Last week, I had a message forwarded to me from someone who runs another Italian site on the Bible, who had received a message with questions he could not answer, on the parsing of a Greek word and the possibility of having Italian or Spanish commentaries on his Windows Phone. Over the next few days, after I replied to the questions, the person sent me some other messages with further questions. On Sunday afternoon I went to Madrid for some meetings with the mission, and to avoid getting hit with a backlog when I return I try to reply to as many e-mails as I can whilst away – although replying did mean I got even more messages from this person to reply to. On Wednesday evening he sent a message to thank me for my answers, and said that if I ever need help he was available at Madrid. So I mentioned that I was actually at Madrid as well at that moment, but leaving the next day. He replied that he was keen to meet me. Usually it would not have been possible, as I catch the first flight out in the morning after such meetings. But due to a strike my plane had been cancelled, and I had instead a 4pm plane. So we met at the airport to talk for a couple of hours. As always with my Internet contacts, I had no idea who he was or what he was like, just a name and an e-mail address. But he turned out to be a “kindred spirit” in many ways, with a number of common friends in the Italian evangelical church.
Why did I title this Not a coincidence, when it seems to be? Because my impression was that the meeting was too impossible to be a coincidence. I was passed Achille’s message from somebody else, just before I was due to go to Madrid. In a decade of receiving e-mail inquiries, maybe a handful of times has someone mentioned in passing where they were living. Usually when I am away for meetings, I have no free time to meet other people, but just go airport-highway-office, where I sit for three days, before going as soon as possible back to the airport. But this time the strike gave me a bit of extra time. So I am sure God had a reason for bringing us together. From talking with him, I found that there are some ways that I can help him in the way he wants to serve God. Whether this is God’s reason, I do not know yet, but I will find out as I follow the way God leads us both in this.