A mistaken message leads to a 'Christmas miracle'

APPLETON (WLUK) -- A group of local people is proving that you can be surprised by the kindness of strangers.

Together they changed one woman's life this holiday season.

"This is a Christmas miracle! I mean, this doesn't just happen every day,"Amy Rickel told FOX 11 News.

For Rickel, the miracle started with a mistaken Facebook message.

"I immediately put, 'Oops! Wrong message!'" she explained.

She had messaged Brian Van Boxtel, a stranger, asking for prayers. She meant to send the message to a friend with a similar name.

"But you didn't know Amy..." FOX 11 News Reporter Alex Ronallo asked Van Boxtel.

"I didn't know Amy,"Van Boxtel replied.

But that was not the end of the conversation.

"He was like, 'Nope! God puts us in people's lives for a reason," Rickel told us.

After moving from Upper Michigan to Green Bay to be closer to her children's father, Rickel wound up homeless and jobless with her three children.

They were living in a hotel when her money ran out and her car stopped working. They had nowhere to go.

"Bawling and praying and that's when Brian messaged me," Rickel said, describing her hopeless moments.

Van Boxtel said he was coming to pay for her hotel stay.

A simple question prompted him.

"What would Jesus do?" Van Boxtel explained.

Van Boxtel convinced Rickel to set up a GoFundMe account.

"After the GoFundMe page started, it basically...it blew up," he told FOX 11.

That's when Kathy Schumann offered Rickel the use of her minivan, then much more.

"She really tugged at our heartstrings, and we just felt like this holiday season we couldn't let the kids be out in the cold and we cleared out a room and brought them home,"Schumann told us.

Chad Morack got wind of the GoFundMe too. He found out Rickel is an licensed practical nurse and connected her with a local medical recruiting office in Appleton.

"Amy will attest there was a lot of work and a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff going on to really make this happen and to make it happen quickly,"Morack explained.

"After that I was just, I couldn't help but continue working hard to get her references and resume over to our clients so we could get her a full-time position," addedAlexandria Witkowski, a senior recruiter for TotalMed.

After an interview Tuesday, Rickel will start that full-time LPN job Jan. 3.

"Pretty amazed. I still kind of find it unbelievable," Rickel told FOX 11 News.

Also unbelievable: None of these people were friends before.

"We're all strangers. We all just met today," explained Morack.

But now, they share a very close bond.

"I know that God had me in the right place at the right time and so I listened to my heart," said Van Boxtel.

This all happened in about a nine-day span.

Rickel is grateful.

"It's totally restored my faith in - more than just my faith in humanity, my faith in God," she said.

Showing that sometimes when you ask for prayers, you get a miracle.

Rickel told us there were three-month-long waiting lists at any area shelters that accept children. Because of this, she said she's trying to start her own homeless help service.