(12/12) “Last week we received a visit from one of our favorite...

(12/12) “Last week we received a visit from one of our favorite customers. Her name was Janet. And she walked right in the front door, which surprised me. Because it wasn’t something she’d normally do. Janet usually ate her meals alone in the back, away from the other customers. But on this day she seemed to be excited about something. She walked straight up to the register, and leaned over the counter. ‘I’m in remission!’ she shouted. And immediately I started to cry. I thought back to the day that I’d first met Janet. It was just a few weeks after we’d opened the restaurant. And we were having one of those days when it felt like nothing was going to work. We hadn’t had a customer all day. I was working all alone in the kitchen, and I was feeling depressed. But suddenly I heard the cash register ring and Sebastian passed me an order for golden milk, without the coconut oil. It was an unusual order, so I went out to find the customer. Just to learn about her needs, and maybe share a little of my research. I found her sitting all alone in the back. She seemed a little timid. Like she was frightened of something. And right as I introduced myself, she began to cry. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘But I just found out that I have cancer.’ My heart broke for her. Because I knew exactly how she was feeling. I’d been there: that deep hole, that darkness, where nothing makes sense. And I wanted so much to comfort her. My English was very bad at that time, but I tried. I sat down next to her, and I tried to share the story of my family. I told her about all the things we’d been through: the sickness, the heart attack, the bankruptcy. I told her about all the times when it seemed like we had no hope. And we felt like giving up. But always a path appeared. ‘God was always sending us signs,’ I told her. ‘But in the moment we were too stressed to see them.’ And at that point I also began to cry. And I really hate to cry, but I began to cry. Because I was telling her all the words that I needed to hear. It’s like I was talking to a mirror. ‘You are going to heal,’ I said. ‘But you have to believe.’”