Chapter 3: San Francisco "Up from here" written by James C. Garland
I have had three angels cross my path.
Remembering back...
I had just been hired to go to South Korea for the first time in my life. I answered an ad about a job teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) in Seoul, South Korea. My unemployment had just run out and there were no more extensions. There were no jobs in Redding at the time that I could find any way or anyone that would hire me.
I was living in a bachelor apartment and had no way to pay the rent or any other bills. I was fired from Home Base for missing a signature on a check in 1994. I had worked for Home Base since September 5, 1991 around the same time I started the DCP Program at Simpson College to work on my BA degree by working part-time and going to school full time.
Two nights a week for 4 hours a night Monday and Wednesday 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. or Tuesday and Thursday 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. for five weeks. Two and half weeks were a mid-term and a final at the end of the 5th week. For a total of 13 classes one at a time back to back with an exception there were a few weeks in-between and the regular school holidays off for 18 months. I started in August of 1991 and graduated in April of 1993. While working at Home Base in the lumber department and weekends for K-FXS 102.7 FM. Where on the weekends I would do some of my homework and on my days off from work were the days I went to school.
I answered an ad that I thought was bogus at the time and made arrangements to meet with a person who interviewed me at McDonald's on Lake Blvd in Redding, California. Down the street from the apartment where I lived at the time at 420 Lake Blvd Apartment #2. I was hired and began the process of acquiring my passport and visa for South Korea. I knew nothing about South Korea except watching Mash on TV.
Employer’s would pay for a one-way airline ticket to Seoul, South Korea and after the completion of one year would pay for the return trip back to the USA. Employers of (private schools) Hog won in South Korea would also provide housing, minus utilities split between other teachers living in the house or apartment.
I began the process of putting my 19 boxes of stuff at my Moms’ house in Central Valley, California at the time and my 1974 Chevy Van. I gave the 1974 Chevy Van to my friend Jill and had it towed to her house to use as storage for my library books and few other things I had left after cleaning out the apartment and painting the apartment for the landlord since I still owed back rent.
Jill and I rented a car for the trip to San Francisco, California to head there to get my emergency passport and Korean Visa from the Korean consulate. We left the night before and rented a motel room that way we did not have to get up so early the next day. We arrived at the motel checked in and then went to find the immigration building. We found the immigration building so we knew exactly where we were going after we woke up in the morning refreshed without trying to get up early and drive to San Francisco, a four-hour drive from Redding, California one-way. The plan was after we took care of my business, we would drive to Sacramento, California and Jill could visit her sister and her nieces.
That evening after we found the immigration building we went to a park where they have a memorial about the holocaust and as it was beginning to get dark, so we headed to fisherman’s wharf and ate clam chowder soup with bread. I remember we got into a disagreement over paying for parking. Jill wanted to find a free parking space and I didn’t care if we had to pay for parking. I had put all my money in her purse and asked that she not count it. That every time we would reach in for money it would be there for us and we were going to have a good time and to have faith. And I really believed it and it could happen that is how much faith I had at the time.
Jill couldn’t do that she had to count it to see how much was there. When she did, what was there was there, but if she had kept her faith the money would have kept flowing out. That is what I had thought would happen and I truly believe it would have, if she had not got greedy and counted it, instead. I told her that at the time, but to this day I still believe she did not believe me.
We will never know now if it would have continued to flow with manna or not. We cannot go back and do it again. My faith was very strong at that time (part of mania thinking and the state of mind of being bi-polar manic/ depressive) as I recall it being. After we ate dinner we headed back to the motel room to get some sleep so we could get up early and start the day. The only problem is we woke up late and don’t ask me how we did it, but we did and we did not stay up late that I can recall, either. For some reason, we just overslept. Well, good thing we knew where we were going at least that would save us some time for running late and behind schedule now.
We got up, each took showers and then had breakfast then jumped in the car as Jill had been driving all this time after all I paid for the rental of the car, but Jill was the one driving it because we rented the car in her name, so she was responsible for it. We arrived at immigration building only to discover we had gone to wrong immigration building. We went to the one for non-USA citizens to go to. Now we were really running later and behind more than we already had been. We needed to get directions on how to get to the US passport office.
Once we did, we found it and entered the building and looked at all the people in line. I thought, “Oh my god I am never going to get my emergency passport today and still be able to get to the Koran Consulate for a vacation visa, before they closed today. Impossible, it is not going to happen at least not today with all these people in line ahead of us”. That’s what I was thinking at the time.
We were just getting ready to take a number when this long blonde haired woman with a baby in a stroller walked up to us and asked if this was the right place where non-USA citizens apply for citizenship or US visa’s. We both told her, “No!”. This was not the right place for applying for visas for non-US citizen status aliens. She asked us if we knew where the non-US citizen immigration building was and if we could give her directions? We said sure, and then proceeded to give her directions. She thanked us for the directions and then stopped and gave us her number that she had got when she first arrived ahead of us. We thanked her for giving us her number, the number she had given to us.
She left after giving us the number and heading down the hallway towards the elevators. The number she had given jumped us ahead 40 people of where we would have been, if not for the number she gave to us. Like 40 days and 40 nights. An Angel had been sent to stand in our place knowing we were running late and way behind. I still do not recall seeing a baby in the stroller, as I never took the time to look inside as it was covered up at the time.
Even with the jump of 40 people I still had my doubts that I was going to get my emergency passport and get to the Korean consulate before they closed. When my number was finally called I went up to the window and explained my situation. Where I had an airline ticket for Seoul, South Korea and I needed an emergency passport today. The woman at the window made no promises, but I had to pay an expedited fee to get it today, if possible. We waited what seemed like most of the day wandering all over the building.
I went one way and Jill went another. At one point I found myself outside on the roof looking up at all the statues of angels all around the other buildings and got on my hands and knees and prayed to God that I would make it in time. Jill was on the pay phone making phone calls to everyone she wanted to talk to and get in touch with them to let them know what was going on and try and locate her sister to let her know we would be heading that way as soon as we were done in San Francisco that afternoon.
I felt blessed and at the time I felt it was an angel, but I wasn’t sure. I had my doubts I thought it might have just been a coincidence that happens sometimes and we were in the right place at the right time to make up for the time lost of oversleeping and going to the wrong immigration building in the first place. Finally. my name was called up to the window and I was given my passport after I signed for it. I had to get two passport type pictures taken to give them and I did that the day before at AAA and I think I had to get another set in San Francisco the night before because they were not the right size or something like that. I do not remember completely about the passport pictures I just knew I needed them.
I think it was about 4:15 p.m. now and we still had to find the Korean Consulate so I could get a vacation visa. After we got directions we headed there as fast as we could and I had my doubts again that we would make it in time before they closed. It was now 4:45 p.m. and we finally found it and Jill was finding a place to park. I think I got out and rushed inside as Jill still looked for a place to park. I had just made it and they were going through my paperwork and wanted me to come back the next day to pick it up. I said that was impossible, as I did not live in San Francisco. The Korean man behind the counter made a few more phone calls and said he got permission to go ahead and issue it to me today before they closed in the next ten minutes. I thanked God again and the angel who had jumped us, 40 people, without her I would have never made it.
Then Jill and I left headed to Sacramento, California but we wanted to stop at the park underneath the Golden Gate Bridge and have a picnic dinner, then head to Sacramento, California. We finished eating and then headed on our way to Sacramento. On the freeway on the way, Jill and I got into an argument over the money in the purse. I felt if she would have trusted me and had more faith we could have really had a good time in San Francisco, California. She got so upset with me at one point she let loose of the steering wheel and it looked like we were going to get into a wreak on the freeway. Somehow we missed the car we were headed for that it looked like we going to hit it. It was as if the car was picked up and moved out of the way to the danger that had been in front of us or to the side I do not recall which. Once again, we both were saved from dying in a car wreck. I just kept my mouth shut for the rest of the trip. Neither one of us said too much to each other afterward for the remainder of the trip. We continued on but we spent most of the night driving around Sacramento, California trying to chase down Jill’s sister and nieces. I just tried to get some sleep and all I wanted to do now was go home.
Jill gave up trying to locate her sister at around 3 a.m. after we left her niece's house. So we headed back to Redding, California finally arrived back in Redding, California early the next morning as the sun was coming up. Jill never did find her sister or nieces and she went everywhere looking to try and find them when we were in Sacramento, California. Where she had to finally give up and head home as we did. Both of us totally exhausted and I was wondering if our friendship was over or ever going to be the same after that, at least I was thinking that it was over and that we would not be the same ever again after that trip to San Francisco and Sacramento, California.
The next trip to San Francisco, California would be when Jill and the kids would drive me down to San Francisco International Airport and drop me off for my flight to the unknown and my next adventure in the horizon of leaving the USA for the very first time with my US passport in my hand.
South of the border in Mexico doesn’t count. I was excited and scared all at the same time, along with a 14-hour flight over the Pacific Ocean, did not help, plus I had just quit smoking too. That was until I arrived in Seoul, South Korea and was picked up at the airport by a person who held up a sign with my name on it, right after I went through Korean Immigration in the airport in Seoul, South Korea and now the adventure began. It was like Disneyland and twilight zone all at the same time.
Beliefs about Angels and how they do exist for those that believe they do.
Christian Beliefs about Angels
Belief in angels is common to Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The concept of angelic beings is very similar in all three faiths: angels are spiritual beings who were created by God before the world was created. Their role is to glorify God, minister to God, and, especially, act as God's messengers to humans in matters of great importance (such as the announcement to Mary in Christianity and the revelation of the Qur'an in Islam). They are also helpers and guardians of the faithful.
Some Christian traditions also hold that angels play a variety of specific roles in the lives of believers. For instance, each Christian may be assigned a guardian angel at their baptism (although never defined by the Catholic or Orthodox churches, this is personally held by many church members and theologians). Each consecrated altar has at least one angel always present offering up prayers, and a number of angels join the congregation when they meet to pray.
From religion facts of Christianity, Beliefs, Angels at Christianily, Beliefs, Angels
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