Coincidence? I Think Not.

Well hello from LaGuardia airport!

I am just returning from a lovely little reunion trip to Boston, where I went to meet up with my good friend Sara, her newish husband Dave, and our mutual friend Gloria, who happened to be in town. (Sara, Gloria, and I all trained together when we started our China teaching jobs back in 2009.)

When I arrived at Sara's place, she and Gloria gave me the quick tour of the house. "But don't look in the bedrooms yet, because they're a little messy."

Sara and Dave disappeared to a church event, leaving me and Gloria to roam free in their kitchen. Then someone knocked on the door. Hm. Then they rang the doorbell!

"Should we get it?" I asked Gloria.
"We might as well," she said.
"Are you supposed to answer other people's doors?"
"It might be a package or something," said Gloria.

Sounded reasonable. I went down to the entry and opened the door. At first it looked like a nice, normal pair of strangers. Then, once their faces registered on my retinas, it looked like my friends Lisa and Merle!

From Canada!

Lisa and I taught together my first year in China, and now she's married with a little baby and living very far away. I had no idea I'd ever see her and her husband again.

Reunion! Note: Gloria and I are a couple of cool kids, but we are not A Couple.

We were so excited by Lisa's surprise that we had to break out the Asian photo gestures!

It just so happened that Lisa and Merle were in the States for a wedding in Pennsylvania and had decided to extend their trip up to Boston. And it just so happened that they asked if they could stay with Sara during THE VERY SAME WEEK that I had already planned to be there.

Coincidence? I think not.

It was an incredibly fun and refreshing time of fellowship to be together with these good friends and co-laborers. Also, props to Sara "Don't Look in the Bedrooms" K. and Gloria "Maybe it's a Package" S. for sneakily keeping the secret from me.

Spending time with Lisa and Merle was just one of three amazing "coincidences" this trip. The other two involved finding and making connections between ministry partners across several continents and fellowships.

Networking happens in the most unlikely ways.  God works in the most amazing ways.

Now enjoy some gratuitous photos from New England!

I used to be a non-coffee-drinker. Then I lived with Sara. The rest is history.

We saw mansions in Newport, Rhode Island!

We picnicked on this lawn. 

We marveled at this library.

I listened to the breakers from the mansion called the Breakers.

Great company! But we couldn't talk to each other because we were busy with the audio tour.

Nice views from the Cliff Walk along the row of mansions.

I guess there's barely a Boston picture here, but I hope you enjoyed this little taste of Rhode Island. Thanks for reading. :)

A Week of Beautiful Things

Hi friends!  This finds me at a wobbly table in a little food court area at LaGuardia Airport.  Sleepinginairports.net tells me that sleeping in LaGuardia is like sleeping in a dirty bus terminal, but as of 10:00pm it hasn’t been bad!  So far I’ve charged my phone, brushed my teeth, plucked my eyebrows, and lost my water bottle.  In the next few hours, I hope to eat a snack, find my water bottle, read a book, and write this post.

From where I sit, I see about a dozen other travelers scattered singly at tables for two or four.  Some are eating soup or sandwiches from Au Bon Pain (the only restaurant open all night), many are on laptops or phones, and a couple folks are just looking around listlessly. A few half-hearted Christmas garlands are hung from the ceiling, and light jazz is pumping through the loudspeaker.  This place will work just fine.  But let’s think of more beautiful things.

Beautiful Thing #1:  My friend got married. 

A few years ago, I went to a wedding where the bride and groom were in their mid to late thirties.  One of the first things the pastor said was, “Our God is an on-time God.”  Then he paused and let that idea sink in for a little while before continuing the message.  As I celebrated my friend’s marriage, that phrase came to mind.  My friend and her husband had trusted God for many years to provide for them.  And God wasn’t late, He didn’t forget about His kids, He wasn’t powerless to bring together the right people at the right time, and He wasn’t stingy with His blessings. 

So it was fun to celebrate God’s goodness, and spend some time with my friend, and visit NYC.  Woohoo!

Beautiful Thing #2:  I went traveling with my family.

Thanks to my brother’s love of travel deals, he heard of a good miles deal to Turks & Caicos islands.  So my family gathered up a bunch of frequent flyer miles and got ourselves some tickets to the Caribbean. 

My highlights included spending time together, snorkeling, sitting on the beach, and seeing two rainbows and four sunsets over the water.  (My two-year-old niece’s highlights were playing with her grandma and grandpa, playing with her stuffed cats, “washing” sand by throwing handfuls of it into a bucket of water, and destroying every sand castle we tried to help her build.)

I would definitely recommend Turks & Caicos to any of my travel-loving friends.  I’ve never seen such blue water, and it was clear all the way down.  I could tread water and see the ridges of the sand twenty feet below as distinctly as if I was looking through tap water.  Check the photos.

Beautiful Thing #3:  Is about to happen.  Snack time. :)