A Glimpse of God's Hand by Craig Hill

The hair on the back of my neck is tingling as I sit here on the plane in Roanoke waiting for everyone to board.  Because I am thinking of what is going on in Dominica between the Lord, Lewis Romaine, and my eldest son Zach.  Something is going on but I am just not sure what.  You may see it too as I describe what has been going on there and between me and the man who baptized me 27 years ago in Texas.

 

Please let me explain.  27 years ago my wife asked a youth minister named Ralph Bryant to meet with me and talk with me about Jesus, whether he was real, who God was, and why I should believe in Him - the usual soul searching stuff.   He and others persuaded me to to follow Jesus.

 

Now Ralph had been spearheading mission work in some place named Dominica, not to be confused with the Dominican Republic, a totally separate island and country, but both are in the Caribbean.  Ralph went each year on a gospel mission to Dominica.  He planned and supported churches there.  Eventually he brought back a preacher from Dominica to visit the church in Alvin, TX, where I was baptized.

 

My wife Regina and I left Texas in 1988, and I've not seen Ralph for 27 years.  But we were Facebook friends in recent years, and chatted occasionally.

 

Now to my Son Zach.  He's been working to get into med school for a couple of years.  He's smart, like his Mom, and he is a Christian, and he has a decent head on his shoulders.  He's been on a couple of medical mission trips with Frank and LouAnn Black.  He's been working as a researcher at Rush University's Alzheimer Disease Center.  For some reason, we can't quite figure, Rush University, Indiana University, and a few other med schools weren't smart enough to ask Zach to come to their schools.  And Zach wants to be a doctor, if possible and maybe serve as a medical missionary doctor some day.

So Zach had heard of a med school in Dominica called Ross University and he applied there.  And he was accepted.  They'd like to teach him how to be a doctor.  And Zach decided to go there.

 

So Regina and I decided to take a Caribbean vacation.  We'd never been to the Caribbean.  And we wanted to see Zach's White Coat ceremony, which is held as you go into med school.

 

So I asked Ralph, via Facebook if he knew the preacher in Portsmouth, Dominica, assuming there was a church of Christ there.  Portsmouth is where Ross University is located.  Ralph told us that Lewis Romaine was the preacher there.  And we introduced Lewis to Zach over the internet, so Zach may have a church home there in Portsmouth.

 

Now for the interesting part.  Come to find out Ralph was going to be in Dominica the same week Regina and I were in Dominica.  Now what are the odds of that?  After not seeing Ralph for all these years it just so happens that we were going to be on an island 2200 miles from Indianapolis on the same week!

 

Ralph, Regina, and I had a joyous reunion.  And it turns out Lewis has a day job as a taxi driver, so we asked him to give us a tour of the island one day with Ralph, and an elder from Ralph's congregation in League City, TX.  Ralph is always looking for ways to spread the gospel, as is Lewis.  And so too is Zach.

 

Zach was able to break away from studying to have dinner with Lewis, his wife, and Regina and I.

 

Now I think something is going on here.  Zach is persuaded to go to a med school on this tiny island, with a population of 79,000.  Regina and I fly there and spend a week.  And Ralph shows up there the same week.  And Zach is a committed Christian, with a bent for medical mission work, with a med school 15 miles from where he grew up that doesn't want him.

 

I just think something is going on here.  And I think God is up to something good.  I just don't know what yet.  And that makes the back of my neck tingle with excitement.  Sometimes, if you look close, and you are paying attention, you can see the hand of God at work on this here old earth.  I do believe.

 

How about you?  What do you think?  Do you get a glimpse of God's hand sometimes?  I hope I am, in Zach's life.