Rights Reserved By HDM For This Digital - The Wesley Center Online

I felt led to go to Chicago. I did not have any meeting. There was nothing in particular
drawing me, except that I felt the Holy Spirit urging me, prodding me, and prompting me to go.
I arrived at the Illinois Central station in Chicago with exactly ten cents in my billfold. That
was all. It was evening. What to do? I had relatives there. My father's sister, whom I loved dearly,
lived in Chicago, but she had turned against me because my mother had been saved. She felt that I
had killed my mother by turning to Jesus. Her attitude had broken my father's heart.
Once Auntie even drove me out of her home, telling me to get out, that I had killed my
mother. It was wintertime. I had left her home in north Chicago and gone downtown to the railroad
station at three o'clock in the morning. Not knowing what to do, I had tried to lie on a bench the
rest of the night. Of course, the policeman would not allow me to do that. I shall never forget the
experience.
But, now, here I was at the station. What should I do? Where should I go? I was looking
through my billfold, thinking perhaps I had a dollar bill tucked away here, or that I had a quarter or
a fifty-cent piece hidden in a fold somewhere. I could not find anything except a little white slip of
paper. It had a Chicago telephone number on it, belonging to the pastor of a church. Well, I had
forgotten about that pastor. I had met him only once. I could not even remember who he was, what
the connection was, or why I had the telephone number, but I thought, "Well, Lord, this must be in
Your plan." I put my ten cents in the coin slot and prayed, "Dear Lord, let this be Your way of
taking care of me, for this is all I have -- ten cents."
A man answered the phone. I said, "Is this Brother Lewis?"
"Yes, it is."
"Brother Lewis, this is Mrs. Hanley, Irene Hanley."
"Well, wonderful!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing in Chicago?"
"I don't know, really," I answered him. "The Lord led me here."
"Well," he said, "He surely must have. Is this ever an answer to prayer! We're having a
district youth rally tonight. Our speaker is ill and we've been wondering and wondering who's
going to do the speaking, when just now the phone rang and you're in the city! Mrs. Hanley, where
are you?"
I said, "At the Illinois Central station."
"You stay right there," he instructed. "My wife and I will be right out after you. You have
time to eat a bite of supper and then we'll take you to the youth rally. Will you speak for us
tonight?"
Would I? Would I dare turn down the supper, the opportunity to speak, and the privilege of
staying all night with them when I was penniless?