Vicar Brian Coffey of St. Michael, Virginia Beach is convinced that God uses every unique aspect of a person’s life story to do God’s will in the world. The latest example of this in his own life occurred on the streets of his new Internship community. Relocating from Central Illinois to Virginia Beach called for Brian to “gear up” for spending time on the beach. In addition to a towel, he went looking for a mat in the many shops along Atlantic Avenue in Virginia Beach. At one shop, while a young saleswoman showed him the available beach mats, he noticed that she was wearing an insulin pump insertion patch. Having three young adult children himself, all who live with Type 1 (juvenile) Diabetes, Brian asked her about the pump. She quickly responded with a question, “Do you have prescriptions?” Because of their masks, Brian wasn’t sure that he heard the question correctly and asked her to repeat what she said. In the ensuing conversation, the woman said that she was from Vladivostok, Russia, and received such poor medical care in Russia that her parents were always looking for ways to get adequate medical supplies. Here’s where another uniqueness of Brian’s past fits into the story. In 1990 he graduated college with a B.A. in Russian and East European Studies! Recalling a few Russian phrases, he greeted the saleswoman in her native tongue. He also spoke with her (in English) about her home city in the Russian Far East on the Sea of Japan.
Because of his children’s disease, Brian has been a steadfast fundraiser and active volunteer for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) since 2002. He asked the woman if she had heard of JDRF since they are an international organization. She hadn’t. So, the next day Brian returned to the shop with printed resources from JDRF along with his phone number and email as someone that she could contact in the event of a diabetes-related concern while she completed her short stay in Virginia Beach. A week later she texted him saying that a neighbor had given her a load of spare insulin pump supplies and asking if he could help her get them shipped home to Vladivostok! In the ensuing days, Brian reached out to one of his former managers who had lived in Siberia, a fellow seminary classmate who recently retired as a Professor of Russian Literature and the Virginia Chapter of JDRF. Several ideas surfaced including the option of transporting the supplies in a checked luggage bag. While secure, this idea was complicated by the fact that the young woman would be traveling around the United States by air for two weeks after leaving Virginia Beach and before returning to Russia.
Brian shared the story with his Internship supervisor, Pastor Stephen Bohannon of St. Michael Lutheran Church. As they brainstormed the various options, Pastor Stephen consulted a local international business that had helped him in the past with unique congregational ministry situations. The business agreed to use their business account to ship the supplies – and to cover the shipping cost on behalf of the family!
This story of helping a (global) neighbor in need didn’t involve the entire St. Michael’s congregation. However, it did happen through God using the particularities of timing and circumstance to bring wellness to a young woman living with a life-threatening disease and financial relief to her family over the course of the coming year. Thanks be to God for the power of the Holy Spirit at work through the body of Christ in our seemingly mundane daily activities – like looking for a comfortable way to enjoy time on the beach!
