Coincidence? I Think Not.

I do believe in coincidences, but I do not believe that everything is a coincidence.  Sometimes things happen or people walk into your life and you know that God had a hand in it.  Sometimes you know this only in hindsight, and sometimes you know right away.  In church circles these are often called "divine appointments," and I had one the other day.

Susan, not unlike many others throughout the day, asked us a few questions about our trip.  Where were we going?  Are we going with our church?  What will we do?  I happily answered her questions as Ben and I had been doing all day between answering people's price questions and greeting new-comers.  It was a particularly busy time, but Susan was interested and hung around near the garage where we were while looking around and allowing us to conduct our business.

Perhaps I should have picked up that there was something going on.  I'm not unaware that I can be pretty socially oblivious.  But, I didn't realize until a few minutes later.

After a minute or two, Susan was back and ready to ask me another question.  I assumed she wanted to talk more about the trip.  Instead, what she said was, "I'm really sorry.  I know you're busy, but I know you're missionaries and I was wondering if you could pray for me?"

Still somewhat oblivious, I give her an enthusiastic "yes!" and nod.  Expecting her to tell me about a mission trip she was about to go on or some such (we had gotten a lot of that throughout the day), I was not prepared when she started crying.

Crying.  You know how some people, and supposedly women in particular, are great comforters and know just what to say?  Yeah.  Definitely not me.  Waaaaaay outside of my comfort zone.  I don't even know what to say to my best friend, let alone a perfect stranger. 

I pulled her into the garage and out of the middle of everyone's attention as she poured out her heart.  I could only listen and nod, hearing the powerlessness in her voice, as she tells me about how she struggled for years to have a baby only to have him be extremely sick.  How the stress of it has all but destroyed a marriage of nearly two decades.  How she's too ashamed to go to her own church family for prayer because she'd have to admit to having marital problems. 

When she finished telling me all this and more, I grabbed Elise, who was helping us with the sale, and Annette, who "just happened" to stop by just at that time, and we gathered around Susan and prayed peace and healing over her life.  I didn't stop and think about it.  Didn't think about the fact that no one would be with the cash box while Elise was over here with her eyes closed (what happened with that, anyway?).  Didn't think about the fact that I. Don't. Pray. Out. Loud.

There is nothing so unusual about a person who is a Christian– and/or who know's you're a Christian– asking for prayer.  It's not really that unusual to ask a perfect stranger, even.  Sometimes it's easier, as was the case with "Susan."  As I said, she wasn't the only one who asked for prayer that day.  But this one was different.  This was a divine appointment.  It was not a happy accident that Susan dropped by our sale on Saturday.  God had something for her– something to show or say or do.  And He had something to show me, too.  And He intended it as encouragement for someone 1,000 miles away.  God's just awesome like that.
 

And that's pretty exciting. 

We currently stand about half-way to being fully funded for our trip!  If you would like to partner with us, please click the "Support Us!" link at the top left of this page.  To everyone who is supporting us financially and through prayer, thank you!