Missed Opportunity

Have you ever had one of those days where you wish you could rewind, even for a few seconds, to make sure you got in there to share the gospel? Today was one of those days for me. I went to take care of some things with my vehicle today at the D*M*V*. We’ve been trying for 4 years now to get the title to one of our vehicles. Finally found the lien holder company (they had changed their names twice since we had paid the vehicle off in the late 90’s). They had their name issued on the title instead of my husband’s so this has been a small nightmare. Anyway, today I decided since I had heard that you can’t tract at the D*M*V*, I didn’t bring a stash. But I had a couple tracts in my purse. I took my MP3 player with my Christian Radio programming on it, and decided to listen to that while I waited.

When I got there at 9am the line was wrapped around the building all the way around. This was going to be a long morning. About 10 minutes after standing in line an older lady came out of nowhere and cut in front of me. She said she had forgot something at home and had to come back, and the guy in front of her “saved her spot”. Now, I know that those things are invisible, lol, but with such a line around the building, who cares if someone else is in front of you. I don’t. So I figured maybe this was a divine appointment. Her name I later found out was Nadia. When we started talking she was chit chatting about her vehicle not passing smog inspection and worried about it. I felt bad for her because she was older, and had an older vehicle, and probably couldn’t afford a new one. I took my earphones out of my ear, to make me more approachable. Then, while her back was to me, I told her [to chit chat] I had come to the D*M*V* yesterday both at this location and one another town over, but the lines were far too long and it took so long to wait for a parking spot that I decided to come back today, this morning. She said yesterday was windy, today is nice and sunny, and Sunday was sunny. [I was about to say that I was glad Sunday was sunny, because I do not like to be in the rain when I go to Church, and then I was going to ask her if she goes to church somewhere nearby, and find a way to hand her a good tract, but that didn’t come out of my mouth. And a few seconds later she picked up her phone and started calling people to handle some things while she was in line].

We moved closer to the entrance, and I noticed a sign that said “Products or services provided by advertisers are not promoted or indorsed by D*M*V*” And I wondered, can we hand out fliers here? I thought it wasn’t legal. Maybe the law changed, or maybe they can’t seem to stop the people who do it. I wondered if people leave fliers on the vehicles also. So I started watching the flow of people and looked for security cameras. There were no cameras.

Then, when we were close to the door I found out she cleans apartments and helps older people shop. I told her I had a few friends who do that. I have one friend who actually lives with a very old lady and assists her. I said it’s great when people help out older people, and its such a “blessing” that they have lived so long. I then told her that I have a friend who is turning 100 next weekend. She said Wow. [We were in the door at this point and she was next in line to grab her “number” to be seen. I had hoped we would run into each other again and I’d make sure to give her the tract, and mention to her that I might like someone to come and clean my apartment if she is not fully booked]. She went off her way and I went off mine. I had 35 people in front of me, and it ended up taking 3 hours of my time.

I heard a few people coughing and so I decided to go outside and wait around, popping in every 10 minutes or so to see what “number” was being listed available for the section on my ticket. I noticed a security guard behind me on the side of the building (where he had full view of the side doors and those on the sidewalk in front of it), I had no idea they had guards there. I then noticed another sign saying the same thing as before. Posted on each side of the building. I was walking around, avoiding any one coughing or smoking at the corners (which blows the smoke right to the door and down the side of the building, so the “no smoking 20 feet in front of the doors” sign was useless, because the smoke still blows that way. I started watching the security guard, in spy mode, lol. Wondering what his patrol patterns are. He was on foot. I turned around to see where he was a minute later, and he was gone. I have no idea where he went. How could he move so fast on foot, so quickly. Nothing was happening for him to be so fast. When I looked down the other way, I noticed another security person was there. I thought maybe they turned over at shift change, but not long after that I saw someone else. So I think they have 2 – 3 security people there regularly. Weird. Going to be hard to try and tract this place. And the funny thing was, once I got in the door originally, there was another sign saying said “Products or services provided by advertisers are not promoted or indorsed by D*M*V*” within the first 15 feet in the doorway, heading to the reception desk where you get your “number”. I am interested in seeing if I can tract there sometimes. Even if I get shooed away, there are other ones in the county I can go to.

I saw Nadia ½ way down the walkway as she was returning from her vehicle and entering the building again. I thought “bummer!” cause I wanted to catch her, speak to her for a minute saying it was nice to have met her, and then give her the tract. I kept an eye out for her to go back to her vehicle again, or to leave having finished her purpose there. Since I was outside most of the time it was easy to try to do, but unfortunately I did not see her again. Such a missed opportunity. I suggest anyone who has the slightest opening to say something to someone while you’re in line somewhere…DO IT!, don’t pause to think or wonder, just do it. Give the tract and say something to them related to what you were discussing.

The D*M*V* issue wasn’t resolved. I had the letter documentation from the lien holder bank, but not the D*M*V* forms my husband was supposed to sign. grrr... oh well, next time I'll be prepared with tracts!