February 11, of 2022, A young man pulled off his jacket which exposed the 9mil he was carrying holstered loosely in his jeans. Saggy pants, with a light jacket on and high top basketball sneakers adorned his feet. His hair a bit straggly with a set of Beats placed crooked on his head so he could hear what was happening around him while listening to his tunes. He walked into a coffee shop but strangely didn’t order any coffee. He pulled a couple napkins out of the dispenser and returned to his table outside.
I had read a book the previous day called Fear Not which was a book about tactical moves in stressful situations that would save your life. The very first thing you learned was always be aware of your surroundings and always know your exits. I had only read a chapter into the book but there was enough information to pack my imagination full of scenarios and my mind was on hyper alert. Be aware of my surroundings, I told myself.
Shortly after wiping down his table with dry napkins he pulled up a huge suitcase. Now he had my full attention while I pretended to look at my Mac but I was glancing just passed it to see what this young man was doing. Recently just returning from san Diego to Vegas through the airports, you would hear over the loudspeaker announcements were made to report any unattended suitcases. I asked myself, “Why would anyone bring a huge suitcase to a coffee shop?” I was curious as to what was inside. I continued to watch and from his backpack he pulled out a small black box with wires hanging out of it. He then proceeded to open the suitcase and place the black box inside. Before he could shut it I was perplexed at what I saw. Composition books, papers, spiral notebooks, and layer upon layer of….paper. Yet he wasn’t taking any of it out to do any writing, drawing, journaling or studying. So weird.
This was all to weird and out of the norm so I told my friend who I had been sitting across the table from me what I had seen and I was not going to wait to see what would happen next. I gathered my things as quickly as I could and headed toward my van. I made eye contact with man and gave him a whats up courtesy flip of the head even though I was completely freaked out. I got in my van and I started to drive away at the same time he began to walk away leaving his things behind to walk 30 yards away and he lit up a cigarette. The further away I got the safer I felt. I called the non emergency hotline and told them what I saw. I don’t know if anything ever came of it, but who knows what could have happened if nothing was ever said.
I still had some work I had to finish on my computer and I really wanted to finish my coffee so I punched in the new address I was going to meet my friend Xotchil to help me finish the work we started. It was a couple miles away and we arrived several minutes of each other. We sat there and began our work once again. And once again my mind surveyed the area. “Ok, exits are here, and there, and closest one would be the one to my right. I noticed the usual montage of clientele that drank coffee. And people who wanted to be alone, but surrounded with people around them. There was a gentleman sitting directly across from me in a very nice black suit, bald head, beautiful dark brown eyes. A gold chained adorned his neck with a couple other small necklaces. A fat watch around his wrist and very…very nice shoes. I don’t know what it is about a man with nice shoes, but he had some very nice shoes. The man liked to look nice. My first thought was Mafia. But he didn’t look Italian and I couldn’t quite place him. Definitely not hispanic nor European or even middle eastern decent. My options were narrowing.
He was alone, and on his phone. A couple small quiet conversations took place between him and whoever was on the other line. A quieted conversation which was much appreciated compared to others who would get on their phone and talk as if no one was around them and the included every one within a block to listen to whatever conversation being spoken. A few texts were sent out as he would text, then wait for a response and text again.
Then all of a sudden he was up and out of his seat and quickly approaching. He extended out his hand with a book and said in a slight accent, “Hey, this is a really good book and you should read it.” The name of the book was called Cigar Song with pictures of slaves, tobacco fields, a baseball and mitt, the American flag, and the scared hands of Jesus with palms facing up. I was intrigued, not just by the book but just a year or so prior I started smoking Cigars from time to time. “Huh”, I said, “How did you know I liked Cigars?”
“Really? Girls usually don’t like cigars.” He said surprised.
I took the book and began to read the inside endorsement and noticed it was written by Carlos Fuente. Impressive. He was the son of Arturo Fuente who is known for one of my favorite cigars the Hemingway. Although I wasn’t a huge conesseuir of cigars I knew my Hemingway. And if you are going to be smoking a cigar then you better know what you are smoking and how to describe it. At first I liked it because of the name. Hemingway was a writer and so am I so why shouldn’t I be smoking a Hemingway. But now I know that it is a mild to medium cigar with Dominican tobacco and a delicate West African Cameroon wrapper. I actually sound like I know what I’m talking about. Anyway…
I noticed the book was published by Trilogy Publishing which was a Christian Publishing company. The author of the book was a man named Emir Lopez. A cuban. Who was the man standing before me now. Ahhhh. Cuban. Got it.
My friend had to excuse herself because she had a previous engagement and she gathered her things and scooted out. The conversation continued to flow as I asked my next question “I noticed your book was written by Trilogy….So tell me what Jesus means to you.” I wanted to dig deep past the bullshit answers and I wanted to see if he was willing to have a serious conversation, and to my surprise he sat down and began to tell me about his first real encounter with Jesus.
He was on spring break in 1986 in Florida with 4 of his buddies. They drove all day to get there to check out the hot babes on the beach and have a few drinks. Like idiots they didn’t make any hotel arrangements thinking they could get a hotel during the busiest time of the year. The five of them roamed the streets in Florida into the late hours of the night and was approached by a pastor. Long story short, when the man began to speak about Jesus the heaviness that pressed upon him almost drove him to his knees. He didn’t want to be a pussy in front of his friends but he knew something was happening to him as the pastor shared the story of Jesus and the love of christ, still struggling to stay on his feet he looked to his right and his left, and completely blown away, his buddies had already surrendered to the great cloud of power that enveloped them and were on their knees before the pastor that preached the word of God. That night changed his life and he knew that Jesus was for him, and loved him, and that he wanted him.
As he told this story he choked up and his eyes got misty and became very real and vulnerable. Amazing I thought. When someone is this real…this vulnerable…it gives others permission to be the same. And that I believe was the invitation to a true friendship that has been developing to this day. I’m sure our friendship will continue as we watch and wait to see what God is doing in each others lives. Both in a bit of transition and hard places but with much humor and genuine hearts we will both find our ways and at the end of our lives we will look back and be in awe how God orchestrated such an incredible bond and a loving friendship based on the love of Christ.
There are reasons why we have encounters in our everyday lives. It may be for a brief moment, or it may be months, years or a lifetime. How we meet people is always the stories I love. The energy that bring people together. It was because of a book I read the previous week that made me take notice of my surroundings and if I had not left one coffee shop for another to meet Emir. The author of the cigar book was one encounter…the author of the “Fear Not”…how we met…I laugh. Because that is a whole other story. Life never ceases to amaze me.
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