Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Divine Appointments



What is a “divine appointment”? It’s simply this:

God arranges circumstances to bring people who want to know about Him to those who can tell them about Him.

My partner and I going out on outreach
So it’s a Divine Appointment.

All our students are taught to pray for divine appointments – to pray that God will bring them to someone who wants to know about Him. I know they do this regularly, because the stories they bring back with them from outreach reveal the many divine appointments God is arranging for each of them.

PAFCOE is an international school that accepts students from all countries around the world, as long as the student speaks English. Each session, we have a few students from other countries – not from the Philippines and this session is no exception.

As I was leaving the church, getting ready to go home one day after outreach, I met our lady student from China. She was so excited to share a story of what happened on their outreach. This is the story she was so excited to tell me about:

“Since we were distributing flyers for the health expo, we were transferred to a different territory than the one we usually worked in. As we were going door to door, we met a Chinese couple. Usually my partner did the talking, since I don’t speak Tagalog, but this time, I saw that they did not understand Tagalog and I started talking to them in Chinese and they understood! I talked with them and told them about the health expo and invited them to attend. They were very interested in it but told me why should they come if they didn’t understand anything? (They didn’t speak English or Tagalog – just Chinese.) I promised them that I’d translate for them if they would come. I was so excited that of all the territories my partner and I were assigned a place where there were several Chinese people living! And God brought us together and I could share with them! The next day, I went to the market to buy some things and met my Chinese friends again and they promised me they would attend the meetings. God is so good!”

Definitely a divine appointment! Here’s another divine appointment from another student:

 “God really gave us divine appointments this week. One day, we knocked on the door and when the lady answered, she was really interested in what we were saying. She then told us that she watches 3ABN regularly and we talked for awhile. Then we invited her to the health expo and the prophecy seminar and she said she would try to come. I’m so happy for God’s leading us to that lady!”

Our lady students waiting for a jeepney
Another divine appointment! Here’s the story from another student:

“I was so inspired by that old man with whom we did a survey. He and his wife were so kind and didn’t mind giving us their time to listen to what we were sharing. Then he confessed that he is a smoker and would like to quit, but doesn’t know how to stop. My partner and I offered to tell him in 20-30 minutes a few tips for how to stop smoking the next time we come back. Hopefully next week, God will help us to lead him to stop smoking.”

And yet another one:

“Last Thursday, while we were handing out flyers for the health expo, we met a man who asked what religion we were. I was so thankful to God for the long uniform skirt we have because it was because of our long skirts that made him interested in learning about what we believe. He told us he was curious since we did not wear any jewelry and were wearing modest clothes. Then he asked us to briefly explain what we believe, which we did. After that, he told us that he is searching and wants to follow the Bible and learn more about our beliefs. God brought us in contact with yet another person searching for Him!”

Sometimes God’s divine appointment leads us to people who have influence over others, like this one:

“My inspiring experience during outreach is about a woman who had so many questions for us. Questions like – who are you? From where did you come from? Why are you here? After we had answered her questions, she was obviously satisfied because she told us to call her anytime we needed anything in that section of town because she is the one in charge of all the youth in the place! Truly God works in amazing ways!”

And one more:

Some of our male students heading out to find divine appointments.
“It’s so amazing how we met one of our interests. Her father is dying and this forced her into a circumstance to work to help her father and the rest of the family, as the bread-winner. Because of these circumstances, she was led to where she is and is so thankful to God that He helped her through it all and got her the job she has now. Because she was brought to the city to work, we met her out on outreach and were able to share with her. Praise God for arranging circumstances to bring us together long before we ever got to her place!”

And these are just a few of the many divine appointments that God is arranging for our students here at PAFCOE!

Is there a divine appointment for you today? Probably so! Just ask God to show it to you and you will be amazed what He works out to bring someone else to Him! 

Stay tuned for more stories – coming soon!