You can run but you can't hide from God.

As I begin today's blog I do so with a bit of chagrin and also a smile.  I continue my debrief from my cruise.  I am almost done unpacking my most interesting week.  Recounting the activities both the sad and the miraculous my head continues to spin.  This week was anything but normal given just one of my experiences.  Today's read is a bit wordy but since this is my 'avoid' the shrink process, the stories must be told.

I go back to Wednesday night of cruise week.  We had sailed from Jamaica leaving behind my high maintenance attendee. Who, remember, just happened to be a real witch.  I will own that I was relieved that she was no longer under our care.  I was exhausted for I did not sleep the night before, the emotions of these events drained me. There were still 59 other people that I was responsible for and they deserved my best.

Our schedule had been established  months before we sailed.   Each morning a slot for prayer in the beautiful Sky Light Chapel, located on deck 14, had been established.  The prayer time was set for 8:00 each morning, it was optional, but important at least for me to begin my day there.  Little did I realize 'who' really set up the schedule.

Wednesday night has come! I am so ready for a good nights sleep.   A couple ladies asked me if I would be up praying on Thursday a.m.   Exhausted and in over load and I made a 'snap' decision.  "No".  On this day I was going to sleep in. :)   God wouldn't mind, He knew what I had been through.  The chapel was open for prayer but Claudia was not going to be there.  My first 'get a clue' that things would go differently, should have been that I was asked if there would be prayer.  No one had done so on previous days. 

6:30 a.m. on Thursday,  I am so wide awake that I had to get up.  I readied my self for the day but I was still skipping prayer time.   I then decided I would go down to deck 3 where the beautiful dinning room was located, I had not indulged in a served up just for you breakfast all week. This is one of my favorite cruise treats.   

I would ask for a table for one!  I would seat myself with my back to the entry as to avoid eye contact with anyone!  I would enjoy a leisurely, well deserved breakfast served to me.  I would enjoy the linen table cloth, napkins and watching the ship sail through the water outside the window next to me.  I would then begin my day.  

I get on the elevator, dressed but still dazed.  The elevator door opens I exit.  I am on deck 5, the main promenade, not deck 3.  I am immediately met by one of my speakers who says "Good morning Claudia!  I was looking for you to go and pray."  I am nailed!  I will now admit the first words out of my mouth were "Shoot"! My next response was better.  "Okay, let me grab a cup of coffee and I will join you."  Chagrined but dutiful we head up to the pinnacle of the ship.

Our time of prayer was great and needed, truly needed.   As we were winding down, a lady comes in looking a bit frantic and out of breath.  I was ready to leave but God prompted to me ask her if she needed prayer.  As I am asking her if we could pray for her, my initial thoughts were 'Oh no Claudia, you do not need another problem'.  

She says with pure excitement "Do you know Jesus?"  Ouch...we were to be in this room. She bursts out with  " I had to come up here to pray and get away from Jezebel."  Thought: OH NO, not another situation of spiritual battles.  Is this lady nuts?

As her story unfolds we find that she has newly found relationship/faith in Jesus Christ.  Her Greek tradition did not have a place for a personal savior in her mothers eyes.  Jezebel was the code name for her mother, with whom she was traveling.  In true Greek mother fashion this trip had been fraught with guilt and tears over her daughters choice to make Jesus her Lord and Savior.  So many are trapped in religion and tradition missing that neither of these things will get you to heaven or give you the gift of knowing Jesus!

Her excitement to meet other Christ followers was contagious.  She could not believe how God had answered her prayer by finding us in the chapel.  "Ouch, again."

God had literally rearranged my sleeping plans, my breakfast plans, my schedule for this divine appointment.   He had  nudged one of my speakers to pray with me on this particular morning. I still ask,  "did I push the deck 5 button?".  This adventure was not mine on any level, it was The Lords.  This encounter is and was a divine appointment.   The story of this ladies life is still entwined with mine as she grows in her knowledge of The Lord.  This story continues.