Angels in Our Midst

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.” Hebrews 13:2

It was a Sunday afternoon and in the college store where I worked part time. I hadn’t had a customer in over an hour. I’d finished stocking the candy jars, completed my assignments for classes and was bored. A fellow student walked up, and she glowed with enthusiasm.

“What’s happened? You look so happy?”

She described how she’d just gotten back from a study abroad in the UK. We talked for an hour on all she learned, how much she enjoyed the people, food, experience. The next day, I applied for a semester in Amsterdam for a comparative social sciences study. My life was about to change.

Journeying with a class of 18 students, we made our way to a studentahuis in Nord Amsterdam. We were told that the floor manager told the mostly male students, “I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is we have three meisjes (girls) coming to live on our floor. The bad news is they’re all Americans.”

The common kitchen was absolutely a mess. My roommates and I bought all sorts of cleaning supplies even though we couldn’t read what the soap/detergents were. We cleaned the entire kitchen from top to bottom, which bought us a little credit.

Then the real hard part came. The Dutch students knew our history uncommonly well. Our dinner conversations centered on who America was and what we’ve done, such as the assassinations of JFK, MLK, and RFK. Finally, after one month, I stood up and said, “You don’t know my favorite color, or my brother’s name, or anything about me. When you want to know me as a person, then we can talk.” My two roommates and I walked out.

The next day, everything changed, and the guys wanted to hold a party for us to apologize and to welcome us to their country. We became fast friends, which helped once I got a job in the bar downstairs. Putting myself through school, I was running out of money fast. I think I got the job because I said I would clean up at the end of my shift.

I did exaggerate a little on the interview. I’d been a diner waitress and delivered drinks to a table, but at 20 I hadn’t been a barkeeper. The big first night came. Tapped beer was the drink of choice. I had never poured a beer. The finished product needed to be a two-fingered head of foam. My first customer got more like a 4-finger foam and wasn’t pleased.

He raised his voice and started loudly complaining in Dutch… I got about every other word. Two of the guys from my floor (did I mention they looked like football players) came on either side advising him to ask nicely. So he did. Now I felt like I was at the OK Corral. The music stopped; everyone was looking at me. Sweat poured down my back. I had to pour this right. I had to. I took the glass, titled toward the spigot, and poured. Holding my breath, I righted the glass and plumped it in front of him, a perfect two-finger beer. Everyone cheered. It’s a moment I will not forget.

I’ve always wished I could tell that young woman how she changed my life. She opened my eyes to see the world from another’s point of view. To live, work, make friends in another country. It led me to travel to all 7 continents, work for an international company, and learn so much from experiencing life with the “other”, when I realized I was the “other.”

And it all started by talking to a stranger. Has someone put you on a different course from a “chance” meeting? Was it an angel you were speaking to?