Please excuse my haphazard words tonight, because for once, I am at a lost of expression! I will try my best to describe and explain the happenings of this night! I needed to write this immediately as I do not believe I will be getting any sleep anytime soon unless I attempt to put this into words and still try to digest the events.


We just had another awesome Origins large group meeting at UCSD tonight. (Check them out here: http://origins.cc/) I left the meeting tonight – through worship, word and prayer – with an encounter with God that would have to be described in an entirely separate email! At the end of it all, I heard God clearly telling me tonight that He will help me do my part to “feed the world” and that I would do it “one person at a time.” After I could stable myself, I met my friends Ben and Jason at the nearby El Torito. It was “taco tuesday” and boys get hungry after awesome worship and prayer….it’s an extension of the “spritual-ness” of the night! We ordered and ate our food and were having a conversation about our journeys with God when a random young woman sits down at our table!


Picture the scene: three boys (well one young MAN, that’s me, and two boys, Ben and Jason) are sitting in a large El Torito restaurant where people are enjoying their tacos and singing their hearts out in the next room’s karoke bar and lounge. The environment is pretty loud while us three are huddled in a booth over food and a conversation about God and what we just heard at the Origins meeting. Ben is talking, when out of nowhere a young woman sits down next to him. At first, I think that maybe Ben and Jason know the woman. But judging from their faces, it looks like their looking at me wondering if I know the woman – it quickly becomes clear that she is a stranger! The woman then cuts into the conversation and first says, “I see compassion around you guys….” Grilled carnitas and taco meat falls out of mouths and empty stares continue between the two boys and one MAN as we still are not entirely sure what is going on and if we are on an episode of Hidden Camera. She continues, “I see compassion around you and here I am by myself and all I can see is compassion, in your eyes and the way you guys look at me – I see compassion…….” as her voice trails off she mumbles quietly, “I….I….I need help….”
Ben softly intercedes and asks, “Would you like us to pray for you?” The woman pauses momentarily before she replies, “I believe prayer is a sacred thing. To talk about prayer is sacred….” As we are all at a complete lost for words and action, I simply ask her for her name. “There is so much compassion in you, in all of you. I know I need help and you all show me compassion. You let me sit down and the time with you here………Thank You” And before we could say anything else, she stood up and walked away………..leaving the two boys and one MAN in the state as when she first sat down……in silent disbelief…….


I do not entirely know what happened tonight. I tell you that the young woman seemed entirely normal: she did not look, smell, nor sounded drunk. She dressed nicely and actually I can say that she was a rather beautiful young woman…..I just have no idea why she sat at a table in the middle of a crowded El Torito with 3 young (handsome) Asian guys to tell us that she sees “compassion around us.” And usually I have something to attach my experience with insight from God. But I truly truly truly am unsure of this night.


However, as much as I am utterly confused and baffled, I am entirely SURE that this was FROM GOD!! I do not believe in coincidence nor do I believe in random nature……besides after my personal encounter with God tonight, and the matter of the Origins meeting, I KNOW THAT THIS EXPERIENCE WAS FROM GOD! But being the human that I am, I am trying to find “the meaning” of it all….My fingers try to find the right combinations of letters to type as I still am in disbelief and wonder if God can help me contextualize. My eyes and mouth were and are still wide open (the drool dribbles to the right side of neck)! And I don’t think I will sleep tonight!! My best words to describe my current state: I AM TRIPPIN’!!! I spoke to Wendy and Brian tonight about the situation as I simply could not keep this to myself….the whole matter burns inside me. Both of them had very blessing and encouraging words and as I finished my conversation with Brian, he said, “Maybe, tonight you entertained an angel.” From the ending words of Brian, I leave you all with a portion of scripture from Hebrews 13: 1-2:


“Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.”