Brandon and I had the pleasure of meeting a guy named Hayward, on Thursday. He will be a new student at Western this year. His family lives in Florida, and they brought him to Cullowhee on June 16th so he could attend orientation. I got to meet his mom and younger brother. They are a great family who loves God more than I can express. They walk by faith and not by sight as you'll see in the next few paragraphs. His mom thought she could let him stay until his summer classes start on July 5th. Hayward had been contacted by a football coach and told to come to Western and be a walk-on (meaning he would try out for the team). When Hayward arrived he called the coach who now says that the team is full and he is out of luck, to go back to Florida. Hayward and his mother agreed that he should stay in Cullowhee to try and meet the coaches and somehow find a way onto this team. Hayward has been called to be a professional athlete by God, and he believes that with faith and obedience, God will make a place for him on the team.
WCU legally cannot house anyone who is not taking classes, training as an athlete with the permission of the coach, or working on-campus, so Hayward's mom found a hotel for him to stay in and bought him some snacks from the dollar store. The hotel he was staying at is cheap in every since of the word (extremely sketchy) and around 2 miles from campus. For 6 days he walked around our campus praying to God and on the 7th day he ran into my boss, Bryant. Bryant recognized him from orientation and remembered that he needed a place to stay. After hearing Hayward's story, he gave him a room in our on-campus hotel. Having no connections in NC and no vehicle, Hayword asked me if I knew of anyone who might help him move his stuff onto campus. I called Brandon, knowing that he wouldn't answer since he would be at work. Oddly enough, he answered. I told him that I had a student in a strange situation who needed help moving onto campus, but I couldn't go into too much detail. Right before I called, Brandon's boss had asked him to go home early so they could save on payroll. I know that was the Lord's timing. He came straight over to meet Hayword and help. When Brandon was done he said, "That kid is really on fire for the Lord!"
We found out later that same day that Hayward will not have a meal plan until his classes start on July 5th. So we invited him out to dinner. At dinner he told us his testimony and asked about ours. It was such a great time of fellowship and I could recognize the Lord's presence in him. His family had been homeless a few years ago, he had been stabbed and almost lost his life. The pieces were really adding up now. His love for God runs deep because he lived in a hopeless situation and God still provided for him, his mom, and brother. His faith had been tested and he came out stronger than ever. He told us about his past seven days. How his food was running out and that he had been living off of a few pretzels, but he was still praising God for those couple of pretzels he had left, knowing that God would replenish his food when he needed it. As he was telling us this, he had no idea that Brandon and I had already made plans to take him grocery shopping after dinner. He was so excited, not by the promise of food, but by the power of God's hand in his life! We had our grocery list with us and just told him to grab whatever he wanted and put it in the cart. How cool is it that our grocery bill was actually ten dollars cheaper than what we normally spend on ourselves (this bill included our week's worth of groceries and his week's worth too).
We invited Hayward to our home for dinner on Saturday night, and when we went to pick him up Brandon said, "Hayword, do you have any clothes that need washing?" I was so impressed with Brandon's attentiveness, as I hadn't even thought about this. Hayward didn't have any money for laundry and it had been building up. He was waiting on his aunt to send him a few dollars so he could do laundry. Brandon told him to bring it over and he was able to do all of his laundry at our place. During dinner Brandon said, "Hayward, do you have school supplies? We have some extras and we aren't in school anymore." Hayward had zero school supplies. Can you tell that God provides for this kid? He really does!
Hayward is actively looking for a student-worker position and has sent his football film (footage of his best plays) directly to the head coach. Today he went to church with us and got to meet all of our friends. He fits in just like family.
I just had to share his story with all of you. And I'm praising God right along with him for everything He has brought Hayward through.
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