my high school BFF

In the summer of 2004, I was serving as a table helper at our church's Alpha Course. This 12-week program includes a one-day retreat that takes place around week seven. The topic of prayer had been introduced a couple of weeks prior (the same day I'd been asked to sub at another table).

At the retreat, our table leader brought up the subject of prayer and we shared our requests in the small group. The leader offered to pray for a couple of the ladies and asked if I would pray for one of them as well. Unfortunately when Angela B. mentioned her prayer request, she'd assumed everyone had known the details of her situation from a prior session (the day I'd missed by having to sub in another group). I asked for details and she told me that her grandma was very sick with cancer and things were not going well. Her grandpa had passed away a year earlier and the family was hurting.

I began to pray and as I did, her situation seemed strangely familiar. After all was said and done, I reached over Angela B. and asked for her grandmother's name. She told me, "Theresa."

"Theresa VonBank?" I asked, the tears already welling in my eyes.

She looked at me incredulously and began crying herself.

Theresa VonBank was the mom of my very best friend from high school. This friend, living in another state at the time, had sent me an email one month earlier asking for prayer. I'd already been praying for Theresa and the rest of the family (which included Angela B., my BFF's niece).

Theresa VonBank has 21 grandchildren. The odds of me connecting with one in a church of 5000+ members in a suburban area of who-knows-how-many churches can only be attributed to God.

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. Psalm 46:10