This month was glorious for thousands of reasons, not many of which I can share openly because of the security within China and the children who I worked with. I will try to share what photos and video I can sometime soon.
I do have a comical story to share though. Part of the logistics job includes finding a meeting space for the whole herd at the end of each month for our debriefs. We worship, pray together, do some kind of teaching etc etc. Sometimes this a piece of cake and sometimes…well, you’ll see.
(In the last two weeks, we had called 20+ hotels/schools and everyone has said no or was $800USD out of budget.)
Paint the scene: yesterday, it was the 11th hour of crunch time before debrief. Team were on trains and busses about to arrive at the hostel. Still no meeting room. Callie (my logistics other half) was in the common area of our hostel still staying in the Google fight, looking for space. I had sort of resigned to working around a pool table at our hostel, but Cal had more hope: a Catholic church that had English services.
We tried to call and got nothing. It happened to be the Lord’s day so we got in a cab and went to the church. It was very busy and the compound was surprisingly large. With so many people, it was hard tell who was in charge. I spotted a nun near what looked to be administration desks. And the Lord said, “go for it!” I approached cautiously with the classic question, “English?” She did indeed speak English and we chatted and explained who we were. I even was bold enough to use the m word. After our talk she told us she might be able to help us, and would call us when she knew more.
We went to the courtyard…and prayed. Prayed hard. Good prayers of desperation. Sure enough, I got a call from Sister M saying to come see her after mass to talk to a priest. WE GOT A CALL BACK. It was like we were teenage girls with a dream of being actresses in New York. We prayed some more.
After mass we found Sister Maria and the priest and he non-chalantly said we could use a classroom.
WHUT.
Oh, and….FOR FREE. Price wasn’t even discussed.
Callie and I skipped away, and got celebratory ice cream.
Conclusion: God is the God of miracles. Big and small.
