People Stories- The People We’ve Encountered

While traveling from State to State and staying at new Airbnb’s and visiting with people out and about we have gathered some fun stories. We have learned from each of the people we have encountered.   Gather around our table and we’ll tell you about some of these great people stories we’ve encountered on our travels.

These people will not have names to protect identities. For some, we didn’t even know their name but we did learn a lot from them or were able to help them.  These stories are from the first few months of our traveling sabbatical before social distancing. See link to Traveling Sabbatical Blog.

Musician’s Parents

One of my favorite stories is from one of our Airbnb stays.  A couple who was also hosting a professor invited us into their home and we sat around in the evenings drinking tea sharing our stories and testimonies.  We found out amazing faith stories from this older couple.  One night she told us and the professor you are our guests tonight and made us a dinner meal, just because she loved people.  

We found out that one of their sons is Chris Rice, the contemporary Christian singer in Nashville. He wrote the song, “Come to Jesus.”   How cool is that?   My sister was more excited than me when I told her.   We love his parents and enjoyed our stay with them.

Publix Café Worker

One day we wanted to share a latte at the first Publix café to have a coffee bar.   We started talking to the worker and she admitted she usually works the pm shift and had never made a latte before.    

We said, “no problem” we both volunteered in our church coffee shop on Sundays and know how to make lattes the manual way and we could help her.  We talked her through the procedure and she followed along on her instruction cards. Success, she did it!  We had a great time chatting with her and in the end, we learned about the area of Tennessee and she learned how to make a latte.    

Retired Teachers and Yummy Bread

At one Airbnb our hosts were both retired teachers.  We had a great time asking them questions about their experiences teaching in the Memphis inner-city schools and their life stories.  They were willing to share about the area they lived in as well as the rest of the state.  

In the morning she served many breakfast foods and had a cranberry walnut bread. We loved the bread toasted for breakfast and asked where she got it from.  We said, “we were going to pick some up before we leave”.  We loved it so much that the next day when she went to the store, she came home and got us one to take with us on our travels. 

Every day she loved chatting with me and hearing what we did each day. We enjoyed cooking a meal for them and she made us the best brisket sandwiches.  She was so sweet and we enjoyed our time with them and their three dogs for over a week.

Nature Center Lady

At a Nature center In Knoxville, TN an elderly woman volunteered there. We hit it off right away because she loved to hike and could see the value in taking care of your body and eating right.  She was over 80 years old and acted like she was 60.  She was full of energy and passion for the outdoors.  She was the role model for 80! She also gave us good hiking tips.

Security lady

We were at the University of Virginia campus and walked inside the Rotunda to see it.   When we walked in, we said hello to the Security Lady.   We talked about where we were from and as usual, our talk started about the weather. 

15 minutes later, because it was a super slow day during winter break, we were talking about our personal stories, the variety of people in the state, our dreams, and our futures.  We had a fun time and ended with telling her we would be praying for her future and she would pray for us.   As a black lady, she started to open up to us about the relationships between races and how important it is to honor each other as equals. Such a friendly southern encounter.

The Roommate of our Host

At one of our stays, we were making dinner and the roommate/renter of our host came out to the kitchen. He introduced himself and of course, we started to ask him questions.   He enjoyed it but didn’t want to interrupt. We insisted he stay and taste our food.

As we were talking, he told his testimony and how he realized he needed the Lord in his life and wanted to find out our favorite verses and our advice on marriage.   With a messed up past, he told us his dream was to be a counselor.  We encouraged him to not give up on his dream and keep working hard.   It was such fun encouraging him just at the right time. Unfortunately, our conversation got cut short, but we still pray for him.

Beverly Hill Billies

One of the ladies we stayed with was originally from Puerto Rico.  Funny thing is her name was Ellie and her dog was Jethro.  She found the dog as a rescue dog with that name and knew this was her dog.   She was great. We had a great time learning about her story and were amazed at all the things she had overcome in life.  She is now an addiction counselor and God is using her to help others.  We continue to pray for her and her adult kids. 

Single Mom and the Door Lock

We were trying to enter the code to get into our Airbnb and it would not work.  So, we met our host at the door immediately.   Our host was a single mom with her daughter. Rick said he could see if he could fix the lock.  He looked at it and could not get it to work or fix it.  In the end, he ended up getting her a new door lock and installing it for her.   He loved every minute of being a handyman and she was very happy. 

 We told her that it was just like God to allow the door to fail on us since we were the perfect people to help replace it.   Only God orchestrated that problem to arise at the perfect time in order to be solved by us.

We enjoyed spending our time with this family, and helping them out with little tasks and chatting about school and homework. Because school was two hours late a few days and she started a new job, we made sure her daughter got on the bus.   It’s like we were all a big happy family as another renter lived there a few days a week.   We loved our time with them.  

Stories to Continue

We have so many more stories, we want to share with you. Next week will be the Blog Called People Stories Continued Part 2.

Missing People

We loved every minute with the people we encountered and now that our trip is almost done and we are not staying in people’s homes, I am truly missing the people stories and connections we have made along the way. I know you all are missing your people too.

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