This February we have plane tickets to travel to Orlando for a conference that T wants to attend. The girls and I love to tag along, visit the mouse and hang out with our friends, K & M. Planning this trip has been a little crazy, but really I'm thinking more and more that I'd really like to hang out with K & M, meet some friends I only know through T or through blogging and maybe do less Orlando touristy things. We'll see.
Our friends, K & M, have lived in Orlando for several years now. I first met K through a letter I received from Gordon College, introducing me to my very first roommate, other than my sister, that is! I went off to Gordon, excited to finally be living in a Christian community after enduring (happily!) 13 years of public school. Gordon was new, exciting, fun and K was the complete opposite of me. Poor her!
I knew right away that she was going to have a big adjustment with me in her room. When I arrived, she was already moved in, bed made, notebooks all organized, clothes folded neatly, everything had a place, nothing more than what was necessary for comfort. She was from NJ, and promptly greeted me with her NJ drawl, mawl accent. I think she might have even been playing Bruce Springstein or something - or was it Bon Jovi?? I really can't remember, but I do remember thinking, "Wow. Totally not what I expected!"
Truth be told, we were excited to be rooming together. We'd even met once before heading up to Gordon. My boyfriend at the time had driven me down to the Patterson suburb to meet her and her family. I just wasn't sure she was ready for me. I'm not really that organized, I actually function better in an "organized mess" - that's putting it mildly. I don't really have a special place for everything, but I know where everything is when it's not where it's supposed to be! I didn't exactly think to bring a laundry basket along - I just figured I'd keep my dirty clothes where I always found them - on the floor or in a huge pile at the foot of my bed (I'm short!). I brought along with me every modern convenience allowed plus some. My style was cluttered, homey and not at all sparse, that word just wasn't in my college dictionary!
And so we began our two years as roomies. We had some incredible adventures, lived through some crazy practical jokes, studied together, did Boston together, got cranky at each other and put up with each other. Our third year at Gordon, K moved off campus with a friend and left me behind. She then went off to the U.K., where she went to school and met M. When she returned, I knew something was different. She'd had crushes, boyfriends, but this one was different. And then, he came here. And I was not ready for him!
By this time, K and I were living in the same apartment building on campus, but with different roommates in different rooms. M decided to spend a semester at Gordon so we all had a chance to meet him. He wasn't the first British person I'd met, but he was the first one I knew well. My first impressions were that he was friendly, very outgoing, a bit different than I would have expected for K, but very authentic and genuine. I loaned him my car a few times (I must have been nuts! I'd forgotten they drive on the other side of the road over there!), spent some time with them and really enjoyed getting to know him. Then off he went, back to the U.K. K followed him! Sort of...
After those two got married, T and I copied them and then took our first real adventure together. We went on vacation to England and ended up at the K&M flat. It was super fun and T really enjoyed our stay with them. We did a lot of sightseeing and even visited M's classroom, where he taught elementary school. We did a little cross-cultural lesson with the kids there, introducing T first, without him speaking, and me later as his wife. T always loves that the kids assumed that the wife of this Chinese man must work at McDonalds!
After our time in England, I was happy T had met K & M, but I'm not sure he was able to really get to know them. They later moved to NJ, where we had a few opportunities to connect with them. Nothing was really in depth, but we genuinely tried to connect. It must have been a yearning from within, because T kept telling me he liked M.
When I was pregnant with Kt, I dragged T up to Boston to meet a small group of friends K and I hung out with at Gordon. Most of them were from Gordon, except for T and M. I know T felt a little uncomfortable, and the only reason he agreed to go was because M would be there. On our last morning at the King's Grant hotel, M whipped out his cards and started doing a little magic. That was it - T was hooked. He was utterly amazed and adopted this passion from what he saw. I honestly think the God used a deck of cards to create a permanent connection between two really passionate men, and cemented that bond with a passion for the lost.
After that weekend, T shared with me that out of everyone on that weekend, he felt like M was the only one he really related to. I could see that as well! LOL I'm always teasing T that he never likes any of my friends! It's totally true, except where K & M are concerned. From that point on, those two have been amazingly connected. They email, call each other, discuss ministry, passion, life and anything else that comes to mind. Never once have they lived close enough to be physically together for more than a few days or a week, but that has not stopped them from pursuing each other passionately.
K and I joke with each other that we never realized when God put us together as college roommates He really meant to bring these two men of ours together. He is so direct, yet so indirect in His ways. All four of us have been blessed by our relationships in a way that only God could craft or design. He is the passion that connects us and it's amazing to see where He might take us all.
So, we're off to the land of the mouse, but really the home of our good friends, who God has chosen to interweave into our lives in a way only He can. I like a plan, it doesn't have to organized and neat, but I like some semblance of a plan. Maybe God has something else in mind, because my plan isn't working so well. But that's typical. It's just one of many ways God works in us.
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