The Detour That Changed Everything

In 2018, Dr. Sarah Chen planned to open her free medical clinic in downtown Phoenix. She had the funding, the building lease, even the volunteer staff lined up. Then everything fell through — the landlord backed out, the grant was redirected, and Sarah sat in her car in an empty parking lot wondering if she had heard God wrong.

That same week, a friend from nursing school called from rural Appalachia. "We haven't had a doctor in this county for three years," she said. "People are driving ninety minutes for basic care." Sarah felt something shift in her chest — not a vision exactly, but an unmistakable pull.

She loaded a U-Haul and drove to a town of eight hundred people in eastern Kentucky. Her first patient was a woman named Dorothy Combs, who ran the local general store. Dorothy not only became Sarah's patient but her biggest advocate, opening her store as a temporary exam room, rallying the whole community to support the clinic. Within a year, Dorothy and fourteen members of her family had come to faith through a Bible study that started in that same store.

Paul had plans. The Holy Spirit closed one door, then another. Then came a vision pulling him to Macedonia, where a businesswoman named Lydia became the first European convert. God's redirections are not rejections — they are invitations to a harvest we never could have planned.