A Divine Appointment with Teresa and a Double Portion - Part 2

In December, I was about to head out on a mother/daughter trip with my daughter Juliana for the weekend.  My husband prayed with us before we left and then said, "Maybe you will get to meet another Teresa on your trip!"

"Wouldn't that be something?" was my reply!  I really didn't think much of it, and we were on our way.

After our long day of flying, we finally reached the hotel.  I was walking down the hallway when Juliana came out of our room and showed me the note from the maid she had just found.  It was your typical maid note and it was signed by Teresa - yes, another Teresa with no H. 

The next day, I met Teresa, who seemingly didn't speak a lot of English.  I shared my Teresa story with her, unsure of how much she really understood.  She seemed tickled by my story though.

That evening, I posted about it on Facebook.  My friend Jeannine commented below: "Cyn that is amazing. Did you look up what Teresa means? Guess what? My mom's name was Theresa!! She is with the Lord now."

The meaning of Teresa?  It never even occurred to me.  Why hadn't I thought of it myself?  It seemed so simple, yet profound.

Of course, I got sidetracked and I remembered when I was about to fall asleep later that night.  I asked Juliana if she would look up the meaning for me, which she promptly did.

The name Teresa means "harvest" - HARVEST!  I was blown away! "Harvest!" "Harvest" is what God was saying to me when I was praying to take our group of teens out to share their faith.
 
"How epic is that?" was my reply.  It meant a lot that God would continue to speak to me through the Teresa story from back in July.

For Christmas, Juliana had a personalized MudLOVE bracelet made for me with just one word on it: "Harvest."  It now serves as a reminder to me to be bold in sharing my faith.  

Matthew 9:35-38 "Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.  When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.'” (NIV)

Galations 6:9 "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." (NIV)

- Cyn

Juliana's song "A Single Seed" that she wrote in September, 

months before we knew the meaning of Teresa:

A Divine Appointment with Teresa and a Double Portion - Part 1

The day was July 17th, 2015. I was spending the week at Momentum National Youth Conference in Marion, Indiana. All week long, the students were listening to various speakers and learning how to share their faith. The following day, our group would be taking 9 students into the heart of Indianapolis to pass out backpacks full of toiletries to the homeless.

As I was pondering our impending trip the next day, I decided to cover the day in prayer. I started out praying, “Dear God – Please let us have a divine app….TERESA…ointment with whomever you want us to meet tomorrow. TERESA? WHO IS TERESA? Weird, but okay God, if that was from you and you want me to meet TERESA tomorrow, then let me meet Teresa! Amen!” I kind of laughed to myself and went on with my day.

The next day, I found myself on the way to Indianapolis, and again I felt led to pray about our day. “Dear God – Let us have a div….TERESA…ine appointment…..TERESA again? Okay God – let me meet TERESA today if it be your will!” Now I was really chuckling to myself and felt a little silly, but I also had to wonder if God was going to introduce me to a TERESA or not. I almost said something to the gal sitting next to me in the van, but I feared that she would think I was a little nuts. I quietly unzipped my backpack to find something to write on. All I found was the cardboard wrapper to a pack of gum, so on it I wrote, “Divine Appt. w/Teresa today”. When I went to write TERESA, I said, “Okay God – how should I spell her name – with or without the H?” Something within me said to write it without the H. I placed the note back inside my backpack and thought to myself that if I would meet a TERESA, that people would at least believe me since I had written proof!

After a 90-minute ride to Indianapolis, TERESA was frankly the farthest thing from my mind when we arrived. We split our kids into two groups and began canvassing the area. One group went to the left and we went to the right. At each street corner, we scoped out the city and decided which way to proceed. We met a couple of nice ladies, walked a block or two and soon found a homeless man. We gave him a backpack and eventually made our way down the street towards a bus stop.

I stopped at the bus stop and explained why our group was in Indianapolis for the day, and that we had some backpacks to pass out. One lady said, “I’m homeless!”

Another lady exclaimed, “I’m homeless too – can I have one of those bags?”

I smiled and said, “Sure!” We gave each lady a backpack and the one gal told us to follow her, because she would show us where more homeless people were hanging out. As we walked, I looked up at her and said, “By the way, I’m Cynthia. What’s your name?”

She nonchalantly replied, “I’m Teresa.”

Instantly, I screamed, “NO WAY!!!!!”  In fact, I screamed so loud that she jumped a little, and I think I gave our whole group a little jolt with my enthusiasm. “Your name is really Teresa???”

Meanwhile, another lady was walking towards us and overhears our conversation. She exclaims, “That’s MY name!”

Again, I screamed, “NO WAY!!!! You ladies have to stop and talk to me. You are NOT GOING TO BELIEVE THIS!”

I fumbled open the zipper of my backpack and grabbed the small piece of cardboard that read “Divine Appt. w/Teresa today” on it. All the while, I am explaining to them about my prayers. Without even asking them, they both shoved forms of identification at me. Amazed and dumbfounded, I found myself talking to two women, both named TERESA – neither one had an H in her name!

One Teresa was crashing at a friend’s apartment at night. One Teresa was literally living on the street. I got to pray with these precious women. I was humbled. I stood in awe that God not only provided me one TERESA on that day, but that He went above and beyond my wildest expectations and provided me two women named TERESA at the exact same time!

How easily our group could have wandered in a different direction… How easily a few minutes of timing could have caused us to never meet… How easily I could have not even prayed and totally missed this blessing altogether…

I gave the ladies my contact information and asked them to contact me when they each had their own address. I don’t know if I will ever see or hear from them again, but I do know that I will be praying for them. After all, I had a divine appointment to meet them!

 Won’t you share my story and join me in praying for these two ladies?

A Double Portion

 A Divine Appointment

- Cyn