Crazy Connections

Thankful for God's sovereign plan and the way he orchestrates details in our relationships...

*Shantell Robbins, who is like a little sister to me here in Memphis, recently went on a mission trip to Sierra Leon. When she mentioned the name of the town where she was going, I thought of my third grade teacher, Jan Nickel. I thought the name of the town rang a bell as the same place where she had lived as a missionary (moving there over 30 years ago). Randomly (my perspective, not God's) I looked her up on facebook and messaged her (I've never had any communication with her since elementary) to see if that might be where she still lived. Freeport was the same town! She was leading the same kind of ministry that Shantell was going to lead; and she works for the same ministry that wrote the material Shantell would be teaching. Shantell spent time with her in Freeport and now sees Jan as a hero and mentor.

Friday night we had friends from church over for coffee, John and Jennifer Martinez. John is selling some software that specifically meets some needs in dental practices. He mentioned that he had met a man that week from Forrest City. Come to find out it was Dr. Hunter Harrison. I was amazed to hear John speak of Hunter's faith, the discipleship training he had gone through and the way he was leading in his church. Hunter and his family were next door neighbors to the Hughes clan for years, but I never knew anything about their faith or if they even had one. I love knowing that people God had next door to me growing up in Forrest City are now being used by him in Memphis. I was so unsuspecting that God was at work in Hunter's or his family's life; and it made me convicted that I need to know my neighbors better... maybe they know the Lord and he desires for us to reach our neighborhood together; or maybe they need to know the Lord and are thirsty for the life that I have kept to myself.