I'm so undisciplined about blogging...i'm not on fbook (don't want the distraction), so i'm going to endeavour to write short snippets more often of 'God stories' that I don't want to forget and I would love people to be encouraged by.
I was reminded of this story because I just stumbled across this photograph...it's of my youngest, Zoe with one of her best mates (she has one best mate per country she has lived in). Olivia and Zoe lived opposite each other in our compound in Chad. They built great childhood memories together, much like all of the 3rd World Culture kids that live close together in places where their world is made up of endless hours of imaginary games, climbing trees, making cubby holes, jumping over toads together etc. Olivia and Zoe went to French preschool together and I remember Olivia being faithfully protective of wee Zoe who was freshly dumped into the french language. They seemed to take on even the presidents son together if he couldn't resist bullying them. After being fairly inseparable like this day after day for 3 years, Olivia moved to Australia.
Since then we have returned to Australia twice to see my parents...Each time we've returned, Zoe has asked over and over whether she would be able to see Olivia. Because furlough is always fast and furious we haven't ever managed to see Olivia's family who live in the far north of Qld. Olivia's mum and I would try to negotiate how we could meet up, but we had failed to pull it off (its a very long way and internal flights are expensive). Also, in June/July the ozzie schools are in full swing while we're on our longest break. On this most recent trip back (2015), we returned from Australia flying through UK to see Greg's parents for a brief visit enroute to Uganda. One of my favourite traditions in Bristol is to go to a little cafe stand on the docks with my close friends, the Herbs...We were delayed getting there because it was raining first thing in the morning. While eating our breakfast and coffee at 11am I saw this large family walking straight past our table along the docks muttering about getting off at the wrong ferry stop....it was Olivia's family!! I stood up and made a fool of myself calling out to them and declaring to everyone in the cafe 'There is a God...believe me!" They didn't know that we were planning on going through the UK after Australia and we didn't know they were coming to the UK in their school term time to visit their grandparents. If it hadn't rained, delaying us and they hadn't missed their stop, we wouldn't have seen each other! I was then able to call Greg who was with the girls and asked him to come to the Docks pronto without telling the girls why. The emotional reunion was captured on film and although we only had a very short time together (we were leaving a couple of days later)...it blue my mind at how God participated in coordinating this chance meeting. We often bump into people when we're having trouble coordinating our time slots while we're back squeezing everything and everyone into a tiny corridor of time. It isn't the first time we've noted how He can create divine appointments when we're slow to realise them or he can help give back something dear to us that we had to let go of due to this crazy walk we're on with Him. And completely lush that God cared enough to bring Zoe and Olivia back together...Reminds me of a proverb..."Man chooses his paths, but God directs his steps.."
There will be more stories to come and I have resolved to write them more frequently...watch this space! Thanks for reading.
