(Disclaimer: Although this is a story that reflects what really happened, at no point in time was leadership at AIM unaware of our situation, and they always had our best interests at heart. At no point in time did we feel at serious risk).
My team and I had planned to travel to Penang, and after multiple attempts to buy bus tickets, we woke Friday morning to find out we lacked the finances for the journey due to a an unforeseen glitch. For some reason, each team had finances in their accounts to travel throughout Malaysia, except our team.
After plans to travel to Penang fell through, my team and I interpreted this as God closing the door, and we began to seek His direction in discerning any other doors He may be opening for us. We spent Good Friday, praying into this and trusting that God would guide us according to His will. Our desire was to act not out of our own wishes, but to seek what God wanted for us during this time. By the end of the day, we’d reached an understanding that although we had peace about staying in where we were another night, we didn’t have peace about staying there our entire stay in Malaysia.
This led us to Port Dickson, a nearby beach from where we currently were staying in KL. By Saturday, a donor contacted us and offered us free lodging for the time we spent in Port Dickson; they offered to pay for two rooms at a hotel on the beach that had AC. Needless to say, this was a huge blessing to us as God used this donor to provide. We made our travel arrangements which involved two trains, and a bus. We packed our bags, and strapped our backpacks on with our destination in mind as we headed to the train station.
Our stop was an hour and half away from KL, and by the time we got there, the sky broke loose and we found ourselves in the midst of a heavy downpour. It would be a ten minute walk to the bus station, but thinking we’d be walking in the rain, we decided to wait it out under the shelter of the train station. By the time the storm had passed, it near dark and we made our way under the covered walk to the bus station. Later, we discussed how there was probably a reason why God allowed us to wait out the storm and delay our arrival to the bus station.
Upon arrival, we were met by several people telling us which bus to get on. At first it was confusing, and a little overwhelming, and we didn’t know who we could trust. Two of my teammates went to check the bus routes, and the rest of us stayed with our backpacks. I can’t speak for each person on my team, but I know that for me I felt an urgent need to aware of our surroundings, and when one of my teammates asked if I wanted to pray, I nodded with no hesitation. I remember specifically asking God to send someone to us to guide us and help us know which bus to get (what I didn’t know was the two girls who went to check on bus routes were saying a similar prayer together). The entire time on the race, I’ve felt like we’ve had a presence of angels surrounding us, but I remember hearing a faint voice whisper to me: My angels are here.
That was when a woman came seemingly out of nowhere and began talking to the girls who were checking on bus routes. She counted the seats on one of buses and told us to get on, and that she was also going to Port Dickson. I can’t explain it really, but she was the only person I felt safe around in that situation and that we needed be near her. When we got on the bus, she helped us know where to put our backpacks, and then invited one of my teammates to sit next to her.
When we reached Port Dickson, I remember having to bend down and awkwardly lift my backpack onto my shoulders. The people on the bus walked past, but this same woman stopped in front of me, helped me get it on, and then proceeded to tighten the straps for me before helping my teammate who was also putting her backpack on.
The woman then called two taxis for us (before she knew that’s what we needed) that would get us to our hotel, and she hugged and kissed each of us before taking a picture of us. When we got safely to our hotel, Kayce called the woman to let her know we made it, and asked her if we could take her out to lunch the next day to thank her. The woman agreed to meet us at KFC at 12 noon.
When she never showed up, we called her again and she kept mentioning about meeting the next day. We looked at the pictures we took of her, and in each one there was a light that was shining on her face. We talked about how the reason why we got on that bus was because of her, and how safe and protected we felt around her, and then we joked among ourselves about how we were trying to eat lunch with an angel who was sent to guide us the night before.
SO, angel or no angel? I don’t know, and may never know for sure. The point is that we asked God to send someone to guide us, and He did; whoever she is, we’ve yet to buy her KFC.
