A God Appointment

I'm going to begin to tell the story, now. If you missed our Cast of Characters, be sure to read that first.

Once a month, I find myself in a restaurant surrounded by some of the most amazing women, I know. It's our Mom's night out. The conversation is always fun and we leave better than we came. Encouraged, uplifted, joyful and usually pretty tired. We like to pretend we're younger than we are and attempt to close the restaurant down.

This month was the first month my friend, Shelby joined us. I don't know how it happened that I didn't think to invite Shelby until this month, but I guess it never came up. My other Mom friend, Nydia (who's in the morning chat group with Susie and I) was also there. I knew from our conversations at gymnastics that Shelby was planning a missions trip this summer to Haiti. Here's how the conversation at the gym went when she first told me...

Shelby: "I've decided to plan a summer missions trip to Haiti."

Me: "Really! Have you ever been on a missions trip and do you have a contact in Haiti?"

Shelby: "Nope. I just want to go to Haiti, so I sent out some emails and I'm working with the one that responded."

Me: "Wow, Shelby that's great!"

See, what kind of amazing person Shelby is? No, waiting around for someone else to do things for her. God said, "Go to Haiti this summer, Shelby." So, off to Haiti, Shelby will go. I said at the time, "I have a friend who is adopting a little boy from Haiti." End of conversation.

Last night, after dessert (yes, we do have dessert, it's one night a month, ya'll) I asked Shelby how the mission trip plans were coming. She began to tell us how she had 6 people committed, but had room for 10. I asked her what type of place they would be working in an orphanage, church, hospital, etc. Shelby begins to describe the place they're going. It's not an orphanage, they mostly work to help children get better and return them to their parents, but sometimes children become available for adoption.

Then, she says it. The name of the place and Nydia and I immediately looked at one another and said, "That's where Susie's son is living!" That's right! We were in the middle of a God appointment. Just like that our evening had gone from a time of fellowship and fun to a moment that God had been orchestrating for months. Remember I didn't know either of these women 1 year ago and now, I was about to have an opportunity to be used by God to cross the threads of their stories.

Unfortunately, we almost missed it. We continued on with our conversation like what had just occurred was not all that unusual. I drove home and as I lay down to go to sleep, I clearly heard God say, "Are you really not impressed?"

And, that's where I'll leave you, for now. In my middle of the night encounter with God.

To be continued...

Hidden in Christ,
Mandy