I feel like sometimes God brings someone into our lives at a particular moment for a particular reason. You could call this a coincidence, or a "Godwink" as a friend of mine shared with our Bible study, but to me it's simply His provision. This has happened in my life more than once, and I want to share just a couple of those stories with you. In college I studied abroad for a semester in Santiago, Chile. I had a fabulous time and while it was a time of incredible growth with the Lord and met a I few lifelong friends, it was also a difficult time for me. I felt lonely at times, I struggled with fear, I had bouts of homesickness, and missed my soon-to-be fiancé (this was before Skype!). My host family was nice, but I didn't really feel at home with them.
Finally I found a church, one that a college friend had suggested. It was a small Calvary Chapel church plant, and I looked forward to taking the Metro (the subway) downtown to where they met a couple times a week. I met the most wonderful people there, including a Chilean woman whose wedding I was able to attend while I was there, and who I still talk to occasionally.
One Sunday I met a young couple at church from America. Luis was Chilean, but his wife Kellie was a gringa from California. They lived in Maui, but had been traveling through Chile for the last few months, visiting his family and surfing (Luis was a professional windsurfer!).
Kellie and I immediately connected, finding random things in common, and just feeling that connection that you feel with certain sisters in Christ. I spent as much time as possible with Kellie & Luis for two weeks. When I met them, that was all the time they had left in Chile.
I see God's fingerprint all over this chance meeting. While I only spent two weeks with Kellie and her husband, it not only renewed my excitement for being in Chile, and brought me a strangely familiar friendship just when I needed it, but it was also a learning time for me to be around a young, married couple just a few months before I would get engaged.
Sadly, I lost touch with these friends but I just found them on Facebook finally! But I know that it was just a glimpse of the Lord's provision, an example of Him giving me who I needed, a kindred spirit if you will, at exactly the right time.
To be continued...
Please share any chance encounters you've had, or times when God brought you just who you needed!
