Too many coincidences this week to give any one credit but the man up stairs!
1. This week Carli was searching online for a coffee shop we had previously seen while on the bus. Unfortunately she couldn’t find the particular one; but finding a cafe across town we decided to check it out to see if it could be a lead. We headed into the taxi for a 30min ride. Upon arrival we recognized a few things; they were closed, the two girls were practicing worship songs on their guitar and they didn’t seem to be weirded out to have 6 Americans standing there. After a few exchanges we discovered one of our fellow squad teams is with this cafe for the month! We laughed with irony and were in awe of how we wound up here. Then, the owner directed us to a new church down the street. We walked down to discover a 1,500 member church with 3 services! It’s a 7 story building and we were invited to join this service this week. This church had been one we had been looking for since arriving in Vietnam but couldn’t get any leads!
2. Next we headed to the opposite aide of town, a sum 25min from our hostel to join the small group from the church we visited last week. We rejoiced at the sight and comfort of a living room. You know you’ve been on the field a while when you get get over the excitement of sitting on a couch and enjoying Dominos pizza. I was encouraged by the awesome, honest conversation over Mark 1. We stayed after for quite some time to make new friends and laugh hard. The couple was so gracious and hospitable. After the enjoying a few hours of sitting on couches, we began to head back to our hotel. As we were getting close to the gate of the apartment complex I hear a teammate ask, “is that Marin?” Confused, I take a few more steps than see Scott run to Marin for a huge hug. Marin is on a different team within our squad. We knew they were staying in an apartment but in a city of 9 million, we had no idea where it was. Marin invited us up and we got to shock the rest of their team as this run in had just blown our minds! I’m grateful to have gotten to hear about their month so far and to catch up with good friends. I couldn’t stop laughing at how we had met and wound up in this apartment across town.
3. Then, to top off crazy week: last night Megan and I went out to enjoy one of our common spots, Zeus, for a delicious gyro. Immediately walking in I saw a familiar face. Our friend, Snow who we met last week at a Cathedral across town. Now we were just a short walk from our hotel talking to her. We had talked with her about Catholicism here in Saigon, she showed us grace, kindness and care. Now we were laughing with her and saying hi to our friend yet again!
Hope you can get a laugh out of these moments of God’s fingerprints. He has constantly displaying how He is present in this country. The people’s love, joy, kindness and the beauty of this place; there’s no way to deny that God is moving and He is here. I have to admit, I was curious of how obvious it would be to see Him here since it’s a closed country. I’m grateful to have each day focused on looking at His fingerprints and guidance!
