Divine Appointments -long story but amazing!

This story has so many interconnecting parts that it is difficult to know where to start. I’ll begin with Friday, which was a Hindu holiday here in India so Adam had off of work. I had been feeling a bit blue the past few days, lamenting the fact that I had no women to fellowship with and was starting the morning in kind of a sluggish way. Adam was more positive, and when he woke up he had it in his mind that we’d have lunch at a café next to the Mascot hotel in town after our planned trip to the zoo. Apparently he saw it while driving by one day. So after the zoo, we went over. When we reached the hotel, it was not straight forward where the café was located, and I just was not in the mood to face another unknown, and often disastrous, eating situation. As Adam walked into the hotel, I kind of hung back and begrudgingly let him lead the way. We looked around a bit and saw where we thought the café was. As we went out to the patio area, we noticed some Anglo ladies out there. We see a lot of Europeans that don’t speak English here and are usually aloof when we smile at them, but I felt compelled to say something to these ladies, so I grabbed one by the elbow and joked that we didn’t know where we were going and that we’d just follow them. The group turned out to be American missionaries visiting from Michigan! There were 15 ladies in all and one man who was training to be the associate pastor of their church. We talked a bit and prayed outside together. I was so humbled- here I was wrestling with God over not having any women around, and He sent 15 of them! It was truly a divine appointment. We ended up having lunch together and later all went to dinner together to the pizza place. They were here for a week working with an orphanage that they sponsor in town. We also met the pastor that they work with at dinner. The ladies has a wonderful surprise for the girls as well- a bag full of toys that were extras from the 15 suitcases full of toys they had brought! What a blessing that was for the girls. Becky, the pastor’s wife who was leading the team, invited us to join them for church on Sunday where Josh, the pastor in training, was going to speak.

We as a family filled Saturday with visits to four of The Pursuit’s Mercy Homes. It was great to see the kids again, especially the ones from the home that we personally support. We remembered many of the faces from last time. Adam was great with the kids, asking questions and playing ball with them, etc. We were reminded of just how primitively people in the village areas live, but as always, the children and the pastors’ families were all happy and well adjusted. Midway through our trip, we stopped in to our driver Rinish’s parent’s home for lunch. They too lived in a very impoverished home but were extremely generous in all of the food that they set out for our grand lunch. Thankfully God kept us from getting sick as well, which was a concern!

Sunday continued the weekend full of crazy, divine appointments. The Americans were meeting the orphanage pastor for Sunday worship at a very small Assembly of God church run by a friend of his in the hills outside of town. We arrived before them early in the morning, and in this rural little church, I was a little nervous that we had the right place! It took our driver several ‘roadside Google Maps’ (yelling at a guy on the corner) to find the place. After about 10 minutes, the American group arrived. Sitting on the floor on mats with the men and women separated was a new experience for some. I felt bad for the older ladies sitting on the floor for several hours! To Adam’s surprise, the pastor asked him to speak before Josh. Nothing like a last minute invitation to give a sermon! Adam not only pulled off a great message but a truly God-inspired one. He said that since he wasn’t prepared, he followed where the Spirit led him. He felt compelled to speak on James chapter 1 about joy in suffering. As it turned out, many of the ladies in the group had been having a very tough time and were very homesick. Josh told us later that the message spoke to many of them. The other crazy part is that it tied exactly into the message Josh gave right afterward on Numbers, about the spies and the promised land, and how we should face the ‘giants’ in our lives. We all shook our heads in amazement at God’s hand in the whole morning.

After church, we went with them to visit the orphanage that their church supports. It is probably one of the most impressive buildings we’ve seen here. It was a huge, beautiful campus built at the top of a hill with 360 degree views around it. It is a school most of the year but also does programs for orphans. It was built by a Canadian man a few years ago, but their church also supports the children and is in the process of building another building for the children. Adam found out yesterday that George Verwer was there just one week before! Apparently the pastor we met works with him. While were there, we watched as Becky led the children in a bible study and the ladies sang and danced with the kids. It was their last day with them, so the ladies said tearful goodbyes to the children.

Adam and I had planned on taking the girls to the Leela hotel for brunch (which includes swimming in the pool and the private beach) for a Valentine’s Day surprise after church. After being with the folks at the orphanage and seeing how tired and burned out some of the ladies were, we offered to take them all with us to the Leela and pick up the tab. We didn’t expect missionaries to pay for a five star hotel brunch! They said they would indeed join us.

So enter divine appointment number two- while Adam and I were waiting for the group to arrive at the Leela, we let the girls swim in the pool. I looked over and saw someone waving, and who was it but the very lady from the Wednesday women's lunch group that I felt God telling me to get to know better-for privacy’s sake I’ll call her Lana, the older lady who is originally from Argentina. We had planned to meet last week but she had to cancel. I went over and spent about 20 minutes talking to her, and lo and behold she is incredibly religious to the point where she said that she doesn’t like to spend any time in the day not thinking about God. In fact, she doesn’t like the ladies’ Wednesday luncheons that we go to because she feels like it’s a waste unless she is thinking or talking about God. She was raised Catholic but is now a devout Hindu and even has a temple in her house (she is very wealthy), but she told me that she bows several times to a picture of Jesus every morning. From what I gather, she subscribes to the Hindu idea that there are many paths to God and Jesus is but one of them so its okay to mix things together.

Eventually, the American group came in. We invited Lana to have lunch with us, and- divine appointment number three- she sat next to Josh, the associate pastor in training who is finishing up seminary school. She knew they were here on a mission, so she launched into a bunch of theological questions. When she found out that he had formal training, she was particularly attentive because we could tell this gave him credibility in her eyes (turns out she used to be a lawyer). She asked him many, many deep questions, and he had great answers for her- obviously way better answers then I could ever give her. They talked for nearly an hour. As she and I talked after that, she asked if I’d come to her house so we could do a bible study!

It is incredible to sit back and watch God at work like He was this past weekend. Of course He is always at work, but it is so cool to see things like this. I realized as Adam and I have been reading through the old Testament that I have been acting like the Israelites- I have the ‘what have you done for me lately’ mentality too often. He shows me miracles, and then as the monotony of everyday life sets in, I complain. I guess its human nature to always want the peaks and not the valleys, but as Adam reminded us in James chapter 1, the testing of our faith produces endurance, and endurance will yield its perfect result. Our prayer request for our whole family is that- endurance. As the ladies leave today, it will be all too easy to feel lonely again, but I also can’t wait to see what other divine appointments God has for us in the coming months.