In the wake of his epiphany, Dan was left in a state of profound shock. He was utterly overwhelmed; he had no idea how to start. He had no religious circle to turn to; he didn’t even know a single person who attended church.
A few days later, still in a daze of disbelief, Dan found himself at his mother’s side. Despite what now felt like the weight of the entire world on his shoulders, her needs remained his priority. As he cared for her that evening, a persistent voice in the back of his mind urged him to speak up. It told him to tell Mary-Lynne—an acquaintance whose mother lived in the same residence—that God had spoken to him. Dan braced himself for mockery, fully expecting her to laugh in his face. Instead, she listened intently.
Very much to Dan’s astonishment, Mary-Lynne didn’t doubt him. She must have felt a shared destiny with someone she knew. She told Dan about a friend of hers who had been driving down the road when God spoke to him with a clear command: “Find and save a church.” Her pastor friend followed that voice and found and saved a church and it wasn’t just any church.
When Mary-Lynne revealed the location of this church, Dan was floored. It was the site of his own baptism and first communion—a building that had narrowly escaped the wrecking ball. The “run” was over; the work had begun.
The Circle Closes: A Childhood Reconnected
Days later, after Dan had worked up his nerve, he stood before the church Mary-Lynne described and memories of his First Communion flooded back.
He thought back to that communion day decades ago. He had been a handful, misbehaving the entire bus ride across Montreal. He never understood why his mother had been so insistent on that specific church when others were so much closer. Now, the coincidence felt like a confirmation.
What once seemed like an inconvenient journey now felt like divine choreography. He wasn’t just finding a church; he was returning to the very place where his spiritual journey began.
The Retreat into Silence
When Dan finally entered the church and approached the pastor to share that he, too, had heard the Voice. The pastor asked Dan what God had said to him but Dan was still feeling overwhelmed and wasn’t ready to lay it all out yet. He found himself paralyzed by the magnitude of the mission, so he offered only the name “DIFY” before retreating into a period of quiet observation and study,