Once we arrived in our capital city we noticed the dry air from the bus and the higher altitude had caused us to have a sore throat, so we headed to the nearest pharmacy to buy some cough drops.
While looking through a few stores we had no luck; so Becky thought of one last place to try that was out of our area. As soon as we walked in, Chris spotted the lady who supervises S3 and her husband just from noticing the back of her head. We were planning to get in touch with her during our visit but we were having some security issues and didn’t know how to go about it. We walked up to her and Chris placed his arm around her. When she recognized us, she started to cry. She told us that she had been thinking of us earlier that day and needed to schedule a meeting with us soon. She told us that this particular store was nowhere near her house and that she had never been there before. We were all rejoicing in thanksgiving that Father brought us together. He is good. After an hour of catching up with each other in the middle of the aisle, we parted ways with our next meeting scheduled and a good idea of where the community plants are headed. He has a plan.
The next morning we woke up to 50 degrees of cold rain and Chris hacking green, but that was not going to stop him from going and seeing his wife complete her second race. Chris had been talking with a friend on how to get directions to the 5K and found out that we had to go to a part of the city we had never been to before. We spent 45 minutes in the rain trying to hail a cab and another 30 minutes trying help the cab driver get to the race. We ended up being late, but the race officiator was patient and knew Becky was coming. She waited behind to help Becky with the route. What came next is indescribable.
While Becky was running, Chris was sitting at the finish line cheering on the runners. All of a sudden the race officiator starts to ask Chris how long we’ve been living in the capital. He answered with, "We don't live here, we live in M-Town." Her eyes opened and her jaw dropped. Chris mentioned that we had been there the past two years living on the university campus and helping out a family that invited us over. The officiator then turned to Chris and whispered, “We were their supervisors and have been trying to reach out to you, but were kept from having your info and any contact.” Chris ended up responding, "No worries! Our Master has planned for this to happen."
After the race concluded, we were introduced to all of the runners. A majority of those we met were on the team who works with the same minority group and translator that we do. They have been in our country for 10+ years and have built their own library of training material. When Chris mentioned what materials we have been looking for, one person spoke up and said, "We can take care of you now; consider us your team." Hallelujah...and OKAY!!!
It did not stop there. 5 hours later, after eating bottomless pancakes at a small little western restaurant, and a lot of coffee drinking, we had connected the dots to past teams, relationships in America, built new friendships, and reconnected one long friendship that Becky started in 2008. Our day of resting became one of spiritual refreshment and full of wonder. He has a plan.
What a weekend, and it still wasn’t over. We had a few stops left on Sunday and decided to make one specific stop out of the way for lunch. As soon as we opened the door, Chris spotted the man he met with back in Texas before we traveled back to Asia. Chris and this man met for hours in Texas and discussed the work and area we live in. They talked on tracking growth, matching maps, sharing divine stories, building an accurate matrix on the numbers of followers, and so much more. Chris has been talking about how he could get in touch with him; but again, we had been having security and Internet issues.
So nonetheless, our Master made it happen. He is the divine orchestrator! By the end of our weekend, Chris was laughing with joy. He took so much away from his meeting in Texas and was so excited to see this man again in our country. By the way, Chris saw the back of his head from across the room and knew right away it was him. A little repeat from Friday night.