This is not my story, but I am sharing it because it needs to be shared.
In 2024, I was shopping in San Antonio with my sister Kathy. We decided to spend a weekend there for the fun of it. We had decided to go see a movie. When we arrived at the theatre, there was a wait until the actual movie started. The theatre is in the mall downtown San Antonio. So, while we waited we walked around. Neither of us are "shoppers" but we were in the mall. Kathy has probably never in her adult life bought something at full price for herself-especially clothing. She usually shops at thrift stores and NEVER buys for herself from a real store.
We stepped into a store that had jackets. There was one there that had a Toy Story theme. Kathy is a Toy Story fanatic. When she saw it, she really thought it was cool, but no way would she splurge on that for herself. I convinced her that she needed to get it in celebration of the recent HUGE weight loss. Besides, it is always easy to convince someone else to spend their money!!
She tried it on and it looked great. She bought it. In Texas, a heavy jacket like that is used maybe once or twice a year. The jacket would last her forever.
So, fast forward to this year. We decided to go to Wisconsin before we went on our K-love Cruise. There was a logistics reason which I will not explain here. When we got to Wisconsin, it was colder than I had really imagined. We dressed for the cruise in layers of clothes as we were flying from Chicago to Miami. Kathy took her Toy Story jacket as it was not quite as heavy as a winter coat, but would be good to have along. She did end up wearing it often on the cruise because it was not a warm as we expected.
The cruise had theme nights and one of those was to dress as your favorite movie character. (We did not participate) Kathy ran into a man dressed as "Woody" from Toy Story. She asked for a picture and he gave her a duck (IYKNY) that had "Jesus Loves You" written on it. She stored that duck in her pocket and often touched it and was reminded of that truth.
We ended the cruise, which was an amazing time. We met a lot of new people and we reconnected with some friends who we had met on previous cruises. We took an Uber to the airport with one couple that we had connected with back in 2024 (and perhaps we really met them in 2020). This couple has become more like family than just friends.
At the airport, it was a crazy day. There were a lot of flight cancellations due to weather, etc. So, we separated at the airport on the unsecure side and agreed to meet up on the other side of security. Leila had to reschedule her flight due to weather in Charlotte. I stood in line with her while she waited to get reticketed. Kathy waited outside the counter area. Leila rushed off to try to make her flight and I returned to head through security with Kathy.
Kathy and I had stopped in the bathroom prior to going through security. Kathy noted that the bathroom did not have a good place to hang her jacket. So, we know she had it. We headed through security and I am quite certain I saw her jacket in the bin ahead of mine. We headed through the doors into the terminal and she got a phone call. I stopped along the wall to plug my phone in and stand in one place while she talked on the phone. We headed to find the rest of our party. Leila had missed her flight and was standing in line to get a new flight. The rest of us were deciding what we would do next. Our flights were hours away. So, Kathy and Debbie decided on a trip to a bathroom. When Kathy got to the bathroom, she thought, "Oh, this is a good bathroom, there is a place to hang my jacket on the back of the door..." but, she had no jacket with her. She had no idea where it had gone. Not sure if she had not picked it up from TSA or if perhaps she had dropped it while talking on the phone. But in any case, the jacket was gone.
Kathy's initial thoughts were not of panic. She shares that she just accepted it, the jacket was gone and she was calm and not upset about it. Then she shared with the rest of us that it was gone and we were not "OK" with that. We went back to the TSA checkpoint and they had not seen it. We found a person who worked at the airport and was about to get off her shift. She took us to the Lost and Found at the airport. We knocked at the door and the woman came and told us to file a claim but the jacket had not been turned it. Kathy was calm and not bothered much. She remembered that the duck was in the pocket and whomever had her jacket would get the message that Jesus loves them.
We reconnected with our friends and Leila was heading the opposite direction to get on her flight. We sat and visited with our friends and he went on the app "Offerup" and looked for the jacket. He located one near where they live. He made an offer and we left it at that.
Kathy and I boarded our plane and flew back to Chicago. Kathy didn't have her jacket so it was quite cold. We were happy to not have to spend any time outside in Chicago.
The next day, our friends told us they were on their way to go get the jacket. They were able to find a jacket like the one Kathy had lost and today the jacket arrived at Kathy's house. She also got a duck to go with it.
This is a story worth repeating. Jesus Loves Us. He blesses us with friends who bless others. He put that jacket into someone's hands who needed that duck to tell them that Jesus loves them, and we may never know until heaven how this whole story may have touched someone's life.
PS: I decided to try to locate the person who was dressed as Woody and the people who belonged to the pictured duck that Debbie sent to Kathy. I found them both, the "David" on this card is the same person who is pictured above as Woody. She bought the coat in San Antonio. We now have new friends there. God is GOOD! All the time.
