Stories That I Can't Explain: A Discovery in China

I'd like to share a story with you.  It's a story that I can't explain.  And stay tuned because this will be the first in a series of strange stories I'll publish on this blog.  Each of these events took place in my own life.

To the best of my knowledge, these stories have not been exaggerated or falsified in any way.  Each story involves credible, level-headed individuals, who, if called upon, would be able to verify the accounts you're about to read.  For privacy reasons, I've changed their names.

Now let's begin.

While this photo may be slightly misleading to this post, in 2014 at Sias International University, the remains of around 90 bodies were discovered on our campus dating back to 375-230 B.C.  This is a shot I got of 骨头架 (Mr. Dry Bones).

A Discovery in China

In 2011, before I left for China, I spent some time with two of my good friends, Robin and Jaime, a wonderfully happy married couple.  Towards the end of our time together, Jaime mentioned that she knew someone who lived in China.  But then she said something that was embarrassing silly: "Maybe you'll meet her," she said.  I wasn't sure if she knew that over a billion people lived in China or that it was the world's most populous country, but either way, it was too ridiculous a thought to take seriously.

 This is us

Now fast forward about 7-months.  I had moved to China and got settled in to my apartment.  I began teaching and meeting all sorts of new people.  Life was good and I was happy.  My experience in China was turning out to be everything I had hoped for and more.  You can read more about it here.

After a couple months, I began preparing for Midterm Examinations with my students (they had to describe people, places, and things).  I had printed out pictures of my family and friends and, for a very small amount of time, had placed those pictures on my living-room table.  During this period of time, there came a knock on my door.  It was my neighbor, Jessica.

 This was the apartment and table

Jessica was a wonderful neighbor and would soon become a really good friend.  While she was visiting, she noticed the pictures on my table and said, "I think I know this guy."  I looked at the picture and saw that it was of my friend, Robin.  "Yeah, he has a wife named Jaime," she said.  I couldn't believe it!  I asked her how she knew them and, as it turns out, she had met Jaime in Mozambique of all places.  Jaime had then moved to America and married Robin and Jessica had returned to China.  And now Jessica was my neighbor!

 This is us eating Pineapple Bun in Hong Kong

I'm not sure if it had dawned on me then or if it was later, but I would soon remember Jaime's embarrassingly silly words ... I know someone in China.  Maybe you'll meet her.  And then it hit me.  Something incredible had just happened.  I did meet her!  I was dumbfounded.  And in that moment, something became crystal clear to me: I realized, with certainty, that I was supposed to be in China.  My coming there was not an accident.

And not only was I supposed to be in China, but I was supposed to be living in a specific city, at an exact moment in time, and in a certain apartment.

Exploring Song Shan (Mountain) w/ Jessica and friends!

Now let me ask you a question: How did Jessica and I find each other?

I mean, the statistics of this have to be off the chart!  Seriously, what are the odds?  Jessica could have been living and working in literally any other place in China, a country of roughly 1.4 billion people.  So how, exactly, did we find each other?

And just for fun, let's say we had somehow managed to arrive in the same city, teach at the same university, and be living in the same building.  If Jessica wasn't my neighbor, and if she hadn't visited my home on that day, we still could have missed each other, entirely, and never have known about our connection to Jaime.

The Great Wall

And if that were the case - if we had never met - then Jaime's embarrassingly silly words would have been just that: embarrassing and silly.  But I'm so thankful they weren't!  Instead, her words were somehow destined to be spoken and I'm humbled by the events that followed.

Something GREATER is happening in this world, friend!  My life isn't random and neither is yours!!

Fun Fact: Jessica and I have since both moved into different apartments.  However, as life would have it, we are somehow - and without intention - still neighbors to this day!

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