Coincidence

 My back to back class trips to Hawaii were marked by three coincidences.  Two didn't seem to have much "significance"--just kind of cool, and one was very meaningful.  But who knows?  As a person of faith, I tend to be less inclined to assign coincidence to random fate.  Who knows how God is at work and what a seeming chance encounter might actually mean?

Two of the coincidences happened on my last day in Hawaii, Wednesday, June 8, 2022.  In the morning for my final class trip activity before I left Hawaii, we went to see sharks in the wild in a cage diving adventure (well more like cage snorkel).  The tour was run by North Shore Shark Adventures (outstanding company by the way--I highly recommend them) and our captain was a woman named Tonya.  

In the cage with North Shore Shark Adventures.

Tonya overheard me talking about living in Saipan and mentioned that she used to live in Palau.  So after the tour was over, we chatted a bit and it turned out that she was living in Palau at the same time that Barbara was there as a student missionary--1992-1993.  Furthermore it turns out that she knew the principal of Barbara's school and had heard of the scandalous circumstances of his departure from the Adventist school there halfway through the school year.  I won't go into the details of that here, but the story is legend among anyone living in Micronesia at that time.  It further turns out that Tonya's stepmom had a business venture with the principal's wife and so knew them both pretty well. It's entirely possible she may have even met a young, 22-year old Barbara Leen! 

The second coincidence happened a little later that same morning.  We stopped off at the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet to pick up some souvenirs on the cheap.  While the kids and parents shopped, I stopped off at a food truck to get some tacos for lunch.  They had picnic tables set up and I chose to eat my lunch the closet one where a family was already seated.  I probably wouldn't have said two words to them except that a few minutes after I sat down we were approached by some street evangelists.  The lady that spoke to us was proselytizing for a church that believes in the Heavenly Mother (as well as the Heavenly Father).  Their denomination believes in the male Trinity and a female expression of God that they believe is identified as the "Bride" in Revelation.  Those of us at the table politely listened to her pitch, complete with scriptural evidence.  We had a little discussion at the end and I asked a few questions.  Though we were not converted, it was a nice exchange.  When the missionaries left, the father of the family seated at my table asked what church I belonged to.  When I told him I was Seventh-day Adventist, he said, "Listening to you talk, I knew it.  We are Adventists also."  Whoah!  How cool!

With the Adventist family from Dallas, TX, who I met by chance in Honolulu, Hawaii

But there's more.  They told me they were from Dallas and that their son attended North Dallas Adventist Academy.  That rung a bell with me, and I told them I had a former colleague who had just taken a job leading an Adventist school in Dallas.  They asked my colleague's name and we were all tickled to discover that my friend Wayna Gray is going to be the new head of school at NDAA.  Amazing that we could have that much in common, all discovered by accident in  a chance encounter in tropical paradise!

And Dallas brings me to my last coincidence.  This one, I've known about for a week or so.  My dear friend Chandra is buried not far from Dallas, in Granbury, Texas.  When I booked the flights for our trip to Hawaii in April, I didn't pay much attention to where we would layover or how long the layover would be.  With the trip running over $2000 per student, I just needed the cheapest flight.  So it wasn't until after the tickets were long booked that I realized that I was going to have a close to twelve hour layover not far from Chandra's resting place.  I also learned from Chandra's mom that Chandra's headstone was finally going to be installed at the cemetery.  The stone was placed Tuesday and two days later, with plenty of time to kill,  I was able to go and see it.  It was sad and beautiful and sweet and painful--all at once.  But I'm so glad I got to go and spend some time remembering my friend.  That coincidence was a blessing for sure.

At Chandra's resting place.