Chance or Providence? God can stretch across borders
By: Missionary Team
I have always struggled to get up and talk to people after mass. My desire is to sit there and soak it in, think about what just happened, and say some prayers in private. But I had been working on getting up and encouraging people after mass, so that is what I did this particular day. Unsure of who to talk to, I just went to the door and held it for people. One lady saw my shirt and began asking me questions about the ministry I was a part of. Before I knew it, another lady joined in the conversation.
I began to talk to them about Hard as Nails and how we were a traveling Catholic Evangelization group. At the time we were in Baltimore Maryland, and our next stop was Charlotte, North Carolina. “Oh,” said one of the women. “My son lives there.” I went on to say that one of the things we do as a ministry is getting meals with different people to encourage them. I asked if she thought her son would be interested. “That would be a miracle,” the woman replied, “But I will give you his number and you can give it a shot.” So I did. A few weeks later when we arrived in Charlotte, I sent the woman’s son (we will call him Brendan) a text explaining that we met his mom in Baltimore and heard he might be interested in getting a meal. He took a little while to respond, but we were met with enthusiasm on his end and we arranged a time to come over to his place for dinner.
Until that point, we did not have any real idea why that mom had been pretty skeptical about us being able to get a meal with her son. But that became clearer as we got to know him over the course of the dinner. Brendan was struggling a lot. He was anxious, depressed, and did not practice the Catholic (or any) faith despite being raised in it. He was also curious, and this was the main reason we were over his place. From the questions he asked, another missionary and I were able to talk about our personal journeys towards the Lord as well as explain why we believe what we believe as Catholics.
At the end of our conversation, we asked Brendan “Do you see yourself doing anything different in your life next week.” He said “I’m gonna be honest with you guys, I’m probably going to be doing the same stuff next week as I’m doing today. But don’t think this was a waste of time. It was really powerful to see people my own age talk about the faith like you guys did. There was definitely a seed planted. Who knows where this is going to lead.”
Why do I write about this? In the end, no conversion happened and the guy we met with openly revealed that he would be living the same way. I write for two reasons. Reason 1, always pursue the Lord and He will create wild opportunities to bring His name to people. Who would have thought that a random conversation after mass in Baltimore would lead to a potentially life-changing encounter in Charlotte? Reason 2, the Lord does not care about the results, so long as you put your whole heart in. I do not know what effects our conversation with Brendan had, but I know both of us gave it our all while we were talking to him. In the end, God is responsible to set these situations up and bringing them to fruition. All we have to do is be willing to say “yes” and trust in His providence.
