Acts of kindness--more uncanny than random :)

Our three-way rendevous in Munich came off without a glitch. Drew and Sarah, flying from Portland, and Stacey, flying from Manila, met up in Amsterdam, per the plan. And their slightly-delayed arrival in Munich gave me just enough time to find my way to the Munich airport before Sarah cleared customs. We were in Salzburg by 1am, but too excited to sleep until 3am. :)

Stacey and I had to be up early the next morning for the long drive from Salzburg to the U.S. consulate in Vienna to renew her passport so that she can return home to the Philippines. The Vienna consulate accepts no applications after 11:30am so we left Salzburg at 7am to make it in time. (I am clueless when it comes to finding my way around Vienna. I'd been there just once, at night, and I'd never attempted to find my way around Vienna's convoluted maze of centuries-old circular streets on my own, much less do so with a deadline.) I realized en route that we had no time to spare, so I phoned the Marriott hotel (in which the U.S. consulate is located) to ask directions. The hotel staff gave me some very sketchy directions and said that "it's hard to describe." So, on reaching the outskirts of Vienna, I stopped at a McDonald's in hopes they'd speak English and be of help. No such luck. The women at the counter did not speak English and were no help.

Then, to my surprise, a middle-aged man in a business suit walked up to the counter and told me (in German) that he'd lead me to the Marriott. How did I understand his German? I'm not sure. I don't think it was a gift of tongues. :) It must have been his mentioning the Marriott by name several times, without making any attempt to explain how to get there. When he headed out the door, I followed him to the parking lot and jumped in our borrowed car and followed his car out of the lot.

Twenty-five minutes and 12-13 turns later, I spotted the Marriott. Our guide jumped out of his car and ran back to our car, gesturing toward the hotel. Then, before I could even roll down the window to thank him, he jumped back in his car and drove off.

By the time we parked and took the elevator to the consular office, it was 11:22am. I apologized to the woman at the counter for showing up without any passport photos. She explained that there was a shop in the lobby that shoots passport photos, and asked us to please hurry there and back. She stayed open late to finish processing Stacey's application; it was 11:50am by the time we left.

That woman's kindness was a blessing; she could easily have turned us away. But the wonderfully uncanny thing was our encounter with the gentleman who took 25 minutes to guide us through Vienna's maze of circular streets. I understood only one word he spoke ("Marriott"); I didn't even have a chance to properly thank him before he disappeared in the traffic. We have experienced one after another act of kindness these past couple months, but none more mysterious that that!

"...Angels are...servants...sent from God to care for those who will receive salvation." (Hebrews 1:14)