A couple days after my meeting with Gloria, she sent me a message and told me that I should connect with Shane. She has known Shane for years and he is like a member of their family. So, when I got a friend request from Shane on Facebook, I accepted it. Shane works with Bethany Christian Services in Indianapolis. He sent me a message about a luncheon in Noblesville the next week...something about Ethiopia. I ignored the lunch. I’m a busy person. Besides, I don’t know anything about Ethiopia. I’m thinking about beaches in Jamaica.
Shane kept posting about this lunch thing. And I kept seeing it. And it bugged me. So, finally I told Bruce that I thought that I should go...for some reason...and maybe he should go to keep me company. I emailed them that we were coming before I changed my mind. No backing out now. They have reserved our spot and are planning for us.
The Wednesday of the lunch in Noblesville came. Bruce came home from work and picked me up. We really had no idea why we were supposed to go to this thing, but we hopped in the car anyhow and figured that it would be lunch together and we would meet new people.
Okay, so in planning the fundraising, we thought that we should probably have a silent auction sometime, too. We had been brainstorming about who we knew that might have sports memorabilia. You know, signed footballs, basketballs, posters, stuff like that. Those kinds of things bring in lots of money at fundraisers. On the drive to Noblesville we passed the time by talking about which one of our friends might have something sitting on a shelf in a closet or in the attic, or who might know someone...
We got to the huge church in Noblesville, found the room that we were supposed to be in, met Shane in person briefly, and were escorted to the lunch line. Ethiopian food. Okay, we’ll give it a go. It’s another adventure, right? We took our chicken pastry thing and rubbery injera pancake and made our way to an empty table to sit down.
A girl walked over and started to introduce herself, then stopped and said, “Hey, I know you two!” Then she turned to her husband and said, “Hey honey, these are the two that I was telling you about that I met at CAFO who are going to be working in Jamaica!” It was Whitney from the conference in Nashville! But this time she had brought her husband with her. When they sat down next to us, I got shivers up and down my spine and goosebumps on my arms. She said that she had been thinking about us since the conference.
A few minutes later, on the other side of me, a very large black man sat down. And I mean this man was an absolute giant. He was very soft spoken as he introduced himself. We chatted some during the meal. As soon as lunch was over, Shane got up and began to share what Bethany Christian Services has been doing in Ethiopia. Then he introduced a couple of gentlemen who had been to Ethiopia and had seen first hand the work that Bethany does there. He asked them to come up and share their story and answer questions. The gentleman next to me stood up and walked to the front. Tarik Glenn, former Colts offensive tackle. Oh boy. And I had been sitting right next to him.
All through the lunch we heard about how Bethany Christian Services helps and serves in different countries. They do so many of the things that Bruce and I have talked about wanting to do - giving micro loans to women so that they can become more independent, helping keep families together, helping children become adopted in their own country. We knew that we were there to make a relationship with them. And we did. In fact, we met the director of global initiatives that day.
But I felt like there was something more. Before we left, Whitney and I exchanged phone numbers and agreed to meet the following week.
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