Lin

God has a sense of humor for sure. 

I felt honored. Maybe a little smug. They’d asked me to speak at the homeschool conference. I’d given the presentation before but decided it was time to fluff it up. Do research. Update. Organize. Presentation preparation spilled over into white spaces of free time in my calendar for weeks. It crowded out things and people as the date drew near. And okay, I got grumpy with my family, but I got the job done.

The morning of the conference I left home dressed in a new outfit with notes and twenty handouts neatly organized in a folder. I drove two hours to the single parents waiting for me to teach them how to homeschool their children. 

I arrived just in time and slipped into the back of a packed classroom. The previous workshop ended and people shuffled out. I smiled and sipped water until the room was empty. I set up. Someone miked me.

I waited. 

An Asian woman sat in the third row. 

She smiled sweetly at me.

No one else came. 

The Asian woman wasn’t even single. 

What? In that fraction of a second my puffed up self image shrank to the size of a woman God could use. I asked her how it was that she’d come to “Flying Solo.” 

"We have an opportunity to move home," she said. They were new Christians excited about witnessing to their family. They didn’t want their children subjected to Communist indoctrination in the classroom. 

I realized my ten tips for success could help a married woman in Asia. So, I gave my presentation then spent a delightful hour helping her select curriculum. We exchanged email addresses and prayer promises. I left feeling I'd become part of something much more important than I’d planned.