Providence

A couple of weeks ago, an old acquaintance texted about a potential freelance gig with her company. They had outsourced the production to another company, but had been asked about freelancers in Hong Kong, and this old friend of mine had recommended me.

In the process of getting the job, there was a lot of asking myself if I could really do it. There's the day job to consider, and there's also the fact that I've always wanted to work with my friend's company so I really did not want to screw this up. My fear of failure is... immense.

But I essentially asked-slash-told God that, if He didn't think this would work, then please close the door. And He always does when I ask Him, so since He didn't, and since I got the job, I guess this is the right path.

Over the past week, I've been trying to find out the history of a certain old house. And I've pretty much come up empty. Partly it's because I think I'm in over my head, and honestly, most of the time, I don't even know where to begin. And as the day of the report looms (I have to hand in a report for the company to ascertain whether or not filming in Hong Kong, and this location, is feasible), I have barely anything to hand in.

They want to know if we can film there. I have no answer. I don't even have a contact point within the group that owns the house, because I called a friend for a favour (he's good friends with the people who own the group), but said friend has not come through yet. They want to know what the neighbours and other locals think of the house. I have not found anyone to talk to. They want to talk to these kids who broke into the house ten years ago (the break-in led to full page coverage in Chinese newspapers). I haven't found the kids. I don't even know where to begin to look for them - they were minors when it happened, so no full name anywhere. No accessible police reports or hospital reports. And honestly, even if I had their full names, how the heck am I supposed to find them?? Type their names into facebook?!!! To tell the truth, I haven't even been able to piece together a timeline for the darned house. There are huge missing blocks. I can't verify anything. Suffice to say, I feel like I'm really sucking here.

Last Friday, my boss called at noon to say I didn't have to go to the studio until night time. So I went down to Hong Kong Central Library and got out about 15 books on Hong Kong history, that I had found in a bibliography of a book on walks throughout the city, with interesting information, of which most was not verified anywhere. I went through every single one of those history books, and I found nothing on the house. At all. Zip. Zero. Nada. Nothing.

So as I was cabbing back to the studio with my dinner in a foam box (because I was late), I questioned my abilities to do this job (again), and kinda mentioned something like, God, how?!!! not really expecting an answer, but just a little sad that I really was in over my own head and failing.

And then at the studio, I had to nonchalantly pretend that everything was fine, and smile and laugh and get ready to film my boss. And as I sat down to eat (because I was starving, and because boss hadn't finished the editing part, which is much less interesting to film (as opposed to him recording guitars or vocals etc)), his guitar tech appeared.

J is 10 years younger than I am. He is extremely talented on the guitar, and he can very quickly grasp what my boss wants and help him find a certain tone or sound or whatever. J also really likes to eat. So I offered to share, and while he was hesitant at first, I quickly won him over. And I asked him, while we were eating, if he knew much about the history of Hong Kong.

The pause that he gave me before he answered was enough. He didn't know. But he was gentlemanly enough to ask what kind of history I was looking for, to which I answered, well, I need the history of a specific district, or rather, a specific location within that district. And I gave him enough clues, apparently, for him to recall this house. The house that I had never heard of before this job. And because the house had been in the papers and all, I wasn't really that surprised. But anyway.

He proceeded to tell me, that many, many, many years ago, when he was in Form 4 (grade 10), there was this group of girls who used to hang out with him and his friends. And they were the naughty type of girls - smokers, etc - and the boys weren't. It was important to him to clarify this for me. Haha. And then he told me, that one night, the girls had gone to the house and stayed overnight. And essentially, I found out that these girls were the exact girls that I had been racking my brains as to how to find them. Did that grammatically make sense? I don't care anymore.

My reaction, was one of shock. I couldn't actually believe that I was hearing this. I couldn't fathom how on earth I could know someone who knew those girls. And when I told J that I was actually looking for those girls, he was surprised, and then when I pulled out the newspaper clippings of the incident, he was speechless. Well, except for three words that he kept repeating: WHAT. THE. FUCK.

How random. How bizarrely random. How random that I told him about my freelance job - which I shouldn't have considering I am not supposed to talk about my "other work" (my boss doesn't like it) to the people who I work with. How random that he came to the dining area in the first place (considering he was supposed to be setting up the guitars and stuff for recording). How. Random.

So there was my answer from God. When I asked him How, He showed me that nothing is impossible. He showed me, that He knew all along this was going to happen. He showed me that I hadn't made the wrong choice by taking this job. And most of all, He showed me how much He loves me.

I've been in a state of awe for three days now. And while J hasn't been able to reach those girls yet, the fact that this happened... I don't know, man. It's too unbelievable for words.

So I'm going to go out on a limb and say this: I'm headed down the right path, finally. I pray that God will always guide my feet and that I never lose sight of Him. This Providence thing, this miraculous, divine, thing, this is not coincidence. There are no coincidences. It's all God.

God bless you. May you also see Him in your life as much as I do in mine.