While We Ate Pizza…

When Jude, a Scripture Union Uganda staff member, asked me to help lead an upcoming Puppet Construction workshop, I suggested he choose one or two volunteers to purchase the materials and actually make a sample puppet from a pattern we have. Hellen was his choice and so on March 24 we met at the well known uptown “Nandos.” I arrived, burdened down with puppet patterns, prayer letters, and other letters I hoped to write before walking to the Post Office following lunch. Among the letters to be written and mailed was a birthday card for my first co-worker, Mary.

I ordered pizza, Hellen arrived, and our chatting soon turned from her family to her struggle as a newly graduated Med Tech to get a job. Before long, Hellen confessed that the day before had been difficult for her—it had been her birthday but and it had passed without much celebration. She lamented that at 22, life didn’t look very promising and a job in her field (or any field for that matter) looked almost impossible.

“Did you say you turned 22?” I pondered a moment as I fingered Mary’s card and slid the card from the envelope. “Let me tell you how faithful God has been. When I turned 22, so many years ago, I met this person Mary, to whom this card is going. She became my co-worker and helped me get started in the work God had for me…and here we are all these years later celebrating God’s faithfulness.” I read the front of the birthday card, a quote from Max Lucado: “You were deliberately planned, specifically gifted, and lovingly positioned on this earth by the Master Craftsman.” Tears came to Helen’s eyes and she managed to sputter, “I love this…. This is like our devotion the other Saturday during Puppet Practice, Psalm 139.” Right there as we finished our pizza, we shared a God moment. Although generations apart, God’s faithfulness and care knit our hearts to His. Yes, Hellen and I eventually got to puppets, patterns, and materials, but the best thing was those moments at Nandos when God sat with us.