A Sense of Adventure

One day as I was walking home from something (probably work), I went a slightly different route. As I was moving along, on impulse I asked God for a little bit of adventure. "My life feels a little boring right now", I thought. "Why not spice things up a bit?" So I asked, and I immediately started looking for what the adventure would be. When I saw the homeless woman I had made friends with a week or so ago in church, it was as if I had known all along that that's all my adventure ever could have been in this moment. I went over to talk with her and see how she was doing. The time before when I had seen her I had been rushing off to catch the metro to work and we hadn't had time to stop and chat. Now, however, I was able to stay and we talked for a bit. She told me about her struggles and her joys, and I promised to keep her in my prayers.
 I wanted to leave my number with her but I didn't have a pen! At first she didn't believe that a teacher coming home from work wouldn't have a pen (I don't blame her...) but my sincerity and generally open nature in the end convinced her. Anyone who gets to know me in any depth knows that going to work without a pen is just the sort of thing I'm capable of doing. But then, God covers us and any writing I needed to do, a pen always showed up from somewhere.

But not this time. We expect however, that the next time we run into each other I will have a pen and we will be able to exchange numbers. (Her phone wasn't working at that moment, if you're wondering why we didn't just exchange numbers using our phones.)

So, for those reading this blog, please pray for my new friend Nancy. She is a refugee of the conflict in Libya, though she is originally from Nigeria. She has refugee status and all the legal documentation that goes along with it, but she has found life in Italy to be incredibly difficult, and would really love to be able to start over in France. She left the refugee camps because of the horrible way the refugees were treated. In her own words she says, "They treated us like animals!" Please, let us ask God for a miracle for her. She needs to find work, a place to stay, an affordable way to get back in contact with her family in Nigeria, and a supportive Christian community to help her on her walk with God.

I have offended her, I think, by always offering to get her something to eat or trying to give her things. She seems to me to be a person for whom independence is important, and she struggles a lot with adjusting to living on the streets. In Libya, she says, life was good. If things continue like this for much longer increased consumption of alcohol may inhibit her from moving forward.

I believe that miracles happen around us each and every day, even in our own lives, and so often we don't even realize or thank God for them. So I thank God in advance that Nancy will be taken care of, that alcohol won't become a problem, and that God will bring her where she needs to be in the way and time she needs to get there. Amen.