Can I share how COOL Jesus is?! Okay, great thanks.
One day last spring when I was browsing through the interwebs I stumbled across a really cool looking shirt with an even cooler message that a girl was selling to fundraise for her World Race. I bought said t-shirt and I also reached out to this girl, Victoria, when I found out she was living in Massachusetts like me. I knew by this point that New Englanders are rare on the World Race. They all come from Texas it seems like. So I told her how cool it would be to meet up before she takes off for the nations in October (and then myself in January). I asked Victoria if she liked breakfast food and she said it was her favorite meal of the day which was perfect because I knew I wanted to introduce to her the best breakfast place in my college town. We met at my favorite diner called J&M Diner and we got to know each other by sharing our stories. Even though we were virtually strangers, we felt comfortable with each other and it was a really sweet time. We hugged goodbye and I never saw her again. She went to training camp in Gainesville, Georgia, in August, then in October she flew to Costa Rica for the start of her World Race.
Divine Appointment Part 1
I was at a mall on Cape Cod over the summer right after I got the t-shirt and I saw a man wearing the exact same one! I rushed over to him with no hesitations and the first thing I thought to ask was, “Do you know Victoria Bolduc?” Because he obviously had to if he was wearing her fundraising shirt! He was warm and wasn’t phased at all by my abrupt appearance or my blunt question. Turns out he used to work with Victoria at a nearby university. NO WAY. I met his wife too and we chatted in the food court for a couple minutes about how I’m going on the World Race too and I told him to text Victoria right then to tell her I just met someone wearing her shirt. I marveled at how two strangers in a food court with people milling about could be brought together all because of a uniquely designed t-shirt (I wish I had worn mine on the same day and we could’ve taken an epic selfie).
Divine Appointment Part 2
Fast forward a couple months later to the fall. I’m at a Friday night young adult worship service called the508 with some friends. My friend Ethan at the time (boyfriend now) had some old friends from college there and he gestures for me to come over to meet one of them. When I walk over, Ethan’s friend goes, “Whoa you’re Sara, Victoria’s friend from the mall, aren’t you?!” I am so taken aback. I did not remember what he looked like at all, yet he remembered my name and what I looked like! I could barely believe it. I was re-introduced to Gabe. He and Ethan had gone to college together. What a small world! I didn’t think I would ever see that guy in the Cape Cod mall ever again, but there he is, being introduced to me as Ethan’s college friend in a church in Ashland! Only God could have pre-ordained and orchestrated all of these meetings coming together.
Divine Appointment Part 3
At the end of our time in Cambodia, my squad attended a newly launched conference in Siem Reap called Awakening. At this conference were three squads from the last three launch windows (August ’16, October ’16, and January ’17) and some of AIM’s Cambodian ministry hosts. AIM wants the Awakening to be an opportunity for World Racers at different stages of their journey to get to meet each other and serve together, worship together, encourage each other, and learn from each other. We had I squad that was in their 10th month of the Race, O squad that was going into their 8th month on the Race and then S squad going into our 5th month. Out of all the squads that launched in the October 2016 window, guess who was in the squad that ended up coming to the Awakening conference?! That’s right, VICTORIA. God allowed us the beautiful opportunity to meet each other before our journeys started and now in the middle of our journeys! What’s even cooler than a divine appointment in my backyard is one half way across the world!
I’m looking forward to the day when Victoria and I’s journeys will come full circle in America after our individual experiences on the World Race. Maybe Gabe will be there too. I wouldn’t put it pass God to do something like that.
