The phrase “it’s a small world” does not even begin to encompass my life right now.
Last night in Ipoh, Malaysia, I walked into the kitchen of a small church. It was our “day off” from ministry work, so some of our new friends invited us to their young adult Bible study group. Like so many other times during the past 6 weeks, I walked into a room full of strangers, ready for small talk and sharing a few stories.
All 20 of us – my six team members and 14 locals – introduced ourselves and sat down to eat. That’s when I met Kheng Hoe.
He asked, “This may sound strange, but are you in any way connected to PostSecret?”
My jaw dropped. “You’ve seen my video?!”
“I knew I recognized your face! You are Katie Hines!“
Our conversation collapsed into shocked laughter and exclamations from both of us, “I can’t believe you are here!!!“
Just some back story:
Way back in May of 2008, I made a YouTube video. It was sort of a senior thesis for my Anthropology degree. You can click here if you’d like to watch it!
Long story short, that video went viral. Over 160,000 people watched it. I got emails from all over the world, messages of encouragement and gratitude. It was a really special thing to feel so much appreciation from people I’d never met.
I responded to many of those messages, and had great conversations with new online friends. (Yes, I have online friends. I tried to hide it, but I am the Team Geek. I own it.)
Here is one of those messages:
The amazing, incredible, impossible thing is this: XYZ1234ization is Kheng Hoe.
See the date? We exchanged a few messages last year. And with no further planning, contact, or effort on either of our parts,
I WALKED INTO HIS CHURCH KITCHEN LAST NIGHT.
Someone who’s good at math, please tell me the probability of that happening?!
You can’t call it a chance or an accident. This was a miracle.
But that is the Kingdom of God. It is surprising and upside-down and inexplicable. But living in it, I can be 9,000 miles from anything I know, and suddenly find myself hand-in-hand with an old friend.
I think maybe heaven will be like that: walking into a room, expecting strangers, and realizing that we have all known each other for a long time.
Think about it.
-Katie
