A New Friend in Kansas City

I have previously posted about my friend Mark, who recently returned from Ethiopia. Mark is a college student, who has recently started to get to know more of the international students on his campus. He has a special interest for the students that he has met from Africa. Two weeks ago he met a young man, named Manuel, in the union on campus who was by himself, and Mark found out that he was new to the states, and still didn't feel like he had many people that were close friends. Mark told Manuel that he wasn't ok with him not having many friends, and invited him to The Gathering, who would love to meet him and become his friend. Mark gave him his number, the address of the church, and told him to give him a call if he needed a ride.
Manuel didn't call Mark, but he did show up at the church on Sunday night. After the service, we were hanging around talking, and Mark brought Manuel over to talk to me. We were talking and I found out that he was not only from Africa, but also from Mozambique. I also found out that he wasn't just from Mozambique, but from Maputo, the city that I will be living in for the summer. Our conversation was short, but I was really excited that I was able to meet him. I left the church, to go and eat with friends and while eating, my phone rang, and it was my friend Jordanne, she left a frantic voicemail that I needed to call her back because she had a story that was going to floor me.
After listening to her message on my way across town to my house, I called her back to hear the story. She had the chance to also talk to Manuel. Jordanne spent about two weeks around Christmas time, with her roommate Patty in Maputo at the baby house. As she was talking with Manuel and asking those questions that you ask when you first meet a person, she also found out as I did that Manuel was from Maputo, Mozambique.
As she was talking she asked if he had heard of Iris Ministries. He replied that he had and that he was actually a product of the ministry. He had grown up in their orphanage (Iris Ministries is a ministry that Pieter and Rika worked with before they started the baby house). In their conversation, Jordanne found out not only had he grown up in the orphanage, but also that he know Pieter and Rika, and was friends with Luis (one of the guys at the baby house) when he was living in Maputo. As Jordanne is telling me this over the phone, my mouth was probably hanging open in disbelief, and "It's a Small World After All" was definitely playing in my head.

Mark, Manuel, Jordanne, Me
It has blown us all away, that circumstances would make our path cross. It is impossible for me to believe that it is just mere coincidence, which Manuel ran into Mark, in the Union at JCCC. There is definitely a purpose and a plan that God has in all of this. I'm glad that we can have friendships like the ones that we will hopefully build with Manuel as he does life here in the states.