God is a great writer. He always is writing and directing the most surprising plots and subplots. Here is the latest intrigue he has authored in my storyline as my family and I are on furlough in the States.

We were staying at the AFM training center in Berrien Springs, Michigan, and I was out walking early one Sabbath morning on the beautiful, wooded campus. It was about 6:30 a.m., and no one else was around, just me and the Lord. I was talking to my heavenly Father and thinking deeply about our work in Turkey and our future.

My meandering walk along the driveway was interrupted as a car pulled up next to me. A man rolled down the window. “I am a birdwatcher, and am wondering if there are any birds around here,” he said. His accent was foreign. I pointed him to a trail that led down to Lake Chapin and said he had a fair chance of seeing some birds down there. He told me he was an Adventist and was in Berrien for some meetings. I shook his hand and gave him my name, and he gave me his. “Where are you from?” I asked.

“I am from Panama, but my family and I are moving to Turkey to be missionaries.”

I couldn’t believe my ears! “That’s where I live!” I said. This man was the newly appointed G.C. secretary for our territory! He has only two churches in his district of 75 million people on the other side of the world, and of all people he should meet at 6:30 a.m. on a Sabbath morning, he meets me, one of his pastors! I was 5,470 miles out of my district, and the man had not yet even heard of our existence! The next morning, we and our wives spent three enjoyable hours visiting and encouraging one another. This meeting must be important to God, because He went all-out to arrange it.

It is a strange privilege to work for a God who writes plots like this. He masterfully builds drama in our biographies, maneuvering us into key encounters at the precise moments he intends to maximize their impact on our lives. He endows each page with new and growing dimensions that build our life stories into real page-turners.

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