Without boring you into a whirlwind of “This is a story of a guy and a girl…who fell in love…yada yada yada…” Let me just start with Chapter 1:
Chapter 1:
Blind Dates…Oh no! (Mandi’s perspective)
Yes, it all started with a blind date. As awkward as they are, a blind date at
a baseball field, without really realizing it was a blind date. “He’s here!?”
says the coach of a team I was doing lessons with.
“Jesus has returned!?” my first hearts desire and wonder as
I pondered what in the world he is talking about.
“Who’s here?” I asked back dazed and confused. “Jeremy, you know, our neighbor we were
telling you about.”
Oh, how the Lord knows I sure love surprises, and humoring
in this way, he sure did bring a curve ball on this one.
“Oh yea, Jeremy” I replied with a confident hesitancy,
thinking, “Here we go…another disaster ready to go down!”
Walking towards him, I noticed his pale skin and long monkey
arms, cute baby face, and humbled stance.
As I reflect on this, I am telling on the full scan that women run
through in about 1.8 seconds, or really just the time between one blink and
another.
After and awkward handshake, and invite into the lesson, we
spent sectioned out times, talking about you know the basics, surfacey
information that I honestly don’t remember now, but just enough to realize,
“Hey, I could talk to him some more, especially about Jesus.”
Phone numbers exchanged, were lost, and exchanged
again. The conversations here and
there. Phone conversations. Late night dates at Chick-Fil-A, trying
to talk over one another as the lady mopped the floors! Friendly conversations
completely centered on common interest, pet peeves, silly jokes, and of course
our understanding of Jesus, the bible, authors and pastors we are a follower
of, and other random things. Walls
were high, emotions low, and transparency beginning to develop.
Weeks past, and Jeremy found himself at the Homeless shelter
helping me move a someone’s stuff from the storage unit and to his own home. I
figured “If this one is legit, then he’s gonna have to serve with me!!”
“Just down the road.” the guy tells us, turned into a 30 min
ride into the middle of no where, down a dirt path, through metal gates, and to
a trailer hidden in the back of the woods. Whew, I could only imagine what he was thinking as we drove
and drove and drove, and it got darker and darker and darker.
Well, this left room, for a long, and awkward “Do you want
to be official” conversation, and the beginning of the rest of our lives
together!
I love this post!! And how God brought the two of you together!! His sweet grace for sure. :)
ReplyDeleteMandi has taught me about forgiveness and grace. When she was born I knew that she would be special. She was a good baby, always minded, and very talented athletically. My worse fear when Mandi was just a toddler was that she would grow up to be a missionary and move away. Can you imagine me as her mother at that age in her life having a fear like that? Part of the reason is my upbringing was strong in foreign missions. In the past 5 years, those fears have been settled and no longer exist. I just find it amusing or even prophetic that she is a missionary here and abroad. It baffles me sometimes, but I see it as a blessing, feel I did something right, and still a part of it.
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