The Scary Woman Behind the Desk - is Actually an Angel

Yesterday I had one of those meetings that I dread. One of those meetings where I have never met the person I am meeting with, have no background information on them, don't know what they think or how they will react to me. I dislike these encounters. I would rather have to meet with someone that I know doesn't like me than to step into the unknown.

Here is a little background. This summer we are hosting a week long mission event into our own city. We call this StreetReach as we are trying to reach this city with the love of Jesus. As part of this week we host a number of evening activities that everyone is invited to and this year to close it all off we wanted to hold a Christian concert in the amphitheater at our local park. When I talked to the people in City Hall they told me that this facility was not typically available to the public during the summer. However, if the event were co-sponsored by a city run group then there would be no problem. Now the question before me was who in the City offices would co-sponsor the event.

I was put in touch, via e-mail, with a lady who heads up part of the youth and community services branch of City Hall. She was the scary lady behind the desk. I had a meeting scheduled for 1pm yesterday afternoon, which I dutifully attended.

So, fast forward to yesterday. Imagine the scene. I am sitting in an office inside City Hall about to ask a government employee if their government office would co-sponsor a Christian concert. The angle I was approaching it from was that we were trying to reach teenagers and she had an anti-drug campaign aimed at teenagers. It could match very well. However, all I could think about was the 'separation of church and state' people who might well jump all over this in a heartbeat.

We greeted each other, she smiled - all was good so far. Then came time for my pitch, or as I looked at it, my chance to cast the vision of what we are doing with StreetReach. I went for it. I laid the whole vision out, from Belfast to Bowie, from yard work to heart work. No holds barred, here we are, this is what we do. As I was talking I noticed that she wasn't frowning at the words, but her eyes were getting bigger and bigger and bigger. She was nodding along with what I was saying and she was even agreeing with what we were doing.

I could feel myself getting excited because I thought, if she gets this then we will get the amphitheater. I finished my vision-casting and awaited a response. What happened next blew me away. Our God is an awesome God and He has all the plans already laid out. The first words out of her mouth were these, 'You know, as a pastor's wife, this sort of stuff gets me excited!'

Yes, indeed. God had set me up to meet with a pastor's wife who not only wanted to co-sponsor, she also took some of our fliers with her to see if any of the young people in her church would want to come and join us. She contacted the lady who oversees the booking of the amphitheater and we confirmed the date of Friday July 17th with a rain date of Saturday July 18th.

WE GOT THE CO-SPONSORSHIP AND THE AMPHITHEATER AT ALLEN POND TO USE TO SPREAD THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT JESUS!!!!

Needless to say I was pretty excited.

God is good, and God is in control. I have more StreetReach praise reports to bring soon.