The Most Bizarre Day, To Us

In the next few days, I'm hoping to share several stories via the blog, I thought this one should be the first due to its randomness. We called this day the most bizarre ever because it was just that, at least to the four of us that is how it seemed to be.

We started out that morning at the Muddy River Bus Station (I have no idea the station's real name, I think Brian coined it that and yes, it was incredibly muddy) to head out to a new town. After some new experiences with breakfast and bubble tea, we were on our way. Just five or so minutes after we had arrived into the new town, we met a nice man who asked if we had been there before and offered to show us around. Finally, a person of peace. I was so excited. He showed us around town, and took us down by the sea. We were even able to pray over a temple. After a while he asked me if we wanted to go see/do something. He kept using the same word over and over and for the life of me I couldn't understand what this word was. But he was willing and I thought, why not? Long story short, the word I couldn't understand was a special tourist attraction and we got the tourist scam.  Complete with a long car ride to the middle of nowhere, don't worry it was round trip and tourist prices. In addition to that the man requested we pay his gas and we ended up "wasting," the whole day, sightseeing. Not exactly in my plan book. On the drive back, I began to share the Story with our tourist guide and he quickly let me know he wanted no part of our beliefs. Talk about frustration! Our person of peace turned costly tour guide now wanted nothing to do with the greatest Story. We were all confused and frustrated. Where had we gone wrong?

After getting back to our base town and 3 attempts to break lose from the "tour," we finally ended up eating a very late lunch and going back to the hotel to rest just a bit. After resting and rallying what little determination we had left we headed out to prayer walk our base city some more. After several hours, it was getting late and one of our guys mentioned he was hungry again. Leave it to guys to get hungry, right?! So after several attempts to find a bbq type food stand, we were left with no other choice but a street vendor with fried noodles. I try my best to stay away from street vendors when not living in country because you just never know if they are going to make you sick, etc. But when you have no other choice and the troops are getting restless, you do what you have to do.

As we were eating noodles we notice a bunch of people dancing at the end of the alley. An exercise that is loved in this country and can often be seen in the evenings. I told the group we had to go check it out and maybe even join in. So there we were at the end of a dark alley way watching the dancing. I convinced Danielle, the other girl on the team to join in with me and we made our way to the back of the group. Someone graciously brought out two chairs for the guys to sit on and the fun began. We only danced one dance and quickly made our way back up to the front of the crowd where the guys were sitting. That's when I saw it. A simple wooden cross on the wall inside a house hanging above a picture of the Savior. Believers. I quickly cornered the grandmother sitting on the porch of the house and asked if they were Christians. She affirmed they were.  A crowd of nosey neighbors and children were gathering so I asked if we could return tomorrow to visit and she said yes. As we were walking back toward our hotel I was quietly pondering the whole day and all the events that led up to that moment, so much so that I almost forgot to tell the rest of my team the conversation that had just happened. Needless to say we were all ecstatic.

Had we not spent most of our day with our shady tourist guide, we wouldn't have eaten a late lunch. Had we not eaten a late lunch, we would not have skipped dinner and been so hungry that evening. Had our group actually found the local version of BBQ we would not have eaten from the street vendor at the entrance to the alleyway. Had the street vendor not been at that specific location we would have never seen the dancing. Had we not seen the dancing, we would have headed back to our lodging and never joined in for that one dance. Had we not danced then our other two teammates who not have been sitting in chairs at the exact angle that we need to walk in order to see a cross inside a home that just happened to have their large front doors open...

Had all those little steps throughout the day not fallen exactly as they did in the exact timing, we would have never seen the cross that led to meeting with that family the following day.

The most bizarre day to us really wasn't bizarre at all to the one who knows all and sees all and plans all things.

"Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand." Proverbs 8:21

Beautiful Feet