I didn’t expect to run into anyone I knew at the landfill today. I was just dropping off a broken piece of furniture from the storage unit I’ve been slowly cleaning out. But as I pulled up, there he was — someone I hadn’t seen in years. The very first person I met when I moved to Northwest Georgia. The man who, along with the pastor, hired me straight out of college to be the youth director at Rock Spring United Methodist Church.

That was 2002. This July marks 24 years since I moved here.

It’s funny how a moment as ordinary as a landfill drop-off can pull a thread that unravels two decades of memories. I only worked at Rock Spring UMC for two years, but that job is the reason I ever came to this part of the state. It was the doorway God used to bring me to a place I never expected to call home.

Because the truth is, I had other plans.

Back in college, I prayed hard for a future in southeast Georgia — ideally near Georgia Southern, or even better, Savannah. I loved Savannah. I still do. It’s where Jenn and I would eventually honeymoon. But at the time, I imagined my whole life unfolding there. I prayed for it. I hoped for it.

And God, in His way, said, “Actually… I have something else in mind.”

Instead of the coast, He sent me to the opposite corner of the state — from the marshes of southeast Georgia to the foothills of northwest Georgia. And that one unexpected move changed everything.

Because it was here, in this place I never planned to be, that I met Jenn.

We met in Columbus, where my mom and her aunt still live. At the time, Jenn was living in south Alabama, and I was here in Northwest Georgia. When we started dating in October 2002, we were separated by hours of highway and state lines. From October 2002 until March 2004 — the day we got married — we lived in two different states. A long‑distance relationship isn’t easy. It takes commitment. It takes patience. And it takes prayer.

Her aunt and my mom being close friends brought us together, but prayer is what held us together. I had prayed for the right person, the perfect match, someone who would walk through life with me. And God delivered her straight into my life — even though she had no ties to this area at all. After we married in March 2004, Jenn packed up her life in Alabama and moved to Northwest Georgia to build a new one with me.

Looking back, it’s impossible to miss the pattern: Prayer moved me. Prayer shaped me. Prayer brought me my family.

And prayer saved my life.

When I was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer in June of 2020, the doctors didn’t give me much of a chance. Five years felt like a long shot. Those were dark days — the kind where fear sits heavy on your chest and every breath feels like a question.

But people prayed. People I knew. People I hadn’t seen in years. People I didn’t even know personally.

And then one day, in July 2020, that same man I saw today — the one who hired me, the one who unknowingly set my whole life in motion — showed up at my door with a Prayer Quilt from the ladies at Rock Spring United Methodist Church.

I hadn’t been part of that church in fifteen years. But they remembered me. They prayed over that quilt. They prayed over me.

And I felt it. I truly did.

Their prayers, along with countless others, carried me through the darkest valley of my life. And here I am — years later — still standing. Still living. Still grateful.

So today, standing at the landfill of all places, looking at the man who unknowingly changed the entire trajectory of my life, I felt something settle in my heart.

Nothing is random. Nothing is wasted. God weaves with threads we don’t even see.

A job I didn’t expect. A move I didn’t plan. A woman I prayed for. A long‑distance love that became a marriage. A community that held me. A quilt stitched with love. A healing I wasn’t supposed to have. A chance encounter on an ordinary Thursday.

All of it connected. All of it grace. All of it prayer.

And sometimes, all it takes is running into someone you haven’t seen in years to remember just how far God has brought you — and how faithfully He’s been guiding your steps all along.

I love you Lee!

The beautiful prayer quilt.

Each of the knots, represents a prayer.