A funny thing happened on my way to the WAVES Convention… After a year helping to plan the WAVES Gathering in Sacramento, I was flying from Boston to Sacramento (through Chicago). As I was boarding my second flight in Chicago, I took out a copy of Embraced by the Light to skim through on the trip. A pleasant-looking woman indicated that she would be sitting beside me, and as she took her seat, she announced, “I’m reading Embraced by the Light too!” I glanced across the aisle at my fellow WAVE Debbie who was traveling with me, and we just smiled and exchanged a knowing look that expressed our mutual admiration for God’s planning of these types of divine occurrences. It felt to me as if God were smiling down on me, pleased with my efforts to serve in a planning role for the Convention which was (now) soon to take place.

The woman next to me took out her paperback version of Embraced and told me that she had just received it from a friend who gives the book out to others. I told her that I was on my way to Sacramento for a Gathering of folks who had all been touched by the message of Embraced and gave her a flyer about the public event. She lives in Sacramento and was returning home from a vacation, so I encouraged her to come to Friday’s public event and to bring her friend along. A little later, I went to the back of the plane to use the restroom. There, the stewardess asked me where I was traveling to and why I was visiting Sacramento. When I told her about our Gathering of WAVES volunteers and how the group had stemmed from the book Embraced by the Light, she said, “I just got that book for Christmas and read it!” Two pretty interesting conversations when you consider that Embraced was first published back in 1992!

On Friday night of the Gathering, I heard my name called out by someone in line for the public event. It was Cora, the woman who sat next to me on the plane! And she had brought her friend Wendy, who was the woman who frequently gives out copies of Embraced. How wonderful, I thought — God has used me to help these two ladies come to this great event!