Dad preached a good sermon last Sunday. At the end of it, he challenged us all to do a random act of kindness during the week.

I started looking for opportunities on Monday. I held the door for a man at the post office who was 98 years old. I thought it was pretty great until I realized I cannot imagine anyone slamming the door in a 98 year olds face. Then John German told me that this man also changes his own oil and gets under his car to work on it. It was definitely not a random act of kindness. This man should have held the door for me.

So, I kept looking for other opportunities. I was nice to a telemarketer before I hung up. I smiled at Dad when he accidentally dropped my 150 year old mason jar. But, these things did not seem great enough.

Then on Tuesday morning - it happened. My real random act of kindness presented itself to me. I stopped by at the goody pile at the dump and smiled at a woman and two men. The woman smiled back and asked me "You give me a ri?" It took me awhile before I realized she was asking me to give her a ride in my car. She spoke very little English. She said she wanted to go to the Banco of New York. I knew where that was - this could be my big chance!!

So, we all piled into my little car, Petunia. The lady sat in the front with me and the men sat in the back. One man had a big TV on his lap and the other had a CD player that held 50 cds. Whether these things worked or not remained to be seen.

I rode down Smith Street and suddenly something occured to me. What if these people were carjackers? What if they were thieves or killers? I was getting scared. The woman said something to me in Spanish. I answered, "no comprende". The men in back were talking to her. Were they plotting how to kill me and dump my body back at the goody pile and then take off with Petunia?

"Where do you live?" the woman asked me. "Over that way" I motioned vaguely. "I come to your house and teach you Spanish tonight at 8 o'clock, ok?" "NOOOOO". I said. "I am busy."

I was really getting scared now. Should I start beeping my horn to try to get people's attention? I was speeding - going about 50 miles an hour in a 35 mile an hour zone and the men in the back were being knocked back and forth with their tv and cd player. I raced into the Bank of New York parking lot and slammed on my brakes.

"This is not the place" the lady said. "Over there". She motioned to Jaspa Road across the street - my cousin lives down there. "Sure" I thought. I raced over to Jaspa Road and stopped at the corner. All three people got out and smiled at me and said "Gracias".

As they waved goodbye to me, I left feeling relieved. I learned a lesson. Random acts of kindness are fine unless you put your life in danger.