When providence strikes

I've been asked several times now how Rob's job search is going. Well, it isn't. He has not heard back from WisPak and we're assuming that by now, he won't. However, he's not disappointed because a rather odd thing happened on Sunday/Monday that may be God's way of telling him to stay put.

On Monday morning, Rob was taking the trash out the side door when he noticed a cell phone open on the porch. Seeing as we no longer have the obnoxious things (sorry, we're cell phone haters) we knew that it wasn't ours. Nothing looked like it had been damaged and we could see no sign of someone attempting to get into the house. So, we inspected the phone and found a bunch of pictures. It was pretty apparant that the phone belonged to a teenager. Since we have a house two doors down where a slew of them hang-out, we figured it might belong to them. We debated taking it to the police, but decided to show it to our landlord instead. He thought he might recognize the kid, but wasn't sure.

Instead of calling the police, Rob decided to give the home number listed on the phone a call. He got ahold of the boy's mother, who said that her son had been in a fight and his phone, wallet, and glasses were taken. We're guessing that the teens who beat him up put the phone on our porch to be funny. She came over right away to pick up the phone. Rob told her that she might want to look at the pics, which included obvious drug use and other stuff. She told him that he is her youngest and the only one to cause trouble. She left, thanking us for calling her.

After she had left, it dawned on Rob that this boy was the younger brother of someone he works with! This guy at work talked about his younger brother who was into drugs, drinking, and had even spent time in juvy. The mom came back later to see if she could look around our yard for his other missing things and Rob confirmed who the family was. He later talked to his friend at work about it.

Wow! This incident cannot just be mere coincidence. Rob feels strongly that he needs to help this family and will be speaking to our pastor about possibly counseling them. We also know of a place, the Victory Boys Home, that deals with teenage boys like this kid. We believe that Rob has been kept at the C.S. for a reason, and this might be it. Please pray for this family and Rob as he tries to help them.