The Second Best Love Story EVER ~ Part 6

Four years ago today, I started a series that I never finished.  Our love story... from four years before that.

Well, 8 years ago today I met My Beloved... in honor of that, I thought I'd share another installment of that sweet story that still brings little butterflies, a bright smile and day after day of happiness.

Haven't read it before?  Or need a refresher???  Start here with part 1.


_______________


I was thrilled to see My Beloved that night at the evening session and even more excited when our group filed into a row and he was right beside me.  Being a through and through California girl, I slipped off my sandals during worship and slid them beneath my chair.  At one point I caught My Beloved reaching down to do something.  I thought he was going to hide them, but as it turns out, he simply wanted to switch them around so I'd have trouble putting them back on.

I remember the room being crowded, with people close on both sides.  Months later, I heard it told from a friend of his who had been sitting behind us up in the bleachers with her [then] fiance.  She leaned over and whispered to him, "You couldn't fit a piece of paper between those two."  Apparently, as much as I was trying to hide my feelings for him, he'd been pretty open around the office.  We were sitting close... both of us... and all in the name of it being crowded.  Funny, though, how we weren't pressed up close to the people on the other side of us.  And funny how neither of us noticed anything funny about what was going on.

After the session, a group of singles planned to play games in the lobby of the lady's dorm and My Beloved had been invited to join us.  I was sticking around to practice a song with a couple guys who'd volunteered to play for me, so I was going to meet them there when I was done.

I knew My Beloved didn't know where he was going.  He lived locally and didn't know where the dorms were and was supposed to walk over with the others.  I noticed, while working on my song up front, that he was still talking in the back, and that the others were gone.  I smiled inside.  Now I was the only person who could help him.  He'd have to wait for me.  Little did I know he'd done that on purpose too.

When I was finished, I stopped by and asked him if he knew where he was going.  Shockingly, he said no and I offered to take him over.  I remember thinking how fun it would be to do this walk across campus in the dark, with fireflies blinking all around.  When we got outside, it was raining.  Not a firefly to be seen.  Still we walked, just as slowly as possible, through the rain to the dorm.  I wished the campus was bigger so we could just keep walking.

Upon arriving, we settled, him on one side of the table, and me on the other.  The only two remaining seats.  We played some board game involving passports and travel.  Appropriate for a group of missionaries.  When that game was through and all put away, I put it up and grabbed the next game... Cranium.  A team game.

While I was across the room getting the game, another guy joined us... right in my chair, the only chair available at the moment.  That worked out great for me.  When I returned with the game, I grabbed a chair and pulled in a little spot made for me... by My Beloved.  When pairs were made, we were a team.

I was paying special attention during those games, especially after we ended up as a team.  I love to play games, and although I can be pretty competitive, I don’t care if I lose.  We played hard, laughed lots, and lost miserably.  It was great.  I had so much fun that I forgot I was trying to keep others from knowing I was interested.  

That night in the elevator, one of the girls looked over at me.  "So," she started.  I looked at her and told her not to finish her question.  She ignored me.  "What do you think of [insert My Beloved's name here]?"  I took the next minute to lie through my teeth.  I don't remember what I said exactly, but it was denial and an outright lie.

When I got back to my room that night, I spent an hour or more sitting on my bed with journal and pen in hand working through why I'd lied to her.  What was wrong with feeling the way I did?  What was wrong with people knowing it?  I determined that it came down to two things: fear of man and pride.  A fear of what others would think... truly, who cared?  And a fear that he'd find out and I'd feel foolish... again, truly, what could possibly happen if he found out and didn't feel the same way?  If he was worth my interest, then it really shouldn't matter.  The next morning when we all loaded into the elevator, I confessed my lie to my new friend and answered her truthfully.

It was official.  I was interested!


To be continued...

Labels: A love story

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 8:56 PM 2 Comments

The Second Best Love Story EVER ~ Part 5

You have all been very patient, and so here it is... another edition of my love story. It's only a small chunk, but I thought I'd participate in Owlhaven's Love Stories in October, so here I am participating. I started mine back in July, so if you want to get up to speed on what I think is one of the best love stories EVER (second only to the best love story ever... the one where our Groom will one day return to earth to take His bride up with him), start over here!

______________________________________________
Thursday arrived, and with it, lunch. I was with that same group of girls as we gathered our food and found a table in the dining hall. I desperately hoped I was being sly enough as I craned my neck to see around the room, desperately hoping to figure out where My Beloved was sitting, or whether he were there at all... without anyone noticing. As we put up our trays and left the room almost an hour later, I was very disappointed to have missed seeing him again. He was working back at the office during the conference, only coming over for meals, so my chances of seeing him that day were greatly diminished, and that was very sad.

Though afternoons were widely unscheduled, there were different opportunities to participate in each day. This particular afternoon, they would be showing (on the big screens in the “conference center”/gym) a documentary on the lives of, primarily, Nate Saint and his co-workers, one of whom had a big impact on my desire to serve the Lord overseas. This was one I wasn’t going to miss.

I had separated from my new friends and was on my way in to find them when I saw him. There he was… at the production stage again. I smiled at him as I walked by, finding the rest of the girls in the bleachers about 5 or 6 rows up. I quickly evaluated the scene. I could climb the bleachers (not a real big deal), climb in to one of the center chairs (again… big deal), and sit with them… leaving more than a hundred or more empty chairs between me and the screen (and who really cares about that?), or… I could sit down in the first row of bleachers by myself (I don’t mind being by myself), and maybe My Beloved would come over and talk to me. I (nonchalantly) told the girls not to worry about me… I preferred to sit down lower and didn’t mind sitting by myself. They didn’t fight me on it, and thankfully, no one came down to keep me company.

I set my bag down on a chair and settled into the seat next to it. I hardly had to wait at all before he was on his way over. I stood to greet him and we talked for a minute. As the movie was about to begin, he asked if I was sitting alone and I invited him to join me. Sweet! I thought… I had the perfect in to do so without looking obvious. We sat and commented through the whole thing… something I tend to do. It makes most people crazy, so I took special note that it didn’t seem to bother him… and in fact, he was participating. We took turns commenting on something, then asking the other what we’d missed because we’d been talking. I’m going to have to marry a man like this, I thought to myself again.

To be continued...

Labels: A love story

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 1:51 PM 0 Comments

4 Years Ago Today (ah, yesterday), Part 4

Ok, so I missed yesterday, but I'm working to keep things on track. I'll try to have today's story up tonight. We're almost done with the first week... then things slow down a bit. :)

If you missed the first parts of my love story, you can start here.

For the first time in my life I wasn’t looking for a relationship with a man. I sincerely wasn’t. Throughout my teen and college years, as well as the few years of my “adult life”, my focus had always been on finding, meeting, snaring, etc just the right guy. I wanted more than anything to be married and entered most acquaintances with guys wondering if they could be “the one”. This put a strain on everything, especially my contentment.

I dated a handful of guys in high school, a couple in college and one in the years after college. Of those three relationships out side of high school I’d broken one’s heart, had my own heart broken with another, and made a fool of myself with the third. Not a great track record.

It had been two years since I’d even been on a date, let alone been in a relationship beyond friendship with a guy. I’d been interested in several in those couple years and was glad to be able to say that the reasons for my “interest” in guys had matured over the years. I now sought a man whom I respected and in whom I saw a genuine love for the Lord. None of these guys had any interest in me.

As my missionary friend was making her final preparations to move to India, we met for chai. It was something we tried to do every week or so, just to catch up on each other. As we sat across the table from one another, me with my chai and her with some of the loads of paperwork left to do before her departure a couple weeks away, I asked her a question.

“How are you doing with contentment?” You see, she was making final preparations to leave as a single missionary, something I would be doing before long. She was moving far away to a place where there wouldn’t be any other Americans. No prospects for her future.

Her answer changed my life. She told me of a time in the Word several months earlier and a portion of Scripture that changed her perspective on never getting married. After reflecting on Matthew 19:12, I, just as she had, I was able to make the decision to give up marriage for the sake of the gospel.

_____________________________________

It was lunch time Wednesday before I saw him again. I was standing in line with a group of girls I’d been spending much of my time with the past few days. Any minute the doors to the dining hall would open and we would make our way in. Then there he was, walking past us with a friend. They said a quick hi to all of us on their way to the end of the line. Just after he was out of ear shot I turned to the others.

“I’m so excited!” I announced. “I finally figured out what I’m going to do to him.”

They all stared at me with that look, “Why?”

I explained the whole thing, from the rubber band to the “dare”, before divulging my evil plan. I would find his tray somewhere while he was away and steal his drink! Yep, that’s the best I could do. I had barely finished explaining it when I realized that, really, that type of prank is only possible when stumbled upon and not planned ahead. There’s no way I could plan for him to leave his tray somewhere… let alone for me to know where he was sitting in the first place. I sulked in a moment of defeat… again I had no idea what I could do to “get him back.”

After grabbing a table big enough for our group and dropping our bags, we made our way back around the room toward the salad bar and food lines. As we past the entrance, the guys were toward the front of the switch backs, not far from passing the ticket counter. I smiled my usual friendly smile as I passed them, “Hey, there’s some room at our table over there if you guys want to join us.” I said casually, thinking only of my ploy to do something “terrible” to him at the first chance I’d get. Again, I had no idea that I’d made his day.

By the time I gathered my salad and chicken strips (my standard meal in a buffet type eating situation… I love to cut the chicken up in my salad!) and returned to the table, most everyone else was back. I set my tray down and noticed, sitting next to an empty tray, the guy that had been with My Beloved in line.

“Is that My Beloved’s tray?” (note: Of course, I didn’t call him My Beloved, but rather used his real name) I asked his friend. It was! I glanced around the room to see if I could find where he was. Then I saw him, all the way across the large dining room talking to someone. An evil smile crossed my lips.

“Would you pass me his drink?” I asked his friend again. This was not a convenient thing, you see, because there was another person sitting between the friend and me. None the less, he did it, and around the table came My Beloved’s cups… yes, two of them. I delightedly set them on the empty chair next to me. Then I paused… This is too noticeable… it’s never going to work. I passed them back around the table. “Would you pass me his silverware?” To think about it now, I’m actually kind of amazed this guy participated so blindly. But he did… willingly betraying his friend for a stranger. I wrapped the silverware in a napkin and lay them on the chair.

When I noticed him returning, I forced myself to pretend not to. I simply focused on my plate, eating one bite after the other. How was I supposed to know that he notices everything? Before he even sat down he was saying, “My silverware are gone.”

I casually looked up, “Are you sure you got any?”

“Yes,” was his immediate reply, looking anything but unsure.

“Oh fine,” I grumbled with a smile and passed them back.

From that moment neither of us could tell you the names of most of the people at the table. We spent the entire lunch talking only to each other. I still hope the two poor souls sitting between us at that round table had a nice enough conversation, because apparently they weren’t welcome in ours. Our conversation just flowed from one thing to another. It was then that I learned, among other things, that his life was strongly influenced for missions by Nate Saint, and mine by Jim Elliot—the same story from the perspective of two men martyred together. It was a wonderful time of fellowship.

The hour flew by. Still it wasn’t until we were leaving that lunch that I took any special notice. I was content as a single lady… I wasn’t looking for a relationship. I didn’t even notice when the others at our table left, nor where anyone was as we put up our trays and left the room. As we walked through the corridor outside the dinning room I told him I had really enjoyed talking with him. “I talk a lot,” I said, and apologized, “I’m sure I monopolized the conversation.”

I will never forget his response, “I’ll bet I could give you a run for your money,” he said. That very moment my head whipped around to look at him and I thought to myself, I need to marry a man like this.” I started taking notice!!

I was glad that night when he joined us for the evening conference session. Somehow he ended up sitting right beside me. I was thrilled. At one point, we were all standing for worship and I noticed how very tall he was, even though I was wearing heals. I need to marry a man like this! I thought again.

To be continued…

Labels: A love story

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 11:22 AM 1 Comments

4 Years Ago Today, Part 3

If you missed the first parts of my love story, start here.

Tuesday was well underway, and after a great morning training session I made my way to the dinning hall for lunch. The line to get in made its way all the way down the corridor of the student center. Once inside, the room was packed full with tables and people. I made my way directly to the salad bar, figuring to gather all my food before finding a table to sit at.

With my computer bag again slung over my shoulder, I began gathering the preliminary lunch items: tray, silverware, plate…. As I began layering salad ingredients onto my plate several kids rushed past me in the crowded aisle. I didn’t give them much thought until my bag got very heavy. I turned, expecting to see one of those kids pulling on my bag. What I saw took me by surprise. It was him! That same guy I’d met Friday. And he’d been pushing down on my bag, deliberately making it heavier. He obviously had no idea that it was heavy enough on it’s own.

He never stopped walking, but now continued on, smiling at me on his way by. “You’re a trouble maker, aren’t you?” I asked him smiling back at him and the bizarre situation I’d found myself in.

Walking backward now, continuing past me toward the main food lines, he shrugged his shoulders and said, “Get me back.” With that he turned and was gone, lost in the crowds of people.

I stood there shocked, the line behind me growing ever longer. I can’t do that, I thought to myself. I don’t FLIRT with guys I don’t know.

Whatever he was up to, it was working. I went from never giving him a second thought, to thinking almost exclusively about him for the next 24 hours. You see, though I didn’t FLIRT with guys I didn’t know, I wasn’t about to back down from this apparent dare either. If this was one of those “pick on all the girls” kind of guys, I needed to figure out what to do to poke back at him. I just didn’t know what.

To be continued…

________________

Part 4

Labels: A love story

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 8:14 AM 0 Comments

4 Years Ago Today, Part 2

If you missed part 1 of my love story, you can find it here.

The weekend was full of more training, meals, and an opportunity to serve in one of the local churches. Monday had come and with it came checking out of my 2 week home, a lot of down time for the first time in weeks, and the start of the missionary conference. I’d gotten to know a couple people some during the prior weeks, knew a handful of people a little, and recognized some. But in this group of several hundred, most people were new to me. I felt safe in this environment however and my open and overly friendly personality flourished among so many. I enjoyed my dinner at the conference with a table full of people I’d never before met, adding another handful of acquaintances to my roster.

After dinner, I wandered from the dinning hall to the college campus gym, where the main evening sessions would take place. It never bothered me to be at these things alone. I actually preferred it. There was great freedom in being able to come and go as I wanted, without the feeling that I should sit with so and so, or talk with so and so. On my own I could judge each situation and each moment on my own and make social decisions impromptu. I loved it.

As I walked into the “conference center” with my computer bag slung over my shoulder, I looked around. There weren’t many people inside yet as there was still a bit of time before the start of that first evening session. To my left were rows and rows of bleacher seats and spread in front of me were rows and rows of metal chairs set up on the floor in front of the stage. Just to the back of those chairs, near the production stage (is that what you would call that place where they control all the power points and sound and such) I spotted that guy I’d met Friday. Hey, there’s that guy I met the other day, I thought.

“Hi,” I said walking up to him. He responded the same way, with a smile and a greeting. (Only later would I find out that I’d made his whole day and that he was only standing there in hopes of seeing me that evening.) “How was your weekend?” I asked him. He’d been camping with his church, something I’d never heard of any church doing. We talked a few minutes before I excused myself to find a seat to put my laptop, growing ever heavier, down on.

Once I’d chosen a chair in the rows of floor seating, I turned to find the restrooms before too many more people were around and I’d gotten to talking again. Some more people had gathered in the meeting room by the time I returned and as I rounded the production stage to my seat I heard a voice.

“Can you get that for me?” I turned and looked around, unsure if I was the one being talked to. Standing on the production stage was the guy I’d just been talking to minutes before. I looked at him, then down at the floor in front of me where he glanced. A rubber band!

“Did you just shoot this at me?!?” I asked, shocked to be in the situation.

“Yeah,” he replied smiling. I didn’t know what to say, or how to react. It had been a long time since anyone had done something like that, and I didn’t know this guy at all.

“Well, you missed,” was my only reply as I handed it back to him.

To be continued…

__________

Part 3

Part 4

Labels: A love story

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 7:53 AM 1 Comments

4 Years Ago Today

Can any of you say exactly where you were or what you were doing 4 years ago today? Perhaps you can. Perhaps you were married 4 years ago today, or one of your children was born 4 years ago today. Perhaps you know you came to know Christ 4 years ago today.

Today is very special to me, for it was this day, July 9, 2004, a Friday, that I met My Beloved. This is our story:

__________________________

July 9, 2004 was a big day. I had spent the previous 2 weeks as a candidate with a missions agency in central Pennsylvania. From breakfast to bedtime we sat in meetings, training, and interviews, and it all came down to today. Today I stood before the mission board to be accepted or denied, sent out or sent home as it were.

My path to this day began years earlier when I felt the first desire to be a missionary in Africa, as well as my first experiences on short term mission trips with my youth group during my high school years. In college I had several opportunities to travel overseas on short term mission trips, but they all fell through. I joined a group on my college campus who met to learn about and pray for missionaries around the world. Out of college my desires to one day become an overseas missionary continued. I spent 11 weeks in Bolivia in the back country to learn that I really did have a heart specifically for the Muslim people of Bangladesh. Upon returning home, I began working to that end.

A friend was making plans to move to India as a missionary herself and had been applying to a mission agency I had long been acquainted with. As I watched her move through the application process with what would become the same mission board I would stand before, we talked of plans and ideas. India, being a neighboring country of Bangladesh had a very large population of Muslim Bengals, so we made plans to go for a survey trip. She and I, with several others, traveled together to India and Bangladesh. During the 3 weeks there, my heart was solidified in its desire to live and serve among those people. I returned home and stepped to action.

Now it was one year later. I had done all the paper work, taken the tests, passed my oral doctrinal exam (yikes), and traveled the long distance from Los Angeles to Pennsylvania. Today I would stand before the board. Many were nervous, but my anxiety was based in excitement to begin the next step. The questions they would ask me would be personal ones, nothing I had to spend months studying. There were no “wrong” answers. And once the board made their decision, I could begin to raise my support and make my move to southern Asia.

I entered the large board room and stood before rows and rows of men and their wives. The mission’s president stood at the front with me, facilitating questions. I was asked a number of questions, all of which I answered with ease. I was light hearted and relaxed through the whole interview. When I had been dismissed, I stood in the hall just outside the doors waiting for the results. Moments later the administrator for my region came through the doors into the hall with the news. I had been accepted… appointed to Bangladesh. It was official… I was now a missionary on my way to Bangladesh.

Much of the rest of the afternoon was a blur. I returned to my hotel room to change and collect my things before catching a ride back to the main office (the board interviews had taken place in one of the hotel meeting rooms.) I was excited to have been appointed, yes… but there were far more important things to be excited about. Now that I was officially an “employee” of this mission agency, I could get the employee pricing on the Microsoft Office software I wanted! Let’s be serious here… that’s what really matters right? I’d had enough of the free word processing software in the last 6 months since buying my new computer and loosing my Word software. I had talked to someone in the IT department a day or so earlier and learned that I could buy it as soon as I was appointed, so here I was, on my way back to the office to get that taken care of.

Things were quieter around the office than they had been the previous couple weeks I’d been there. Most of the candidates were back at the hotel either relaxing or waiting their turn before the board. Many of the staff were also at the hotel serving in some capacity. I walked through the quiet halls before arriving at the IT office.

I entered the office looking for the tall, dark haired man I’d talked with the day before… but he was no where to be found. Somewhat unsure of myself, but overly friendly and talkative I jumped in with both feet. Sitting at a desk in the corner of the office was another man. “Excuse me,” I said getting his attention. I’d seen him before. Several nights before a group of us “singles” had eaten dinner together and he’d been there. We never talked and we hadn’t met, but he was familiar... he was one of two men at the table... it was hard not to notice him. As he turned in his chair now to give me his full attention, I continued, “I talked to someone yesterday about buying Microsoft Office today.”

“Sure,” he said grabbing a paper from his desk. While he began the process, I filled him in on my day, being appointed, and of course how excited I was to get this software. I’m sure I told him how much he was making my day in getting it for me, etc, etc. He took down my information and we continued to chat back and forth a bit. Before finishing everything up, he paused. “Ah,” he started, “I messed this up. I’m sorry, I have to start again.”

He grabbed another copy of the form and we continued chatting about this and that (I honestly don’t remember… I was just so excited about the software.) I mentioned the conference for missionaries the following week and how I’d be staying in town to attend it. I’d love to think that I asked him things about himself and was generally a good listener, but I’m pretty sure I did most of the talking. He was, after all, filling out a form. Then it happened… he handed me the software wrapped in it’s clear plastic packaging. I held it in both hands and just looked at it. I was so excited. I thanked the IT guy with great enthusiasm and walked out of his office looking at my software… not giving the guy who sold it to me another thought. It was only later that I found out he had messed up my order on purpose… just to get a few more minutes with me.

To be continued…

__________________
Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Labels: A love story

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 7:41 AM 4 Comments