What are the Chances?
a Saturday story
[On Saturdays I like to share a story from life. Sometimes there is “moral to the story,” and other days they are just stories]
After my teaching partner and I met at the Holiday Inn (refer to last Saturday’s tale of misadventure), we ventured to a nearby McDonald’s for dinner. Nothing like a taste of the familiar when you’re a world away. Afterward, we rested up for what we knew would be a long bus ride to a smaller, remote city where we’d spend two weeks facilitating a course on Old Testament Survey.
The politics of the region and our mission's discreet nature meant communication with our national partners was intentionally sparse, often bordering on clandestine. As we boarded the bus, we had little more than an agreed-upon city as our meeting point. Throughout the journey, my partner made several attempts to contact our hosts, but the phone remained as silent as a tomb.
Hours later, the bus rolled into the city. We stepped off, backpacks and briefcases in tow, looking like two misplaced travelers in a spy novel. “Now what?” I asked. My partner scanned the scene. Across the street, like a beacon of greasy hope, stood a KFC.
“Let’s head there,” he said. “We’ll grab something to eat and figure out a plan.”
It wasn’t a bad idea. Fried chicken and Coca-Cola might not provide divine wisdom, but they were bound to lift our spirits. We ordered small meals and settled into a booth by the window, overlooking the bustling street. As we began brainstorming our next steps, our English conversation caught the attention of the booth behind us.
Before I had time to take another bite of chicken, a smiling face peered around the edge of the booth. “Oh, there you are!”
There they were—our national partners, seated just a few feet away in the same KFC, equally baffled about how to find us. Their phones had been compromised, forcing them to change numbers and go silent for security reasons. They had been sitting there, deliberating their next move, when our voices carried across the room and solved the problem for them.
God had done what GPS, cell phones, and all our planning couldn’t.
What are the chances?
With God, they’re more than pretty high—they’re inevitable.
Imagine that.
