How a visit to the Presbyterian church resulted in the consumption of bastourma (a true story)

As you may or may not know, today was our fourth week of church hopping. Early in the week, we had decided to visit a certain Presbyterian church near us because it seemed like it had a lot of potential to be a good match for our needs and beliefs. We saw on their website that they had two services: one at 8:30 and one at 11:30. We decided to go for the 8:30 service.
So...
This morning, of course, I slept in until 7:30. And when I woke up, I remembered that I had to defrost a piece of pork roast to make for dinner. I was running late, and had to deal with the fact that in my ignorance and prior inexperience of dealing with pork roasts, I failed to realize that one cannot simply freeze a metre long roast in its entirety, and then cut chunks off of it as one needs. After several minutes of sawing at this enormous hunk of meat, it became apparent that I was not going to have any success in completing the incision I had started. Also, it was delaying us for church. Accordingly, I threw the roast into the fridge and made a mad dash to get ready and out the door, feeling like a failure for not having a wonderful Sunday dinner in my stars.

(I'm not putting a picture, so use your imagination to conjure up an awkwardly frozen roast here)

When we got to the Presbyterian church, we saw that the lot was empty. Brian noticed a sign on the door: today's service was to be held at the Millenium Center downtown, and would start at 10:30. Fine, we thought, we would grab a coffee, hang out, and then head on over. But the downtown of Winston-Salem is not one that is alive on Sunday mornings. Even Starbucks was closed. After some driving about, we passed by a place called "Alex's Cafe." I wasn't even going to stop, but Brian thought it looked like it might do. We went inside where we were greeted with a picture of Jesus hanging over the kitchen door. We ordered breakfast, and then proceeded to partake in one of the strangest sequences of coincidences ever.
Something about the waitress made me think she was middle eastern. She had no accent, no crazy curly hair, but even so, I was quite sure. And then I noticed a tray of baklava on the counter. I asked her about the baklava, and sure enough, seconds later, we were exchanging our mothers' techniques for making baklava, and discovering that we were both Egyptian. She brought out her mom, Gigi, and her little sister, Christie; we had a good gab, and swapped contact info.
We discovered that there is a Coptic community in Winston, but they don't have mass every week because there isn't always a priest available. For those other weeks, people either go out to Raleigh or Charlotte, or miss church (since both of those cities are a bit of a ways away). Gigi told us she was just heading out to church, but she'd be in touch.
We finished up breakfast, were off on our way, and found the Millenium Center. When we got in, we thought there had been a mistake, because it looked like we walked into a wedding. It was an elaborate hall with banquet tables and flower arrangements. It turned out that several churches had joined for one worship service/farewell party, and there was going to be a band and dinner. We were strongly encouraged to stay, but we felt really awkward just standing there while people grouped around the banquet tables with their friends. We decided we'd leave, and try the Presbyterian church another week, when the service was more typical of their weekly meetings.
Brian felt that we should still make an effort to go to church. We thought we'd try St. Timothy's again (the first church we tried with the incense and good sermons). Of course, the GPS couldn't locate it. We tried to navigate, had no luck, and decided to call it a day and head home. Just as we had decided this, we passed a sign pointing to St. Timothy's. With much reluctance (I don't know why I was reluctant) I made a u-turn, and soon we were pulling into the St. Timothy's lot.
And as we were passing by their chapel to get to the main church, we noticed...can you guess? A Coptic service! We were even in time for the Gospel! We stayed for mass, and afterwards, were warmly welcomed by the very tiny congregation. Gigi was so happy to see us there because she wished she had thought to tell us to come when we saw her at the cafe. A couple our age invited us, along with another new couple, to their place, where we were served bastourma as an appetizer. This preceded a delicious dinner. (So there, pork roast! I didn't need you after all!) We had a great time, and learned a bit about the efforts to pioneer a Coptic church in Winston-Salem. We also resolved to meet again together soon, and to figure out what services the church needed. And we laughed at the day's many accidents:

* If I had successfully thawed the pork roast, I may have come home to the smell of rotting meat
* If we had known about the relocation of the Presbyterian service, we wouldn't have stopped by Alex's cafe and met Gigi
* If we had stayed for the Presbyterian service, we wouldn't have gone to St. Timothy's, and of course:
* If we didn't go to St. Timothy's, we wouldn't have found the Coptic service

Moral of the story: sometimes a day that begins with nothing going your way can be the best kind!

PS We were completely unaffected by the hurricane, thank God!