The Neighborhood Market

The Neighborhood Market

Perhaps you’ve heard of Neighborhood Market – Wal-Mart’s little pop up grocery store. The other day, something brought it to mind, and I remembered a rather remarkable story that I wanted to share. It is remarkable to me in that, though seemingly small or insignificant, this store was a huge blessing to us during a difficult time. I was reminded again that God cares about the little details and that He is always blessing us with little perks and gifts – we just have to remain alert to them!

This story happened almost three years ago, back when we owned property in Florida. We would go down for a quick weekend trip after work Friday/before work on Monday every month or so to check on the property, do upkeep, and visit family.

On one such trip, as we drove through the small town just miles from our property, we were astounded to see a Neighborhood Market being built, complete with a gas station. We were rather surprised that the small town warranted one, but didn’t really give it much more thought.

The trip passed rather uneventfully and we were soon back in South Carolina working again. I don’t particularly remember the timeline here, but it seems like our next Florida trip got pushed out further than we anticipated.

An Emergency

Then we received the news that my little niece in Florida was diagnosed with leukemia. We were all shocked and surprised. We quickly packed and left for Florida to be with my brother and his family.

My parents stayed at our property and visited my brother, his wife and my niece regularly at the hospital while treatment began. My sister and I stayed with the my brother and his wife’s other little ones. We helped with schooling and kept the house in order.

Almost every weekend, we would take my brother’s children to our parents house for a little outing. In between my parent’s house and my brother’s house was that Neighborhood Market – with it’s impressive little selection and great gas prices. The selection of groceries really was remarkable. We were particular about what we bought, and somehow they seemed to have just the brands we wanted!

I don’t know how many times we would stop by there for bananas, gas, or yogurt on those Sunday trips. Almost every time that we stopped by, we pondered how our small town could warrant a Neighborhood Market. But the logistics really didn’t matter – we were just so incredibly grateful for it!

Fast forward several long months, and things began to settle down. My little niece was able to return home with her parents in between treatments, and my sister and I returned to our parent’s home.

More Blessings

And then, more remarkable things happened. Our Florida property that we had been trying to sell for almost ten years suddenly had a contract! We spent our last few days in Florida switching between staying at the hospital with my niece while she received a four day treatment and packing up the last of the items at our home.

A few more days saw us driving several vehicles and trailers worth of items up to South Carolina. And life slowly found a new normal for us as we became South Carolinian’s.

Weeks later, my parents went down to help with a hospital stay with my niece and drove through our small town. Would you believe that the little Neighborhood Market had closed down? It would seem that God had put it there just for us at that time when we needed it most. That was one of the most remarkable things to me!

Aren’t the blessings that He gives us just incredible? His attention to detail is completely awe-inspiring! And His blessings are so humbling!

What about you? What are some incredible and yet seemingly simple ways that He has encouraged your heart and blessed you? I’d love it if you shared!

Until Next Time!

Hope.