Another Blessing from an Old Friend

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Tuesday I wrote about how grateful I am for my church family and how willing they are to help. Today I'd like to share another blessing from my extended church family -- a friend from a different denomination. J was my first friend in Templeton when I moved here. We have done a lot together and been through a lot together. She helped me man my booth at a homeschool convention in Anaheim the last time I went. The convention was fine, but we had a really bad experience sleeping in a relative's home the first night -- so bad that my mom rented some extra beds so we could sleep in her livingroom the other two nights. For privacy reasons I can't reveal what happened that night in a public way, but my relative who owned the house could not be there when we were, and he had allowed some others to stay there while he was gone. Some of them looked like gangsters, and after being asked when I expected to start selling and how much I usually made, I had visions of being robbed or hurt if we stayed there another night. J was with me there, but in another room. One of the men came into her room, thinking it was someone else's, and he gave J quite a fright before apologizing and leaving the room. We couldn't get out of there fast enough, and we would have gotten a motel if we'd had to. My 13-year-old nephew was with us, and it was even worse for him. It was his house, and his room had been desecrated. He was living with me that year and traveling with us. When J started experiencing problems in her marriage we'd walk and talk together as often as possible. She finally got a divorce and started dating again not long after. That's when we began to lose track of each other. She got married and was busy with her new life. We didn't get to see each other very often even though we lived in the same town. We were active in different churches, and were only in touch occasionally because we were both so busy. We mostly keep up on Facebook, but that's never the same. I mentioned at the beginning my husband is sick. Usually when he's sick he takes a nutritional supplement called Ambrotose, a proprietary product sold through an MLM company. We have been taking it since 1994 and because of that we rarely get sick. Because of the injury to his shoulder when he fell last January, and a prostate infection, he's had a lot of issues that need healing. Usually if he catches a virus, he just takes more Ambrotose and he gets better fast. But he's had too much go wrong this year. Yesterday we ran out of Ambrotose because he had been taking so much of it. We can't just go to the store and buy more. I have five more bottles that will be on their way in an automatic order Saturday, but he needed more now! I can't even imagine how much express shipping from Texas is now, but priority was going to cost $12 and it might not have arrived any sooner than our expected order. What to do? I tried to call my upline yesterday to see if she had any, but she never called back. I was barely functional because of my heart issues this morning, but I spent time calling health food stores trying to see if there were any similar non-proprietary products available locally. I couldn't find any. It's also raining and I didn't even feel up to driving in dry weather. Then I remembered J. I remembered that she had started a business with this same MLM company a few years ago. I knew her church was also involved somehow. So I messaged J on Facebook and I also called her church to see if I could get phone numbers for the members of that church I knew who were related to J. I didn't have J's cell phone number. She finally called back, and although she now lives about half an hour away, she was in town. She said she did have what I needed and she'd go home, get it, and bring it over. That's about an hour round trip. She brought over 2 1/2 bottles, since I told her I didn't care if they'd been opened. Having her bring what we needed was blessing enough, but she wouldn't charge me for them. She said they were older products she wanted to clear out anyway, and they were. She stayed a couple of hours and we talked and caught up with each other. That was the best part! After she had called and before time for her to come, her pastor called back. I told him J. was going to bring what I needed, and he said to call if I ever needed anything again. I love that Christians from different churches can see each other as part of the larger family of God. Do you have a blessing to share today? Have you ever sold for a multilevel marketing company(MLM)? If so, how do you feel about working with such a company? Have you gotten in touch with an old friend lately?