Not A Conicidence

Have you ever heard the phrase, "There's no such thing as coincidences?" I have many times, and I'm not sure that I believe that. Sometimes it is just a coincidence that we had the same 8th grade math teacher- nothing more, nothing less.

But other times things happen in life that are surely planned via something Divine- something that is much greater than a mere coincidence.

Yesterday such a circumstance occurred.

For the past couple of weeks I have been collecting items for a Spanish congregation downtown. This congregation has extreme poverty, and many, many, many needs. I did this collection last year and it was quite successful, but I wasn't sure I was going to do it this year for a number of reasons. But then somebody from my congregation called to ask if I was doing it again because she had 20 brand new suits from a co-worker whose husband recently passed away, and did I think that the Spanish branch could use them?

Um, YES. Operation Spanish Branch Collection commenced.

Our guest bedroom has been completely overrun with donations. Seriously, nobody can visit us until these are delivered. And now they are taking over our basement. It's pretty crazy, but in a good way.

The hardest part is contacting the Bishop of the Spanish Branch and pinning down a day. I have tried multiple times to call the Bishop and left messages and such. I tried calling all his counselors, and even the missionaries serving in the branch.

Finally, after two weeks, his first counselor called me last night. This is somebody who lives in our area but has been asked to serve 30 minutes away in the Spanish Branch, and he is doing so. We talked about how serious the needs are, and how grateful they are that we are bringing down donations. In fact, their Relief Society president (the person over the women's organization in that branch) asked him to please invite our family to their Christmas party (where authentic Mexican will be served) as a thank-you.

Anyway, after a few minutes we had the following conversation:

Brother M: "I talked to the Stake President in HR, and he said he was going to contact the public affairs director of your stake to see how HR could help us out more, but then he got busy and I got busy."

Me: "Well, actually, I am the public affairs director of our stake. I just got called a couple of weeks ago."

BOOM. Answer to prayers. We talked about some different ideas about how our stake- which has a lot of resources- can help them.

I'm sure some say this conversation was just a coincidence, but I know it wasn't. This conversation between he and I was supposed to happen. I just so happen to have a meeting this weekend with our stake president to discuss our goals for next year in regards to public affairs. While helping the Spanish branch doesn't really fit into our public affairs, I just so happen to be the type of person who will force things through and make sure things get done when there is a need. It may not be through public affairs, but I am confident HR will in some way be involved in helping the Spanish branch out in the future.

And that is not a coincidence.