Indiana publishing director Dwight Kruger and I had spent the morning visiting medical offices in Indianapolis. We had just finished a midafternoon meal and decided to follow up several lead cards. The first card chosen was from Valerie Rodriguez. With traffic not too hectic yet at 4:00 p.m., we calculated a 15-minute drive to Valerie's home. Satan obviously had other plans!

Ten minutes into our journey, we encountered a bottleneck in the traffic caused by an accident. After 20 minutes of frequent stops, the afternoon sun decided to peek through a cloud and shine directly in my eyes. I complained to Dwight about my impaired vision from a dusty windshield. He volunteered to clean the inside of the windshield with some napkins, but the result was now a smeared, dusty windshield.

Finally the traffic pace started to pick up, when suddenly my map reader, Dwight, pointed to our desired street just ahead. Unfortunately, a huge dump truck was blocking the entire entrance to the street, and we had no choice but to pass by and attempt to turn around. Meanwhile, I had had enough of Mr. Sun and my dirty, smeared windshield, so when I spotted a gas station, I jumped at the chance to wash it.

Now 45 minutes into this adventure, with a cleaner windshield and the sun to our backs, we set out again to find Valerie. Dwight, who was concerned by all the delays, sent up a quick verbal prayer asking God to keep Valerie from leaving her home before we arrived. It was obvious Satan was trying to block our progress.

As we pulled up and knocked on her door, Valerie immediately met us on her way out, with purse in hand. Had she not received a last-minute phone call, we would have missed her.

As it turned out, we had a great experience visiting with Valerie in her home. This single Christian mother has had many trials during the last few years, but she was eager to purchase our 22-volume library for her family.

Roxanne Andersen is an Indiana Conference literature evangelist.