Just before boarding my flight to Chicago on Friday I got a call saying that there was a chance that my Saturday night performance would be switched to Sunday night so we'd have more time to prep. So I got on the phone with the airline and explained that the only reason I was flying to Chicago was for that performance, so if it was switched to Sunday night, could my Sunday morning flight to NYC be moved to Monday morning. The woman said that I'd have to pay to make that change. I prayed and called again. The next attendant gladly made the switch without hesitation or fee.
So here were the divine appointments that happened on my leisurely Sunday and Monday that wouldn't have occurred had the weather been nice on Saturday:
I got to attend a great Sunday school class and two marvelous sermons, all three of which I blogged (6/13 and 14). And all three of which inform the devotions and sermon I'm going to share at MasterWorks on our identity.
I got to spend more time with Norm Kapp, sharing my experiences in the extra decade I've had touring like his daughter is.
I got to visit the wonderful Billy Graham Center Museum, where there's a display by Timothy Botts, who I performed with in St. Louis years ago. He speaks as he creates his calligraphy.
When I got to the dinner for the Summer Celebration that brought me to Chicago I walked up to the tent full of strangers and prayed that the Lord would lead me to the right seat. Within seconds a fellow from Romania hailed me. I shared what little Romanian MasterWorks student Krisztina Fekete had taught me, and then the gentleman introduced me to Herbert Carlburg, pictured here. He was withdrawn from the Cheefoo School, founded by Hudson Taylor, a few days before the Japanese took over the campus and declared everything and everyone there the property of Japan. Later, they shipped all the students off to the Weihsien internment camp, where Eric Liddell spent his last years. Herbert's family took him further west until the Japanese eventually pushed them to India. Since Hudson Taylor came into our conversation someone said, "One of his great-granddaughters attends our church." Before we knew it, Ruth Kerns, pictured here, came over and explained that she prayed from afar for her four cousins who were interned with Eric Liddell, two of which have spoken after performances of Beyond the Chariots: Rev. Dr. Jim Hudson Taylor, III, who passed away last March, and Mary Previte.
While telling some folks after the evening sermon how much I appreciated the Billy Sunday display at the Billy Graham Center Library one of the women I was talking to said, "I'll never forget hearing him preach." She remembers that he put one leg up on a chair...until he threw it for emphasis. It landed quite near her, which terrified her. But I have the impression she's walked with the Lord ever since. :)
Today's flight home to NYC was also filled with divine appointments, including a fascinating O'Hare to Port Authority conversation about, among other things, this truly remarkable and miraculous weekend.
