the best part of booking is, hands down, meeting people either by phone or email. i am constantly amazed at the connections being made. this one in particular...
it started just like any other day since we started booking, well, maybe a little different than most because our air conditioner had been on the fritz for a few days and i remember being a little on the warm side. i was sitting at my desk, browsing google for churches, schools, coffeeshops, any cool place that might be interested in having us. sending out a plethora of emails and hitting refresh on my browser way too often, praying that i would have at least one reply and be able to put someone on our calendar. in the midst of all that, the phone rings. we have become accustomed to yelling out the area code from the caller id, because we are all responsible for different cities and we know our respective area codes. chris looked at me and said "410," and i sat up straight and said "oh! that's me!" we adjusted the phone to face me and I picked up the receiver with hopes of speaking with a potential contact and screening.
"pray with africa, this is nicole"...
on the other end of the line was Paul, from Baltimore, MD. he got my information from a gentleman, carlos, who is a youth pastor i had emailed the previous week. their church holds a ministry there called "Africa Needs U" and carlos gave him my name and number. awesome! so paul and i chatted about his ministry and i couldn't help but notice his accent, it's one i know very well and love the sound, i could tell he was from Africa...if his accent didn't give it away, his speech and depth of biblical knowledge and reference to at least a dozen scripture verses did.
He told me about a part of his ministry called "Africa Prays," which is held at carlos' church, and people meet to pray about issues and things on the news about the continent and it's people. luckily, we will be in Baltimore for their october meeting, and i pray that we will be able to hold a screening after their meeting and be a part of it. We talked more about Pray With Africa and each other as well.
He asked me if i had been to africa and i said yes, i have been to kenya, tanzania, and egypt. He responded with "asante sana" (swahili for thank you) and said that was great. i asked him where he was from (because he's been in the states for 24 years), and he asked me where i thought he was from. based on his use of swahili, i guessed kenya, and was wrong. he is from nigeria. we exchanged phone numbers and emails and spoke of hearing from each other soon, then just when i thought we were ready to say our goodbyes, he asked if he could just pray with me for a minute before we parted ways, so to speak. my heart swelled and i answered with an appreciative "yes." so, we spent the end of our 25min conversation in prayer. he prayed beautifully, the way i have only heard africans pray, and i was so humbled and thankful to God for allowing our stories and lives to connect and share in something so small, but so powerful.
i look forward to meeting paul in october and sharing our film and philosophy, but more importantly, i hope to share more of those intimate moments when believers drop their guards, and don't let barriers such as distance, culture, background, etc, keep them from being in community and lifting their voices in unison to the one who crafts such a beautiful tapestry of life, love, people and prayer.
2 comments:
Nicole that is SO awesome! I had a brief moment with a Kenyan Pastor just like that recently. You might just read about it in blog coming up... I love you Nicole!
What a cool story! Praise God for encouragement when you need it! I continue to pray that you have more divine encounters such as this one.
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