The food we didn’t see but was sent (1975)
It was the middle of winter and I was eight years old, my mum wasn’t very well she was sick in her bed and was off work for a while, I had one older sister and a younger brother at home and our mum was a single parent. One day things got bad for us we barely had any food and not much heat. It made my mum worse because she was worrying how we were going to eat with little food in the cupboard. Things began to get worse again because the little food we had ran out. I didn’t understand much about praying when I was eight, but I do believe someone somewhere always watches over children.
I couldn’t bare to see my family hungry, there must be something that I could do. I jumped off my bed and went into the kitchen, the cupboard was bare except for a tin of soup, as I reached for the soup I started to find other bits of food in the fridge and cupboard which just appeared. I turned on the cooker and found a saucepan and mixed everything up, I took a plateful upstairs to my mum and she started crying, she said where did you find food and I said I don’t know it was just there. I can’t quite remember what I made for us to eat but it filled us up and fed us. No matter how hungry I am for food, I can never hunger for faith, its always here.
My Child Came Back (1996)
In 1997 me and my three children (Jermaine then was 10 years old, Anthony 8 and Latisha 3) moved to a new flat, provided by Bristol city council. My children made friends with all the other children in the neighborhood and we all enjoyed living there.
One Sunday afternoon I allowed Jermaine and Anthony to play at the front of the flats as their friends came to call for them and I felt mean not allowing them to go, usually they weren’t really allowed at the front, usually at the back in an enclosed play area.
A few minutes later I was busy doing the housework and cooking the Sunday dinner. I went upstairs to clean the front bedroom windows when I heard a loud screech and bang, as I looked out of the window , to my belief it looked like a little dog fly from one side of the road to the other, but then my heart felt nervous and I felt weak, within seconds there was a loud bang at the door and shouting, it was my son Jermaine “mum, mum, quick, its Anthony, has been knocked over by a car and the car is gone, mum please come.”
I flew down the stairs and ran out of the front door; I remember seeing a crowd of people and loads of screaming. As I approached the crowd, Anthony was on the road, eyes rolled back and no movement, I screamed and went all dizzy. Everyone was a blur to me I fell back into my neighbours arms and she was trying to hold me up.
I heard one of the neighbors say. Oh, my God!!! He’s dead.
I remember seeing a man pushing the crowd away and kneeling down by Anthony, and giving him mouth to mouth and making a phone call, within minutes the ambulance arrived. They were attending to Anthony; I noticed one of the ambulance men shaking his head as if to say, he’s gone, there was no movement from Anthony he wasn’t breathing. The ambulance men tried everything that they could possibly try. And at that moment I saw a lady who lived across the road from me, she kneeled down next to Anthony and the ambulance men tried to ward her off, she said please I need to do this, she put her hand on Anthony’s head and said aloud “God please do not take this child” within a couple of seconds Anthony’s eyes started to flicker, there were at least 12 people who witnessed this and also the ambulance crew, Anthony started to cough, he was alive!!!!
I looked up to say thank you to the lady and she was gone, she disappeared. I allowed the ambulance men to carry on with their duty as me and Anthony were travelling to Southmead Hospital, Bristol I was speaking to him, I couldn’t stop speaking to him, he had amnesia, he didn’t know who I was for at least 30 minutes.
After an agonizing wait for results from the nurses and doctors he was ok and discharged. “How? I said, the doctor replied “he’s fine, he will be ok, “But —“oh never mind I replied. The doctor did say to me that with the impact of the car on Anthony’s head, only God knows how he survived!
It was a hit and run, the driver never stopped. The man who warded off the crowd was a doctor, and the lady across the road believe she was an Angel, I went to thank her the next day she said, “no love don’t thank me thank God” So I did, and from that day on I have never stopped thanking God for sending his angels to save my son.
Light Ride (2008)
One sunny day in 2008 I was waiting for any bus which travelled up the Bath Road in Bristol, I wasn’t feeling too good because I had a lot of worries on my mind but I waited patiently. The X32 stopped and I jumped on, I sat on the nearest seat near the doors and as I looked to my left there was a man and woman sat in the opposite seats smiling at me. “Lovely day”, they said. I smiled and said, “I know, when the weather is so beautiful like this it is so nice to get out and about”.
The man turned to me and he was asking me all kinds of questions as if he knew me, he was very polite and was smiling as he spoke to me he asked me if I was a Christian and I said, no but I do believe in God, he handed me a leaflet with a church name and address on it and said to me read this leaflet when you feel like it, it will make you feel better. I thanked him and said that I would read the leaflet and I asked him if he was a pastor, he said yes and you are welcome to attend my church anytime. I smiled again and felt a heavy weight lift off my shoulders. The conversation lasted for about another 4 minutes, “well I said this is my destination, it was so nice meeting you both”. God Bless you he said. As I stepped off the bus I turned around to wave at the man and woman, but to my surprise they wasn’t there. I looked at the leaflet and read it as I walked to my front door, I looked up the church on the internet, there was no such church so I looked in the Yellow pages and Thompsons directory, there was no church listed. I just thanked God that he sent me two angels to take away my worries.
Angels by My Side (2008)
This was the times I really knew Angels were close.
I was living in private rented accommodation with my two children. We had been living in the house just over a year when the owner wanted to sell up. I was devastated because I had only just moved there and I was fed up of moving from home to home, this wasn’t good because this meant the kids would have to be unsettled once again. My job at the time wasn’t doing me any favours neither because It was getting too stressful so I had to deal with two lots of stress. I was told by my employer that they were laying people off, so this meant no job and no home for me. There was nothing anyone could do for me. I really didn’t have any true friends, just people who use to live off my energy and pretend to like me because of my kindness. But in a situation like this, that didn’t matter because I began to realise that there’s only one true friend that everyone has, and I loved him the day I was born.
Anyway, time was running out I had two months to find somewhere to live, and 4 weeks to find a new job as I had rent to pay .I didn’t want to go into homeless accommodation because we had been down that road before and I wasn’t going to let history repeat itself.
I kept getting positive thoughts in my head, even though everything seemed bad. I knew that in a situation like this I must always think positive and expel the bad vibes around me which were causing me stress.
The first thing I did was to invite the local vicar to my home, I have never met him before, he was such a placid person, something I wasn’t used to, I never really had placid people in my home except for children. He talked to me for two hours and told me I would be ok and then he said could he come back again, I agreed I didn’t mind being around him.
Within one week, I had a phone call to be invited for a job interview. It was going to be on the same day that I invited the vicar around, my interview was at 1 pm and the vicar was due at 11 am.
He was very pleased that I managed to get an interview and he said I will have no problem getting the job. He then left and said God Bless you. I then went for the interview at 1pm and I did get the job – thank God, I cried. And I started one week later that was one burden off my mind. I went to see my doctor and he said he will write to the council housing office to see what they could do for me to be re-housed. I had to fill out a housing form I understood there is a 8 year waiting list and there was no way I would be housed within two weeks, that would be impossible. All I could do was pray and ask God to send his Angels to sit by my side while I was going through this worrying time. At least I could start packing my belongings which I did.
The clock was ticking, I now had one week to move out, nowhere to go and a new job which maybe wouldn’t work if I was homeless. One evening I came home from work I read through my post – there it was a letter from the council, offering me a 3 bed house – I cried again and I didn’t know how to thank God enough, but all I can say is I really don’t care what anyone believes in as long as they don’t try to take my beliefs away.
Fueled Out (2008)
Looking at my electric meter on the Friday I panicked, oh dear £2.00 on the emergency, that would will never last me until the following Wednesday. I decided not to worry about it too much, I believe God wouldn’t let me and my children spend the weekend in the dark. The next day I decided to clean the house from top to bottom just so I could keep my mind off the fact that the electric would soon be running out, but I prayed to God for help. As the evening was approaching something just told me to check the meter again, but why should I when I knew that there would be less than £2.00 on there, anyway, I did and to my surprise, just sat on top of the meter was a £5 note I reached for it and a pound coin fell on the floor, so all together I had £6. I sat on the stairs for five minutes thinking about it and I then thanked God. I went straight to the shop with my electric key and topped up the meter when I returned home.
Fueled Out 2 (2008)
It was just before Xmas 2008, and the weather, if you remember, was freezing, and there was no way you could allow the gas to be turned off during the night. My son Jermaine came to visit me for the weekend and I haven’t seen him for a couple of months and was so pleased to see him. I have always had a problem with my Gas meter as well as my Electric meter – they eat fuel like there’s no tomorrow. I was low on Gas and I quietly whispered to myself, “God I have a question for you, Please can you send one of your Angels to keep us warm tonight, because I will not receive any money until the morning? And my gas is low, and I need to keep it running through the night – Thank you”.
As I turned to go into the kitchen my son Jermaine said to me “mum where shall I put my trainers?” I told him to put them under the stairs, they would be fine there. Jermaine then called me and said, “Mum there’s £10 on top of the gas meter. I was shocked, not only because of the last incident with the electric but with the fact that I had cleaned out the cupboard the day before and I didn’t see it.
“Thank you Jermaine” I said, that will come in handy I will go to the shop and get some gas. After that I could afford to keep the gas running all night.
Over Fueled (2009)
I remember that it was a very cold day, about minus 5 (-5) I had £10 to top up the gas and electric meter so I could keep it running until the next day. I went to the shop and the shop assistant was busy chatting to another customer, she then turned to me and said, “Can I help? “Yes please, I replied, “may I have £5 on the gas and £5 on the electric?” Thank you. As the shop assistant was sorting out my gas and electric keys, she was still busy chatting to the same customer as before. She then handed me the keys back and said “thanks love.”
I returned straight home in a hurry so I could put my keys in the meter. I did the electric first it read – £20 on key – but I didn’t ask for £20 I only asked for £5. I walked over to the gas meter and it done the same thing -£20-. But how could this be possible? You know what? The first thing I said to myself was anything is possible with God.