Albert Einstein once said, “Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”
It may be kind of bold to disagree with a genius, but I believe the opposite to be true! I believe coincidence is God’s way of making himself known.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that as my team and I walked around the dirt roads of Honduras inviting children to our kids’ program, that I ran into a woman wearing an Oklahoma State t-shirt. She told me her sister goes to OSU! I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I met a woman on the beach in Panama that has family from North Royalton, Ohio where I spent my childhood. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we’ve had a host dog in every country we’ve gone to so far, with the exception of Swaziland, or that when I went evangelizing with a church that 2 of the kids were Diana and Kendall, the names of two of my best friends (spelled the same and everything)! I don’t think it’s a coincidence when you hear a new word or phrase for the first time and then you hear it at random times the next few days. One of my favorite ‘coincidences’ is when I read scripture in the morning that applies cohesively with my circumstances that day.
God is telling me He’s there. He’s in control. His details aren’t random. He sees the big picture, and the little ones too. He knows how many hairs are on our heads! He wants to romanticize us daily and give us moments to show how close He is.
Some of my favorite ‘coincidental’ stories from the race so far:
A few of my squad mates went bungee jumping over Victoria Falls last month. When they started to get nervous, they decided to allow this jump off the falls to represent something to them. They decided to jump into freedom from anything the Lord put on their heart. One jumped into freedom from shame. Another jumped into freedom from fear. When they got to the bottom and the guide unclasped my friend’s caribeaner, she politely asked the guide what her name was. “Freedom,” she replied.
I had written a blog post in Costa Rica about dogs and how much God comforted me with their presence so far on the race. Our first host dog, Rex, was quite the companion, and he followed us everywhere we went. There were so many other dogs in Panama that put a smile on my face. In Costa, I got to take on the responsibility of feeding our dog Sammy breakfast and dinner every day and got to train him a little bit. After I had written the post, we arrived in our next country, Nicaragua, where we lived on a farm with 7 dogs, 4 of which were 6 month old Rottweilers. Our hosts specifically asked if anyone on the squad was a dog trainer. Our whole squad said my name in unison. Apparently remembering a few things from our dog trainer 9 years ago was enough to make me a dog trainer that month. Of course I still happily accepted the challenge. Rachel and I worked with the puppies 2 hours a day and they passed our little obedience class with flying colors! This ministry was perfect for my heart not just because I love dogs, but because it was our second all squad month in a row which can be very overwhelming as an introvert. It was really restful to have this one on one time with one of my best friends and spend time with the pups!
Our squad was sad to leave Nicaragua at the end of our month there. Our host family and the staff were incredible and it made for a tough goodbye. On our first off day in Honduras, Rachel posted a photo from the coffee shop where we were in Siguatepeque. Facebook tagged our location and somehow our Nicaragua host’s daughter, Hannah, saw the post. Come to find out, she lives in Siguatepeque, Honduras teaching English at a pre-school. She reached out to us and we spent 6 hours together the first time we hung out! She even came with us to the Awakening which was the conference AIM hosted for several World Race squads that came together for Thanksgiving. We spent as much time with Hannah as possible. Our whole team got to go teach her pre-school class one morning! That weekend she had the girls sleep over and even though 4 of us shared 2 twin beds, it was the best couple nights of sleep I had in a while! We made chocolate brownies, Hannah gave us makeovers, and we processed through a lot of what the race has meant to us so far. As a World Race alum, she was able to provide good insight. We also got to hang out with her guard dog, Toby, who is the biggest German Shepherd I’ve ever seen. It was exactly what our hearts needed. One of my favorite memories with Hannah was when we were sitting on the bed talking and very abruptly she said, “Julie, I have a wonderful climbing tree in my yard, let’s go climb it!” I asked her how she knew I love to climb trees. “God told me,” she said. So we climbed a giant oak tree at midnight.
At the Awakening we got to spend time with two other World Race squads on the field, F-Squad and P-Squad. P-Squad was on month 2 of their race, we were on month 4, and F-Squad was on month 11. F-Squad was the squad I was originally supposed to launch with. They’re the people I spent time getting to know on our group chat leading all the way up to a few days before training camp when I realized I wouldn’t make the first fundraising deadline. I had kept up with them on social media and read their blogs from the time they launched till I launched. Their posts gave me encouragement to continue fighting toward the dream of getting to go. They made the long shifts at panera a little easier to get through knowing what I was working toward. I never thought I’d get to meet them on the field! I was able to thank them for all the encouragement their stories gave me. It was odd to see my squad and their squad mingling and thinking in my head how different my race may have been if I had launched with them. It was this cool picture of God’s sovereignty right in front of me. Trust the process and trust His timing.
There was a day at the Awakening where we went out in the town we were in to evangelize. A large group stayed back to do intercessory prayer. Several really cool things happened during that time of evangelism and intercessory prayer. I was with Mary from my squad and a girl named Becca from P-Squad. Before we had left, we took a few minutes to pray and ask God where he wanted us to go. This next part may sound familiar because I talked about it in a previous blog post. God gave me the image of a bench in a little garden area that was at the back of a souvenir shop I had been in a couple days prior. I told Mary and Becca so we headed there. There was a woman sitting on the bench and her husband was taking her photo. When we talked to her I told her about the vision I had and that I believed God wanted me to encourage her today. Becca asked the woman if there was anything going on in her life that she wanted prayer for. She teared up and talked about needing prayer in their marriage. We were able to pray for both her and her husband which was really beautiful. Afterward, Becca told me that was special for her because she’s wanting to pursue a masters in marriage and family therapy when she gets home, and has been asking God if that’s the direction for her life. She had asked for a sign from him. I told her that going to grad school for marriage and family therapy is also on my radar and I’d been praying about the same thing. When we got back everyone gathered together to debrief our time evangelizing. The intercessors were asked to share what they prayed for first. There were several prayers that fell in line perfectly with those evangelizing. One girl who stayed back to pray asked the group if anybody talked to a man with a full beard, nose ring, and a pipe. She said she got those 3 images and wondered if anyone talked to someone that fit this description. No one raised their hand. The next day, Rachel and I took our new friend Sarah Ann to this cute coffee shop we had found. On the way there we stopped by a couple of vendor tables to look at rings. We got into a casual conversation with one of the vendors and Rachel asked him what something was on the table next to the jewelry. “It’s a pipe,” he said. I looked up at his bearded face and nose piercing. All 3 of us realized it at the same time. We told him about the image the girl had and were able to encourage him in his faith. He told us he was a believer and we got to pray over him before we left. When we got back to the hostel I was telling my friend Jessie about meeting José, who fit the description perfectly from yesterday. She said, “wait, José, the street vendor that makes rings?” She knew him! Her group talked with him the whole time the day before when we went out evangelizing. It never occurred to her that he fit the description (and she didn’t see the pipe). She said he had just recently learned about Jesus and had a lot of questions. How beautiful that the Lord sent people to encourage him not once, but twice!
Our month in Honduras was up in the mountains. Two weeks of the month were freezing cold. Ironically, it was the hottest month of the race for some of our other teams who were located in a different part of the country. We had only packed for a summer weather route so we went to a second hand store on our first off day to buy sweatshirts. My teammate (also named Hannah), a proud Baylor graduate, found a pullover sweatshirt from Baylor Homecoming that she bought for 3 dollars. I’m pretty sure it’s her favorite thing she has with her on the race now. Another teammate’s chacos broke and the 2 dollar crocs he bought as replacement shoes just weren’t gonna cut it. At this same second hand shop, we found a brand new pair of men’s chacos in his size. Normally 100 dollar shoes for 4 bucks!
When we were boarding our flight to Africa in the Honduras airport I saw a man at the next gate wearing an OSU hat. I went up to him and said, “Excuse me, Sir. Did you go to OSU?” And he said, “I did. Did you?” Terry is a missionary and lives in Perkins, Oklahoma, just outside of Stillwater. He has a ministry called Goats for Jesus that provides goats to rural areas in Nicaragua and Honduras that wouldn’t otherwise have access to dairy. He was asking me lots of questions about the race and gave me his business card so I could email him more about it! When I told him my dad was Pistol Pete he told me his cousin was Pete too! Terry told me I better board the plane, but first wrapped his arm around me and said a prayer over the rest of my trip. The Lord gave me a piece of Home in that moment! I love my alma mater.
This month in Swaziland we were at a “mall” 2 hours away from our ministry site on an off day to find WiFi. I was sitting at an outdoor restaurant and look over at the table next to me and see and old friend, Noah, who used to date one of my best friends sophomore year of college. We got to catch up for a few minutes. He’s in the peace corps here in Swaziland for the next two years. It was his off day too and he was in the city to celebrate a friend’s birthday. It was good to see a familiar face!
On my last blog post, I asked you to leave a little update and specific prayer requests. One of my SMART goals for the last leg of the race is to pick someone from home to intentionally pray for each week. I posted that blog and the next time I got WiFi I saw that my friend Danielle, who was my person I prayed for all week, had commented with prayer requests. Prayer requests that I had covered while praying that week.. she asked for prayer with balance and the word I had prayed over her was balance. It’s not coincidence, it’s Holy Spirit.
One of the biggest ways God romanticizes my heart is through the happiest ‘coincidences’ and I’m thankful for each one of them! Hannah Esposito taught me to see each day as a love letter from the Lord. The more I open my eyes to it, the more I recognize how intentional He is. There’s a God that loves you and pursues you every single day. He’s writing you a love letter right now and I challenge you to open your eyes to it too!
Sending love from Cambodia!
-Julie
