How we met - Part 2

Somewhere over the rainbow 
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream 
Really do come true. 
 
While these lyrics are special to many, they have more meaning for Deb Carr. For it was a rainbow, or to be more precise, three rainbows, that seemed to seal the greatest blessings for her and, with God’s guidance, cemented her life with Tim Carr. With the recent passing of Tim, Deb wants to tell this story. To her, this is a heartfelt tribute to the wonderful man who filled her life with love, faithful companionship and a real sense of completeness.
It started after she had turned her life over to Christ in October of 2003. During that year, she said, she realized that God had to have someone special in mind for her. She turned to God in prayer and started to study her Bible. Deb took every chance to attend Bible studies and learn what God intended to do, she said. After emerging from a series of bad relationships, she had turned to the Lord in prayer.
“Okay, Lord,” she prayed, “I’m this loser. Obviously, I don’t know what I’m doing down here. You find a good Christian man for me.” 
And she spent the next year praying for God’s will to be made known to her. 
In July 2004, she was attending Bible studies at the Assembly of God Church in Yankton, South Dakota, on Wednesday nights. One night after she got off work, it was raining hard. If she had spent the time to go home and grab her Bible, she might have missed what happened during that service, she said. As it was, she went straight to church. 
When she came in, she took off her wet shoes. The group started singing praises in the sanctuary. During the storm, a lightning strike had taken out all the lights, except for the exit lights, which had their own batteries. The pastor said they would have to do testimonies because they couldn’t read in the failing light. 
This was the second time she saw Tim. The first time was shortly before the service began. A lady had failed to turn off the lights to her car. A thin cowboy had volunteered to go out in the pouring rain and take care of that for her. Deb only got a look at his back, but she thought it was so sweet of him to do this.
Later, as the pastor opened the service for testimonies, Tim was the last to give his. Deb felt his words could have come directly from her, for it mirrored her story in many ways.
“He was bathed in this beautiful white glow, like a white vignette from a wedding picture,” she said. Deb said she also felt this tingling sensation.
Eventually, the lights returned, and the pastor ended the service. Tim came over and put his hand on her shoulder and asked if she could hand him his Bible, which was a couple seats down.
“It felt like his hand went into me,” Deb said. “This scared me pretty badly.” 
Deb then put on her shoes, grabbed her purse and went to her car. As she was backing up, she almost hit him. Tim, who had followed, knocked on her window and asked her to go out for coffee.
“No, I have to go home.” Deb told him.
“He scared the crap out of me.” she recalled, “I think I was scared about my own feelings.”
But while he was next to her, they both looked up and saw the most fantastic sky. The storm had broken, and there was still enough light to cause not just one rainbow but a complete double rainbow. To Deb, it was the most remarkable sight.
“It was as if the Lord were talking to me,” she said, “That first rainbow is a promise that God would never destroy the earth by water again. The second one was a promise that I would never be destroyed by a man again.”
The next Wednesday, Deb took her daughter, Amanda, with her to church. Tim was sitting by himself at a table, and the pastor had her sit at that table with him. Still a bit scared, Deb put Amanda between them. After the Bible study, Tim asked her out again. As before, she said no. She had to take her daughter home.
Tim called her at her store that Friday. Amanda was the one who answered.
“Mom,” she called to Deb, “It’s that cowboy from church.”
“I’m busy,” Deb answered.
“Mom, you’re not busy!”
So Deb was stuck. She took the call and tried to be professional. Tim had been given her information by the pastor. Tim told her that he had the weekend off and asked what she was doing after she closed the store. She said she was going to eat, do Bible study and go to sleep. He suggested that they have a second study after hers. This was what finally broke down her walls. She wanted to learn everything she could from the Bible, so she accepted. She told him she would come over with her kids. 
“I live by the lake, on Robin, right off of Rainbow,” Tim told Deb.
Shock waves went through her. Deb lived on Rainbow, by the lake. She realized that his apartment was right behind hers. This was the third rainbow and another promise of protection.
That night they sat on his porch and talked for hours. Tim’s son, Wyatt, thought she was cool because she was the only girl who would catch frogs with him. During the night, close to midnight, as she prepared to go home, Tim said he had to tell her something.
“That first night I saw you,” he said, “You were the only one I could see because you had a beautiful white glow around you.”
Deb knows that God put them together. She knows that God was answering her prayers and making her a promise of safety and security through those three rainbows. Taking off her shoes, seeing Tim lit up, reminds Deb of Moses and the burning bush. The church was the holy ground. Tim was the burning bush, and God was that light burning through him.
 On July 30, 2005, one year to the day after sitting on his front porch steps and talking, and catching frogs with Wyatt, Tim and Deb were married.