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When it Pays to Talk to Strangers

It was shortly after we'd moved to Seattle. My fiance and I had just been engaged, and we were struggling to find community in this new city. We were coming from a vibrant church community in San Diego to a place where we had no community, no church, no one to mentor us, and no one to do life with. It was all hard and a bit lonely.


Then, one day, my fiance was on a plane coming from San Diego to Seattle and sat next to a guy who seemed to be traveling with a bunch of other men he knew. He struck up a conversation with her and she learned that he was coming back from a trip to Tijuana where these men had been building houses. They conversed for most of the plane ride, connecting over the fact they had both been involved in Young Life in prior years. By the time they had landed in Seattle, the gentleman asked my fiance if she and her fiance (me) would like to do pre-marital counseling with him and his wife. Pre-marital counseling? With a complete stranger? It was a pretty strange ask, and it took me awhile to get on board with idea.


But for some reason we felt compelled to do it...and thus began a lifelong friendship with Shawn and Anna. Now, when we look back at our life over the last 10 years, almost all of our friends, our church, our community of families we do life and raise our kids with, were all born out of that "random" meeting on a plane - that moment when Shawn had the discernment to listen to the Holy Spirit and the courage to invite a couple strangers into his home. That moment when he decided to be a disciple and offer to make disciples out of us.


So don't always listen to your mom's advice... sometimes it pays to take your headphones out and talk to strangers. 


Regards,


Mike

Teleios Board Member

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