I Never Would Have Imagined

I never would have imagined when she walked into the church office with four little children, needing to make copies for school, that we would one day be such sweet friends. 

After introducing herself, she shared with me she had just returned from Walmart. I could not beleive she had just went to Walmart with FOUR kids and I sure couldn't beleive she homeschooled. 

She was Super Woman, she still is. 

She was my new boss' wife.  Her husband was a youth minister and I was his new secretary. It was my first day. It was just a job. She looked like a normal mom but had a sweetness to her I had never experienced before.

A few weeks later, sitting at her kitchen table, our families shared their first meal together and our children met.

That summer, dropping by her house for a quick second, I notice her Bible and journal outside next to her chair. I remember thinking, "Oh my goodness, she reads outside while watching her children play." A few weeks later while over for dinner again, she and I sit on her porch swing talking about loving our men no matter what. Children run in and out of the house, barefoot and dirty.

And then I realized, it's not just a job.

 
Christians for only two years, living in a strange place, one hundred miles away from all we had ever known. Our big beautiful, all American dream home sold, with a scary apartment to now call home. No job, no friends, no clue, only faith. We were at Bible College. Crazy about life and the newness of being a Christ follower.

I never would have imagined that Sunday morning when she was explaining to me how her son rolled instead of crawled, we would one day be such sweet friends.

A Bible College student, his wife, and children were new members of their precious little gathering given the job of loving on their Youth. We had found a church.

A few months later, with weather so very hot, she and her husband demonstrated God's love to us in a whole new way. Bringing a brand new window air conditioner unit that actually worked and installing it into our "new", ghetto rental house. No reason other than they had us on their mind.

Always encouraging us in our work at the church; always caring for our unspoken and spoken needs, always praying for us and being such a great example of what it looks like to love and serve the church unselfishly.

We hadn't found a church, we had found a family.

They were the only two people in the world I called that day, the day the church became a business and our hearts broke. The day we were told we couldn't talk about anything to anyone. The day we needed the church most.

It would only seem fitting, on the year anniversary, they would just.so.happen to be sitting under the trees in my backyard, all the way in Oklahoma, watching our children play; talking about how good God is. All of us completely unaware of the date.

"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy...

-Apostle Paul 

1 Philippians 1:3-4

My two sisters, who didn't even know each other when I first met you both all those years ago; I love you.

 

Loves,

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