Meeting Officer Barnes
Officer Barnes is a police officer, a sergeant, with the Owasso, Oklahoma Police Department. I was able to meet him last week because I was going too fast in the 35 MPH zone. I saw his car and the lights come on as I had passed him and I was pretty sure that I was his target so I had begun to look for a safe place to pull off of 86th Street (westward bound) and I found one at the Mingo intersection. He asked me, "Do you know why I stopped you?" I said, "I assume I was going too fast." He replied, "I had you at 41 in a 35 mph." He asked to see my driver's license and I produced it for him. He saw, recently added too, my status as a veteran and he thanked me for my service. He verified my insurance and then he let me go with a verbal warning. My tag on my Chevrolet HHR is a US Navy tag, so he saw that, and my Navy jacket. We were talking a bit and I asked him if he had been in the service. He said he not been but his wife was in the US Army reserve as a Chief Warrant Officer. I explained our Bible program and offered one to his wife. At the moment, I had 55 Soldier's Bibles in the back of the car, but all of them had been committed to the 45th Infantry Brigade in Norman, Oklahoma and they were waiting to be picked up by Sergeant Joseph Baker as soon as possible. We had had some weather that prevented our connecting.
I told Sergeant Barnes that I would have her name printed on her Bible and I did as soon as I could, which was today. On my trip to Owasso to have my HHR serviced, I stopped at the Owasso Police Department, a beautiful building, and left a Law Enforcement Bible for Sergeant Barnes, with his name printed on the cover. I was able to get her name for the printing and when I returned to Tulsa this evening for Friday dinner, I again passed through Owasso and left her Bible there for him to pick up.
So, a chance encounter resulted in our placing two Bibles, one a Soldier's Bible and one a Law Enforcement Bible so, in a Forrest Gump moment, "Life is like a box of choc-o-lates.." I never quite know where a moment is going to lead me; but I always ask. Since we began our program in 2005, we have now placed 518 of the Holman Christian Standard Bibles, with our military, police and fire.
It is a small mission but one we have undertaken. I can not provide these Bibles to every marine, soldier, sailor, coastguardsman, etc. but I can to some. I'm reminded of the story of the starfish and the little boy who was picking them up and casting them back to the sea in an attempt to save their lives. An older man walked by and asked him what he was doing. The boy explained and the man replied, "You can't possibly make a difference! There are thousands of them on this beach." The boy replied, as he tossed one into the sea, "Made a difference to that one!"
Maybe I make a difference to one soldier too.
Stephen Joe "Red Boots" Payne
