the blessings of strangers

one of the things that i love about traveling are the opportunties to meet some really neat people. everyone has such a unique story. at the atlanta airport, we meet a nice guy who works for Boeing and is headed for afghanistan for two months. he has five grown kids and is super hoping to be back in time for Christmas (he was in Iraq last year at Christmas). We talked about adoption, the Lord, and prayed together. If you would, pause just for a minute and pray that Brian gets home for Christmas. he was a good and bold Christian. and we also met a lady headed for amsterdam whose husband works for an oil company and is in vung tau, vietnam for one year. vung tau is phoebe's hometown. that is the second time in less than a month to meet folks with a vung tau connection. in 2.5 years, i've never met anyone who has even heard of it.

and sat by a neat guy named ben :) on the plane, a banker, who has adopted from here. he was leading a team of people who are here for a medical mission. they will provide care and dental extractions to street kids through a local program led by ethiopians. this is his sixth trip here. the ministry he leads is called The James Project (after James 1:27). abi and i went through customs and baggage with this group and it was awesome to be with believers with the same heart.

and this morning at the hotel's breakfast, greg had gone done first for coffee, and meet a guy from malaysia. he asked why we were in ethiopia and told greg he wanted to get his computer to show him something. when we all went back down to eat, he was waiting with a clip from a talent show on TV about a boy who had been adopted from iran. he and his brother had been born with severe hand and feet deformities and a lady had adopted them. he was trying out for the show and all the judges were in tears listening to his story. we sat and talked with this gentleman for an hour about all sorts of things. he is also in the oil business. abi wrote some chinese and they talked a little cantonese.

yip, one of the blessings of traveling to other parts of this small world is meeting people.

in about 2 or 3 hours, Lord willing, we will see abe and lydia. i told greg that i anticipate being mobbed. in a good way :)

p.s. to care bear and amy -- you're the best.