GOD-INCIDENTS

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know that I do not believe in coincidences, but I very much believe in God-incidences, the visible, present-day proof that the Lord still performs miracles. Well, Sharon and I have just been blessed to be a part of a big one.

About a month ago, one of the leaders of the American Chinese Fellowship, in Houston, TX, was talking with her daughter and her daughter suggested that they start an Awana Club for the children.  Let me explain about the American Chinese Fellowship, it was started by a Christian doctor working in the Medical Center, with the purpose of reaching out to the Mandarin speaking doctors and researchers who come to America from Mainland China in order to learn new medical techniques and procedures.  The doctor invites them to the Fellowship, where they receive an authentic Chinese meal and get the opportunity to practice their English and to make friends however; they use the Bible as their English textbook.  This has led to the start of a small Chinese Church in the Medical Center, which averages about 80 people. 

Because of her daughter’s suggestion, the leader called the local Awana Missionary to help them set up the Awana Club.  We work with this Awana missionary as part of the Ministry Team. The Ministry Team trains new Club leaders and workers the basics of how to set up and run their clubs, and trains experienced leaders and workers ways they can make their clubs better.  The missionary called me Wednesday evening, but I couldn’t talk because we have church and Choir practice on Wednesday evenings.  Therefore, I called him back on Thursday night at 7:30 pm.  He asked Sharon and me to start this new club and to Command it as well (the Commander is person who is in charge of every aspect of how each club functions and is responsible for the success or failure of the club as well. Basically, the buck stops at the Commander).  The next night, at 6:30 pm, (less than 24 hours later), we started the Awana club with some borrowed books. Everything went pretty well, we had about 50 kids and approximately 250 adults present that night.

We knew we needed to get some materials fast, so Sharon and I asked our church if we could copy some material so that we can have something for the next week.  The church didn’t want us to copy the material because of possible copyright issues, so they asked if they could pay for our first order instead.  This was an unexpected but wonderful blessing.

We received the materials last Friday afternoon, which very appropriately, was Valentine’s Day. With the new material, I taught the Sparks, which is the Kindergarten thru 2nd grade.  I was able to lead two girls to the Lord.  One of the girls was going to return to China the very next day, so we gave her some of the materials to take with her.  We told her parents and they were both very excited.  A little later, I told the pastor what had happened and he informed me that the girl’s mother had been lead to the Lord on Sunday, only 6 days earlier.  She was baptized that Wednesday, and her husband was there to see his wife being baptized. Several church members talked with him and he accepted the Lord as his Savior.  Two days after that, on Friday night, the night before they returned to Mainland China, their daughter accepted Jesus too. This clearly shows evidence of God’s work in the events of this modern age.  Some people say that it was all a coincidence, God had nothing to do with anything, but I say, no, I insist, that this is a God-Incident.