Day Three: Kelley's Island to Kalamazoo

When I went to sleep the previous night, I had already decided that I would wake up early and take a walk in hopes that I could find someone to give a Steps to Christ book to, especially since I had to give away two today. After showering and dressing, I headed out, praying that God would help me to forget the discouragement of yesterday and that He would give me a divine appointment. I prayed about which direction to take, then headed right off Huntington Lane, despite the fact that it was a less populated area. As I walked with the shoreline on my left, I saw a woman walking her dog coming from the opposite direction on the sidewalk. She saw me and looked like she was in a hurry, not wanting to make eye contact. I breathed a prayer and said good morning. She responded, and encouraged, I asked about her dog to make conversation. We talked very briefly, and then I tried to give her Steps to Christ. Failure number two. I walked on even more discouraged and began to talk to God. My eyes teared up (silly, I know) as I confessed my frustration with my unsuccessful attempts.

I passed by another woman and decided against trying to give her a Steps to Christ. I couldn’t think of any good way to stop her as she walked the opposite way, and to be quite honest, I wasn’t quite ready for another rejection, so I just smiled and said hello. I walked to the bend in the road, leaned against a wooden pole, and lingered a while in prayer. Then I turned back, trying to cheer myself out of feeling like a failure.

I hadn’t walked very far back in the direction of the bed and breakfast when I saw the second woman walking toward me on the sidewalk a little distance off. I prayed again, convinced that if I was seeing her twice in this morning walk, God must want me to offer her a book. My mind kicked into motion trying to think of a way to talk to her. As she came near, I (likely very awkwardly) said, “Ma’am, do you like to read?” Somewhat surprised, she stopped and said, “Somewhat I guess.” I then told her that I had been trying to find someone to give a book to, and that I had written a little story to go in it. I asked if she would take one, and she said she would. “Should I pass it on?” she asked. I told her she could if she wanted to, and then we parted ways. I couldn’t help smiling as I continued on my way, and I thanked God for working through my inept words and ways.

After breakfast and packing up, we talked with Patty for a while. She had a lot of questions for us about Adventists; she kept comparing us to Mormons because we had told her about each of our student mission years. It was actually the first time I can ever remember really sharing and answering questions for someone about Adventism, although she didn’t ask many questions specifically about our beliefs. Em gave her a Steps to Christ, and we were on our way. We checked in some little shops—a mostly fruitless search, and then read our devotional book Crazy Love while we waited for the ferry.

Once back to the mainland, we headed out—Michigan bound. More specifically, to Kalamazoo. We chose to make Kalamazoo one of the stops on our road trip mainly because it had such a fun sounding name. We arrived several hours later at our hotel without much event. Beth-Anne was brave and handed out her Steps to Christ to the lady who checked us in to our room, and then we quickly headed upstairs to eat and play on the little dumbwaiter. We watched a beautiful sunset from our window, and then headed off to bed with plans to wake early to conquer the sights of Kalamazoo.