Connections

This weekend I attended Tessa (Nalley) Horensky's wedding. It was on the campus of College of the Ozarks where I 'grew up'. It was a beautiful Christmas themed wedding, taking place in the Memorial Chapel on campus. The weekend had it's ups and downs. The downs including getting lost and having trouble with my brakes halfway between Rogers and Branson, being late for the rehearsal, paying too much for car repairs when I finally found a service station open on a Saturday, the stress of speaking in front of 100+ people, and reliving a fraction of the pain of a relationship that began in my second semester of college and ended in my last.


The ups included sharing the joy of a dream fulfilled for Tessa, enjoying the warmth and joy of a Christmas wedding, reminiscing as I walked around campus of what God has done in my life since I was a student there, seeing old friends, making new ones--notably Elizabeth and Micah. They are students who have also graduated from C of O, though much more recently than me. They have a heart for the nations. It was such a joy to visit with them about what God may do with our lives in the future. Micah in interested in medical missions and is working toward attending Med school. He already has a connection with Pioneers, one of the mission agencies I am looking into. Elizabeth befriended me from the start, in those awkward moments that come about at a wedding rehearsal, before ones friends arrive and you are meshed with strangers. She was warm, friendly and helped make the whole event more pleasant--not that the wedding wasn't fun--but you know what I mean...

Those are red-letter days in our lives when we meet people who thrill us like a fine poem…people whose handshakes are brimful of unspoken sympathy and whose sweet, rich natures impart to our eager, impatient spirits a wonderful restlessness which, in its essence, is divine…In a work, while such friends are near us we feel that all is well. Helen Keller