Nicole couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She wanted to drive away and forget what had happened, but she knew she would regret not getting to the bottom of this mystery.
So, she let out a deep sigh and headed to the man’s car. She wasn’t prepared for what she was about to see inside.
“So I was just on my way to work, and I had to stop for gas, so I allowed myself some extra time to get to work. When I pulled up to the pump, I shut my car off and saw this middle-aged man crying and looking at the gas pump,” Nicole recalls.
So, what had happened to him?
“I began to wonder what happened with this man, and as I got out of my car and looked at him, my heart felt like it stopped,” she continued.
The man was wearing old dirty clothes and was shivering.
“In Apple Valley, Minnesota, it is 10 degrees and freezing cold with the wind. This man was wearing flip-flops with socks covered in holes,” Nicole recalls.
“I look at his car and see his wife in the front seat covering her face in her hands and the 2 teenage girls both cuddling under a blanket in the back seat.”
“I didn’t even think, and I went up to the man and said, ‘sir is something the matter?’
“He looked at me, and I could tell he was on the verge of giving up because he didn’t even try to conceal his tears when he said, ‘I can’t even provide for my family,'” Nicole wrote.
“Without even thinking, I put my card in his machine and told him Jesus Christ the Son of God died to provide for you. Fill up,” Nicole continued.
“Something, something came alive in him. He was in shock, and it was like he forgot how to pump gas.” Then, Nicole saw his wife.
“She asked her husband what was going on and he told her I just paid for their gas she started to cry and came around the corner to shake my hand when I saw her pants dirty and torn.”
“I asked her to come to my car.”
“The airport lost some of my luggage on my way to Minnesota from California, and I had to clean out my closet to find stuff to wear and get rid of a lot of stuff. All of that stuff that I had yet to give away was sitting in the back seat of the car and in the trunk,” Nicole wrote.
She opened her car and told the woman to take what she needed.
“This lady RAN back to her car. I was so afraid I had just embraced her but a moment later her and her two girls were digging through those clothes layering my sweatshirts and shirts and sweatpants over the worn-out clothes they had been wearing,” Nicole wrote.
But this was just the beginning.
“Soon, the father had finished pumping the gas and came over. This attracted a little crowd at the gas station,” Nicole wrote.
“And some older man gave the family a gift card and another middle-aged man gave away his jacket to the father.”
“Never in my life did I think I would see this kind of thing happen at a gas station with a handful of complete strangers.”
Nicole says she will never forget this day. It changed her life!
“But it gives me hope. That the love of God can be so contagious,” she wrote.
“That we are not alone in being the change we want to see in the world.”
“That God’s love is greater than anything, and we get to be a part of that love changing lives,” she continued.
“And HE always provides!”
Nicole never imagined this decision would help change her life so much. She helped someone in need and encouraged others to do the same.
Nicole’s heart-warming story has inspired many people from all over the world.
What would you do if you saw a man freezing in the cold? Would you approach him and ask if he’s okay?
Or would you ignore him?
