HOW I GOT MY FREE BLACKBERRY STORM

While prayer-walking Rt. 18 in Marlboro, I was forced to walk along the 50 foot wide median, since there was no shoulder at one spot. Ten feet off the road, there lay a beautiful new Blackberry Storm. I picked it up, feeling sorry for its owner, since it was undoubtedly ruined, with rain falling on it the day before. But when I pressed the power button, it turned right on.

Showing it off in our church office, my youth pastor had a coveting fit handling it. “I would love to have one of these,” he said. “Look at this beautiful touch screen.” He lamented, “Why can’t I find stuff like this lying on the side of the road?” (answer- pray along the road, and maybe you will).

A few hours later, another twenty-something passing through the office also went crazy when he heard my story (“I really wanted one of those, but they cost too much”), and volunteered to find the owner. This turned out to be much harder than you would think, but after 15 minutes he was able to find “Bruce” from his Facebook profile. We then googled his name, and found him in a neighboring town. Ironically, Bruce lives right around the corner from the office secretary who traced him on the internet.

Bruce (age 45, in a Pink Floyd tshirt) came by an hour later to get his/my Blackberry. Too bad, I was just starting to covet it myself! Turns out he put it on top of his car in the morning with some pens, and forgot it. He drove about 3 miles before it fell off his car top onto the highway median, which is amazing. I told him that maybe God had orchestrated this so that he could come to church on a Friday. He was stunned by this thought. He said he hadn’t even been to temple for a while (obviously he is Jewish). But I gave him a tract to read, he hung around and talked for while (especially to his neighbor/secretary) , and I think we planted a good seed in him.

Plus I had a new Blackberry for free for half a day.