I heard someone near me say, "Got everything together son?" We had arrived...
My wife, Rita, our little baby girl Sally and I had arrived in the United States of America. To be more precise, we had arrived at New York City docks on the passenger ship the United States of America, the year was 1964. We had disembarked that morning, after a slight delay, the baby needed a nappy (diaper) change. Our luggage, which travelled in the ships hold, was now scattered, with hundreds of other passengers luggage, across a few acres of concrete dockside. I had been running around collecting ours together in one heap ready to be checked by a US Customs Officer. I must admit I was a little stressed as there was one large travel trunk I could not find. I'm sure our Heavenly Father had everything in hand as an elderly silver haired Customs Office came up to me and in a quiet fatherly voice said, "Got everything together son?" I said there was one large travel trunk I still could not find. He said there was no rush and I should just take my time while he talked to my little baby Sally. I left him tickling her and saying what a doll baby (an American expression) she was. I finally found the trunk and with the aid of a two wheeled trolley got it back to the rest of our stuff. I noticed other passengers being asked to open their luggage, and having to pay a carpenter to open any wooden crates they had and put them back together after the inspection. "Lord, you know we don't have money for that." The Customs Officer dealing with us turned from talking to Sally and said to me "OK, lets go. Now according to law I have to open at least one piece of your luggage." He turned to Rita and said, "Open your handbag dear." Rita did that, he had a quick look and said, "Right it's done." and marked all our travel trunks, suitcases, and the big wooden crate we had as passed inspection. We praised Almighty God!
We arrived on that dockside with twenty English pounds, $56 US dollars at the time, that was all. We had no bank account, that £20 was all we had in the world. We had to get ourselves and all our baggage to New Tribes Institute in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, a distance of around 250 miles. The Lord had brought us thus far, and in my heart, and Rita's also, we were sure somehow He would get us to our destination. I turned to this very helpful fatherly Customs Officer to ask him were we could get a long distance bus and where we could arrange to freight our luggage. Just as I was about to ask I heard someone calling my name, I looked round and to my surprise I saw it was a Bell Boy. "Here I am." I said and he came and gave me a written note. I gave him a 10 cent tip, he did give me a strange look. Our friendly Customs Officer asked me what it said, I read it out to him, "Eric Graham come to the barrier." he pointed up the dockside to the barrier where people were waiting and said to go there, " You go to the barrier and I'll stay with you wife and baby." I made my way to the barrier and there right at the front were a couple of guys with a big sign with New Tribes Institute written on it. I said I was Eric Graham, they said, "We've come to pick you up and we have a large trailer for your luggage. They were allowed to drive onto the dockside with the trailer, they packed all the stuff we had onto the trailer, put us in the back seat of the car, and with a wave from our Customs Officer we were on our way to New Tribes Institute, Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania. We still had our £20...Hallelujah! I really believe that customs guy was an angel in disguise. Amen! Amen!
More real life stories of our Heavenly Father's faithfulness to come.
Blessings, Eric.
