Chance in the Alfama

So my dad and I are wandering the Alfama in Lisbon on our second day in the city, right? What you need to understand about the Alfama is that it was built by the Moors who had invaded from Northern Africa. The Moors had developed an architectural style of winding, narrow streets with taller building walls creating the shade that protected them from the heat of the African sun. This type of protection wasn't necessary in Lisbon, but the Moors built what they were used to after they conquered the area.

Now that I've explained the Alfama and its winding, crazy streets, you'll understand why this photo is all the more amazing. Like I said, my dad and I were wandering around the Alfama, doing our best not to get lost. We exited one street and ended up on another. My dad looks over and sees a couple of guys in white shirts and jokingly says, "Hey, look: missionaries." He didn't think they were, but I could tell by their bag that they were. I thought, wouldn't it be funny if one of them were Chance (my cousin)? But I thought he was in the Algarve or something, so I didn't think anything of it until one of the elders turned his head and it was my cousin Chance. So I screamed out his first name--which he probably hadn't heard face-to-face in nearly 24 months.
Talk about a shock. It was seriously the coolest thing, though. Chance is a great guy and running into him was a blast. It actually happened twice that night. He was right at the end of his mission--about 2 weeks away from being done--and he totally contacted my dad right there, smoothly working in the idea of his going to church the next day. It was great.

The whole trip was like this, things serendipitously working out to perfection.
This is one of my favorite pictures because of what it stands for to me. I felt the whole two weeks that we were in Iberia that we were being watched over and protected. But even more than that, I felt like Someone was making sure that it'd be a wonderful trip. How cool is that, that He would care enough about our trip to Iberia that He'd make sure that it all ran even better than we planned. Seriously.