It's getting boring...

It's getting boring. Every church I have been to I have met someone just one degree of separation away. At Te Puke Baptist, the pastor happens to be a cousin of my host in Wellington. At Te Puke Vineyard, I met someone I had met 10 days earlier in Wellington; we were invited to the same dinner party as visitors passing through town. But it gets more spooky...

Also at Te Puke Vineyard, I met Scot who spent time in Bath and Bristol, and almost married into the Corkey Davy family, whom I know for all sorts of reasons. Then Scott's friend called Warwick who briefly dated a girl called Jude from Bristol.
"I know a Jude from Bristol." I said, suspecting that it wasn't possible to know the same Jude.
"She's a teacher, just moved to London" he added.
"Used to live in a community house in Bristol?" I ventured
"Yeah..."
Warrick stumbled over the surname. I held back my suggestion like a trump card, just wanting to see how absurdly similar these two different Jude characters could be.
A competitive tone had arisen, his 'You can't possibly' versus my 'I bet I can and stranger things have happened'.
I gave the surname and the group fell apart in disbelief. Jude and I were friends for a short while, she used to go to Woodlands, lived with Andrew and Jackie at TCP in Cotham and was best friends with my most recent housemate (and landlord) in Bristol.

It is not really boring. I love it. You gain an extra edge of affinity with people who know people you know. And it confirms to me that God is ahead of the game by the simple fact that the affinity is a blessing and makes you feel less a foreigner and less alone than otherwise you might.