Golden Memory Lane in US (2)

One of the extraordinary happenings were the many unlikely encounters during our stay.  Going into a nearby popular (frozen custard) restaurant which also served chicken and french fries, we kept bumping into people. On several different occasions we were surprised by: a returning missionary who had heard me in 2002, a couple who belonged to the Wheaton church, a family who recognized us from the past, and a group of six who were just entering as we were leaving and who insisted we turn round and share their table while they ate.  Later, queuing up in a charity shop the lady behind said she thought she recognized me and as we listed different churches I had preached in we finally hit on the right one.  With enthusiasm she hugged me.  I guess it's the accent.

But, strangest of all, as we walked down Main Street in Wheaton past a coffee shop a man sitting inside waved at us.  I assumed he was waving at someone else.  However, he chased out of the shop down the road shouting out "Hey, the Quickes".   It turned out to be Dr. David Olford, son of a famous former British preacher, Stephen Olford.  Normally in Memphis, he just happened to be there with his two daughters in their twenties who are in Chicago engaged in graduate studies.

David undertook his doctoral work (on Romans) in Cambridge and for three years attended St. Andrew's Street together with others from Tyndale House.  To my utter astonishment he began to describe to his daughters what those three years meant with such sharp memories of times spent with us.  One of the most powerful, which he said he had spoken about many times since, was when I had my sit-in and appealed for the church to give in faith for a new mission centre in Cambridge.  Anyone reading recent posts will know exactly what he was talking about!  He described in detail what it meant to bring his gift and my prayer with him after he had dropped it into the box.  He said that prayer has never been forgotten, nor the experience of being in the Cambridge story.

I don't know what his daughters felt as their father reminisced with such emotion but Carol and I were truly humbled.  You never know do you?