t show, stopped the kids from grabbing at the koi goldfish, and just enjoyed ourselves...we even commented that time spent without “somewhere to go next” is much more fun than having a rigid schedule. It was getting a bit late though and we needed to find a hotel room before the kids got too sleepy to walk. I told Anna that I would really like to spend the night here at the Opryland Hotel, and that we should pray and ask God to get us a cheap room. So we did. We held hands at the little koi pond with the gold fish listening and told God that we needed a place to stay tonight and that we would really like him to help us to stay here. As we started walking again I contemplated calling the reservation desk, I even pulled out my phone and looked at the number, but I got a sense that it was not the way God was going to bless us.Minutes after, we walked past a familiar resturant, Volare, a fancy italian place: “$30 a plate” fancy, and we remembered that we ate there 3 years ago during a conference for my Dad’s company. Sam was just a baby, and when we asked for something soft for him to eat the Chef actually came out to our table and talked to us for few minutes. He told us about his family and his kids and his faith in God. He then brought us a bowl of blended up carrots decorated like it was for the president. He was the kind of guy whose manager you call to lavish praise upon, (which we did).
As we walked past the restaurant we recalled this event and tried to remember the Chef’s name: Freddy, maybe, something catchy that ended in a “y” for sure. He had made such an impact on us with his friendliness we thought it would be really cool to see him again and tell him how we still remembered how he took care of us. I approached the maitrde’ and asked if they had a very friendly chef whose name was Freddy or something like that. She recognized his description of “friendly” right away, which was no surprise, but his name is Bobby she told us. She quickly offered to go get him...and quickly hopped away before we could say that it was not important enough to pull him away from his work.
Out came the familiar face of Bobby Bell, the chef who cared about us like only a Christian ever could. He remembered us immediately, from 3 years and thousands of customers ago. In fact he told us that we had given him a Curious George book for his son the night he had given us our memory. He sat down on the stairs at the entrance to his restaurant, asked about the kids, what we were doing here, etc. We told him about our trip and how we plan to go to Sea World and back on a tight budget. “Good Luck,” he said. When he asked where we were staying and found out we were not staying at his hotel, and had not found one yet, he said, “wait here, I might be able to do something for you.” We waited for a few minutes, he came back and said to wait a few more. After waiting for about 10 minutes, he came out with a big smile on his face and told us normally he has to go though the HR department to get room discounts for family members only, but because it was late and at the last minute the HR office was closed so he thought he could go to the reservation desk with us and pull some strings. Right then and there he walked with us, about 20 minutes round trip, to the reserva
tion desk and got us a room for $49.95.You can only imagine our joy gratitude that God chose to bless us through Chef Bobby Bell, father of four, and six-year-old christian. So God Bless Bobby Bell and his family for generations.
When we got to our wonderful room with a balcony overlooking an indoor tropical paradise, we got on our knees and praised God. Ask and we shall receive. Give Him our trust he will not forsake us. For He delights in providing us with our needs. And I am sure that he delights even more when we are truly thankful to Him. It is now 12:53 AM and I am going to go to sleep. Who knows what adventures lie ahead.
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