This story was told to Mark and me by Natasha and Adrian Paris, who are very special friends we have journeyed with for over eight years while living in Cape Town.  Adrian was the Dean of Men at Cape Theological Seminary (now Global School of Theology-Western Cape) when we arrived in 2006 and Natasha was a third year student in the four-year BA program at the time.  They courted off and on for two years and after Natasha graduated in November 2007, they got engaged.  They decided to be married on Valentines Day in 2009 and have been going strong ever since.  They told us the following amazing story when we returned from the States and I wanted to share it with you. This two-part story is told in Natasha’s own words:

Part 1: An Angel wearing Black Fluffy Slippers to the Rescue

It was a Sunday afternoon in June of 2012 when we decided to go home after church, which is something we never do!  Normally we go to our family’s house for lunch on Sunday afternoons but for some reason on this particular Sunday, we decided to go home first. On our way home we saw a car which had pulled over along the side of the road. As we drove by, I thought I saw a woman sitting there with her head tilted back.  I wasn’t sure so I asked Adi to turn around just to make sure everything was okay. When we pulled up to the car the lady, who was sitting in the driver’s seat, was gasping for air and we realized that she was having a panic attack. We quickly pulled over and jumped out of our car and ran toward her car. I was dressed in my dance costume because I had ministered in dance during the morning service at church. It was a white flowy chiffon dress and I had on my sister’s black fluffy slippers.  Quite a sight I must say! We asked her to unlock her car door and she complied, which was a miracle in itself due to all the robberies and car-jackings that take place in this area on a regular basis.  We then tried to calm her down so that she could get her breathing under control. Once she seemed to be breathing normally, we prayed with her.   Eventually she was completely calm and had stopped crying.

The next think I knew, I was getting into the driver’s seat so I could drive her home while Adi followed in our car. While on our way, she opened up and told me that she and her husband had just been in a terrible fight and that was what caused her panic attack. When we arrived at her home, Adi and I were a bit cautious because we did not know what to expect. An angry husband could be armed with a gun or be in a drunken or violent state and so we prayed for God’s protection as we entered the house.  When we walked through the door, we could see her husband seated in the lounge.  He looked very angry and didn’t even seem concerned when he saw two strangers entering the house with his wife, especially when one of them was dressed in a long white flowing chiffon dress with black fluffy slippers. We informed him about what had happened to her and he seemed genuinely thankful that we had assisted her.

We were just about to leave when Adi decided to take the liberty to ask if we could check out the view from their second floor.  Ironically, they lived in our neighborhood and not very far from our house.  It was only later that we realized that this was the very house we used to pass on our way home and always wondered what the ocean view was like from their second floor, as we were hoping to add a second floor to our house some day. We were amazed at his willingness to accommodate our request.

Of course, it was just as stunning a view as we had envisioned and as we were about to exit the room, the husband opened up and started telling us about their marital relationship and all the struggles they were having. I then took the initiative to be the mediator between them and did a crash-course on “Truth in Love”, which is a conflict resolution method we learned in our theological training at the Global School of Theology. Both the husband and wife began applying what I told them to do by taking turns listening to each other and trying to understand the other’s point of view. Following this simple little exercise, they apologized to each other, cried together, hugged each other, and then we prayed for them. We told them we would pop in again sometime and then said our good-byes. On our way out the door, the husband couldn’t stop thanking us and told us that if we had not come when we did, he would have been gone because he had decided to leave his wife that day.

A few weeks later we returned to check on them and were so surprised to hear that ever since our providential encounter, they had been doing incredibly well. They told us that they hadn’t felt this way toward each other since the early days of their courtship and that even the chemistry in their relationship was rekindled.  That evening we talked to them about the importance of nurturing their relationship and not allowing the busyness of life to take over and neglect their marriage. They appeared to be soaking in everything that we said and were very excited! We tried to see them again after this but for some reason they were always too busy and we never could agree on a mutual time.

When I think back on that Sunday afternoon, I marvel at how God had providentially arranged everything—from our sudden and unusual change of routine after church, to the impulsive decision to stop and help a stranger along the side of the road, who just happened to live a few streets away from us, whose house we passed on numerous occasions wishing we could check out their ocean view, and the way in which the Lord led us to minister to a couple in crisis whom we had never met. What a blessing to see a miracle of restoration take place in a marriage relationship right before our eyes.

The Holy Spirit truly works in mysterious ways and I chuckle sometimes when I think back on what I must have looked like to that woman when I came to her rescue dressed like an angel wearing black fluffy slippers.