anything about it. But as we opened the gate and headed down onto the sand, I noticed some "official" looking people standing near the water's edge. Once we got closer, we noticed a lady that had been sitting next to us on the beach that day in tears. I immediately felt the sense to pray for her - to even go over and pray with her. I knew something was wrong. I mentioned it to my step-mom, and she walked over and asked what was wrong. The lady told us that her 8 & 10 year old daughters were missing. By this point, it was beginning to get dark. I was so scared for her. I couldn't imagine what she was going through. Paige (stepmom) told her we were going to pray for her and her daughters. Paige, Eaden (sister), and I joined hands and begin to pray. I was crying by the end of the prayer just thinking how awful the whole situation could turn out. After a few minutes, she got word that one of the daughters was found, and then a little later, the other was found. Praise the Lord! Apparently, the girls had been playing on their boogie boards at water's edge and got carried down a little. When they got out of the water, they couldn't figure out where they were or where their parents were. They began walking - but in the wrong direction. Eventually, the younger sister got scared and ran away from her older sister. The girls wound up two miles apart from each other and 6 miles (!) away from their parents. Thankfully it all turned out okay in the end. I checked on the other children back at the condo, and my stepmom and sister helped the family carry their beach stuff back to the condo. The lady hugged and thanked us when we returned to the condo.

I don't know if this lady was a believer or not, but I hope that at least a seed was planted in her heart that night as strangers walked up and asked if we could pray for her. What struck me more was what the outcome could have been if we hadn't prayed. I'm not saying that God still wouldn't have delivered those girls back to their parents, but I just wonder what would have happened if I had ignored that urge to pray for the lady - and to ask her if we could pray for her. So many times I feel a prompting from the Lord and ignore it, but now I hope that I will always think about the "what if's" of not heeding the Spirit's call and praying for others.