They Turned Up Again
Spiritual serendipity
The next time I saw bee-eaters, following my West Kilimanjaro experience, wasn’t until over four years later, in early December 2008, while staying at The Kingfisher lodge near Jinja, Uganda.
Our whole Uganda mission squad was there for a three-night annual retreat. I was expecting an interesting few days, not least because Eden and I were planning to float the idea of both of us travelling to Tanzania in early January, and we had no clue how our colleagues would respond.
At that stage we’d only met a few times during work-related visits to each other’s mission stations, nearly fours drive apart, but we’d chatted during events like volleyball games or group lunches after church. Similar outlook and interests made for easy conversing.
She’d heard from others that I’d worked in Tanzania. The next volleyball match after that she’d asked me for a lift back to her digs so she could tell me in private about her sponsoring a Tanzanian girl through Compassion International for seven years. They’d built a close relationship through their letters, and Eden had been praying that God might somehow help her visit her penpal before she had to head back to the States next March.
I’d said that if any chance to go came along she should grab it. I could supply her with lots of good contacts there, and help her decide where to go and how best to get about. Best sightseeing opportunities etc.
What I never expected was having an official reason to go myself.
Not long after I’d started working in Mbale, my senior expat colleague told me my three-month tourist visa would expire before the mission’s application for a new NGO identity would be approved.
They didn’t want me getting a work permit under the old NGO status as that would cause problems in the future for sure, but the new NGO registration had already dragged on for over four years with no sign of being resolved anytime soon.
So in late November he’d told me I must duck out of Uganda briefly and come back in on a renewed tourist visa. Hopefully another three month one. He suggested crossing into Kenya in early January to stay five or six days in Kisumu, right on Lake Victoria. But I’d no desire to visit Kenya alone.
So I asked if I could visit my friends in Northern Tanzania instead. Some of them were doing interesting farming projects that might be useful for updating my own work brief. Plus I’d cover the extra cost and subtract the extra time from my annual holidays. It made sense to the mission and was approved.
Two days later I remembered what Eden had shared weeks earlier. I found myself thinking, what are the chances this opportunity isn’t from God?
First, a totally unexpected opening for me to go.
Second, a godly young woman who’d been praying she’d finally be able to meet and encourage another young Christian woman she’d known by distance for seven years.
Third, having lived there for nine years, I knew Tanzania better than anyone else our mission was likely to be connected to.
Fourth, I reckoned I’d enjoy having her along, given what I’d already seen of her character and humble but adventurous nature.
So I emailed her to say maybe Aslan was on the move and might be about to do something super special for her and her African friend. A lot of other things would have to fall into place, so you better keep praying.
Late in the afternoon on conference check-in day I was hanging down at the shore of Lake Victoria, chewing all this over while watching the various birds who were out and about — cattle egrets preening, a pied kingfisher helicoptering, marabou storks stalking. All carrying on as only birds do.
As I finished sharing my thoughts with Jesus and stood to return up the low hill towards the lodge, I saw the largest flock of the biggest sized bee-eaters I’d ever seen zoom in to perch on the only big shade tree nearby.
I carefully edged closer to observe them and get a quick count. More than two hundred. Wow!
Beautiful things, chattering noisily while constantly perch swapping. I wondered whether this large tree might be their regular nightly roosting spot. Twenty minutes later, as dusk dropped in, they suddenly lifted and headed directly south over the lake while gaining altitude until I could no longer make them out in the distance.
Gone.
South towards Tanzania. If that was their destination, which I doubted due to the huge distance involved, there must be an island along their flight path.
It was then I remembered my last encounter with bee-eaters.
So I asked God if He was up to something again. He seemed to say yes, but I knew I wanted to believe it so didn’t feel like trusting my hearing overly much.
As it turned out, He was inviting me back to Tanzania. And bring a friend.
God moved in some remarkable ways clearing away obstacles different folk threw up that we thought insurmountable. Some only removed at the last hour. Our resulting wonderful ten-day trip became a real His-story.
Eden met her pal Elizabeth. Tears of joy and all that.
I got to greet familiar faces and visit the fabulous old haunts I still missed.
My closest Ugandan workmate came with us. He was a great help with the huge driving load and dealing with the mechanical issues the old four wheel drive Toyota Carib gave us. He also learnt a lot about me, and about new-to-him farming ideas and practices through meeting the people I’d worked with over my years there and through inspecting their current projects. This built a solid level of trust between us that was a real boon to our work upon our return to Mbale.
Within days of our return to Uganda, the new NGO approval finally came through, clearing the way for the proper work permit process to begin.
Multiple benefits. God is the best organizer!
I can’t speak for others, but I do know this: in all the many times I stayed at The Kingfisher over the next eighteen months, I never saw even one single bee-eater, nevermind a flock of over two hundred, again despite keeping a sharp lookout.
Maybe you’d call that coincidence?
I don’t.
Those birds were one more reminder that God my Father knows how to encourage His children when they’re standing on the edge of something bigger He is lining up. He’s like “Hey! Stay sharp, I’m working on something for you…”
Not the full plan reveal.
Just enough to encourage you not to quit when what you thought He might be doing seems a vain hope or lost cause due to the machinations of those with the power and inclination to scuttle your dreams.