This is a brief article about my daughter's trip to New York in 1998.

 

It was in the fall of 1998, when my wife received a call from Columbia University.  The caller wanted to know if our daughter, Karen was planning to attend Columbia that fall.  Somehow an acceptance letter had been sent to her that she did not receive.  Since she had thought that she would not be going there, she had made plans to attend Boston University. 

Well, she decided quickly that she would attend Columbia as that was her first choice and contacted them to let them know of her plans.  It was only a few weeks before registration so she scrambled madly to find housing.  She did find an apartment in Manhattan and basically made arrangements to rent this by phone.

We rented a truck and after a very tiring trip, did manage to arrive in New York in the wee hours of the morning.  As we started surveying the scene, it was obvious to us that this neighborhood did not appear to be the safest in the world. We were unable to get anyone to the door, even though phone contact was made to the lady that was renting the apartment the night before.  While we were there, a domestic disturbance occurred and the police were called.  I questioned one of the policemen and he told me that this was a usual occurrence at that apartment building.  He further stated that drugs, alcohol along with domestic issues were the usual problems there.

Well, we decided immediately that we were in the wrong place with our daughter.  My wife, daughter, son , and I decided to  get a motel room for the night and decide what we needed to do.  We realized that there were two options. We could try and find other housing or take her back home to Georgia.

The next morning, when we got up, I informed my family that we needed to pray because this was much to big for us to handle without God's help.  It was one of those prayers that I have not prayed near enough in my life.  We simply said, God we are at a complete loss as to what to do about this and we place it all in your hands to help get her an apartment. And if you don't want her here, then we will accept that. 

We then left the motel and went to Columbia for her to complete the registration.  She went to housing to see if there were any rooms available.  She was told there was a waiting list of 200 plus.  Well, we knew we were in a fix. Then seemingly out of nowhere this nice man working for the college overheard my daughter's dilemma and asked her to come into his office.  He then told her that he had an apartment for her and she was able to rent a room from the Greystone Hotel, which was a very good location in the middle of Manhattan. This housing was through Columbia and actually housed a mixture of students and older adults.  She completed her registration and we took her things to the hotel and moved her in. 

We have never forgotten this miracle and that is what we call it.  There is no doubt in my mind that God intervened in our lives on this date.  Recently, I related this to Gary Willis, pastor of Rivoli Crossing Baptist Church in Macon, Georgia. He has just completed a sermon on receiving God's blessings.  I found it interesting that in this sermon  he talked of being aware of our needs, being aware of God's will, showing our faith through active believing, and remembering not to limit God's blessings by not believing. This message  got me very much in tune with what God does in our lives. It was decided  after this messege that I should go ahead and put this in written form.

Well,  Karen not only got an apartment that day, but she stayed at Columbia and finished her Master's in Psychology.  She is currently completing  a doctoral program in child psychology at Old Miss.