Today's Coffee: Not sure, Thomas made it...

So, yesterday was a really stressful day for me. Dealing all day with kids who had broken bows or bridges and then having a 2.5 hour rehearsal in the evening. Tuesdays are usually long and awful but the Lord put me in a very unique and terrifying situation yesterday afternoon. I had 2 errands I had to run after school - one was to go into downtown New Haven and get my timesheets set up for the after school program and the other was to go to the strings shop and pick up repaired instruments. I knew I didn't have time to do both of these before a 3:45 pm cello lesson I was teaching at the house so I had planned to go do the timesheet thing first. I was nervous about driving the new car because you can usually only parallel park in downtown but I was able to find a close spot. The woman I needed to talk to wasn't there and won't be back until Monday - so I checked my watch and decided that if I hurried I could run by the strings shop and get my instruments. (This is the first interesting change in plans). Now, the street that the shop is on is one way and again - only parallel parking. I usually park at the dentist office and walk - but for some reason I decided that I was going to try to find a spot that I could pull into on this one way street. And again - there is was - it was perfect. This is also very strange that there was a spot to pull into. So, I walked in and chatted a few minutes to find out what instruments were ready and to find out that someone (teacher before me?) had jammed the endpin wooden part into the cello with duct tape. So, that was interesting. I ended up able to take 2 cellos and 1 violin with me. As I was walking out the door this Chinese woman stopped me and wanted to talk about some music program in Hartford. PRAISE GOD I didn't blow her off and continue walking - because 10 seconds later and car can flying out of control down the road - straight towards us. He ran into a car parked on the street which came propelling onto the sidewalk about 20 feet away from where we were standing. I was trying to get back inside the building - but with 2 cellos and 1 violin and a belly the size of a basketball - I couldn't move very quickly. The parked car that was coming for us hit the side of a lamp post which got knocked over and the huge glass bulb on top was shattered and glass was flying everywhere. The out of control car kept going (getting faster) down the sidewalk past us, hit and ran over a tree and finally hit another parked car before it stopped. I was in shock - God had protected me. I would have been right there next to the lamp post walking to the car if that woman hadn't of stopped me. I made sure everyone was getting help and that someone had called 911 before slowing walking back to my car. I got the cellos inside - I was shaking uncontrollably. I called Thomas when it all kind of hit me. I was crying hysterically for a long time. It was really scary. I called and canceled my lesson and got to Thomas as fast as I could. Which wasn't very fast because I drove so slow. So, praise the Lord for my guardian angel. I am so thankful for His protecting mercy yesterday.

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
8 The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.

Psalm 121

In Christ,

Julie