Oh. My. Goodness.

You run into the craziest things out here on the field. It's now the beginning of week three on the book field. To date, Thea has experienced many firsts:

1) first time to see a rattlesnake up close and personal
2) first sighting of a dead armadillo--roadkill makes me laugh
3) first summer where being attacked by egotistical chihuahuas has become a daily norm
4) first summer where being covered in dog slobber is just to be expected
5) first time I've sweated this much for this many days consecutively--Tennessee is HOT
6) First time I've met so many remarkable and amazingly friendly people in such a short time span

There are certain days when I doubt my own sanity for undertaking this internship--and then there are moments when you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's all worth it.

Two days ago, I pulled up in front of a house and went up to the door to speak with the matron...but I noticed her hands were shaking, so I asked her if she was alright...

Turns out, her twenty-year-old son had gone missing the night before...he'd never showed up at the friend's house where he was planning to camp out for the night, and since he'd disappeared, she and her daughter had been receiving strange phone calls saying that someone was trying to call them collect...only when they tried to put the call through, the line would just go dead every time.

Then there was the house where the grizzled old smoker who answered the door told me that his daughter had been killed in a bad accident when she was 12...he'd been driving...it was raining that night...they were on their way to church so she could sing in the children's choir...but they hydroplaned coming around a curve...and there was a car in the on-coming lane...and his daughter and her little friend didn't make it. He spent several weeks in intensive care, drifting in and out of consciousness. He told me that one time he woke up, and Jesus was standing at the foot of his bed...and his daughter and her friend were there, and they were laughing, and they told him that they loved him, and gave him flowers...and then they turned and disappeared into the wall.

Tears were streaming down my face as I listened to him talk...I can't imagine how much it would hurt to go through something like that. But at the same time, I'm so glad that God has given me the opportunity to listen to stories like that...it changes one's perspective on life...