I thought she probably hated it, "Thanks!"
Man...it was so good to see her again. I felt like I was on cloud nine instaneously.
"How was your trip?" I asked while continually pinching myself, was this for real?
"Uneventful, until now. It is so wonderful to see you!" Okay. I actually no idea what she said to me at this point. I was completely gone. I was in love.
"I got my passport picture today!" I told her with enthusiasm. Did I just interrupt her? I was so gone.
"Really?" She was genuinely interested.
"Yeah...I don't know when, but I really plan on traveling to Guatemala sometime soon."
We had about thirty minutes before the meeting started to catch up. I was really curious to see how her parents were responding to my e-mails. She explained how difficult it was to correspond with them herself being so far away. She told me she was planning on going home in February to visit, and hopefully she would talk things over with her parents and also meet with her pastor.
The concert started soon after and we were both blessed by the ministry. We sang many different songs that night. One that stuck out to me was a song my brother wrote that went like this:
"Oh...what joy is present!
Oh...what peace abides!
How the world will wonder
When we walk by faith."
There was a fresh joy in my life. Not just because I was falling in love, but because of all the answered prayer. My relationship with the Lord was entering a new season, a new level. I was drawing closer and closer to him every day, and I knew I was walking by faith.
The night ended too soon for my liking, but I knew we would see each other on Saturday at Excel. I said goodnight and started the 35 minute drive home. As I began the drive I began to ask the Lord, "Lord, please don't me walk down this road any further if it isn't you. I know up to this point you have confirmed and spoken so many things, but even now, please keep leading me."
My cell phone started beeping at this point, I looked down and saw I had a voicemail. I called my voicemail and realized it was from my mother's phone. All I heard was singing,
"Oh...what joy is present! Oh...what peace abides! How the world will wonder when we walk by faith!"
I sat there stunned. It was an immediate response to my prayer. I found out later that my mom never called me that night. Apparently, during the worship service that night her phone called mine and recorded those words being sung. I knew that God was working a miracle far beyond me. It wasn't for me only, but also to be a blessing to others. I knew I had to continue to live in faith and humility.
I traveled up to Saratoga on that Saturday to the Excel conference. Upon entering the hotel lobby, I saw my brothers ministry table and there were some of my friends, I quickly walked over.
"Hey Preston!" I called to one of guys.
"Hey Ben, good to see you."
We shook hands and I quickly tried to make conversation, "How is the conference going?"
"It's going well. Last night was fun."
"Oh really? How was last night?" I was so nervous. Why was I nervous?
"Fun." Preston politely answered my question and realized quickly I was in another galaxy.
"What was fun?" Who was I talking to? Where was I? What's my problem?
"Who I think you are looking for is right over there." Preston motioned towards the christian bookstore table.
There was a few moments when angels sang and heaven's spotlight centered in on Keila. This moment was one of them. I'm not kidding. I heard the Hallelujah chorus from the 1980 hit "The Music Box".
"Hallelujah! Hallelujah!"
I walked over to Keila and tried to suck in my gut.
"Hey."
"Oh, there you are!"
She had been waiting for me!
I don't think we left the lobby of the hotel for hours. Keila had some responsibility at my brothers ministry table, and as long as we had a chaperone, we just stayed there and talked.
At one point in the afternoon, Keila was busy working at the table. I was sitting on a chair behind the table and I leaned back on the wall. I was so exhausted I decided to shut my eyes for a few minutes...I woke up a little while later to Keila laughing.
"Oh! Is that what I am?" She asked me as I opened my eyes.
"Excuse me?" I had no idea what she was talking about.
"I'm working here," she explains, "and some girl came up and asked me if I knew you."
"Uh-huh." If it wasn't for her smirk, I would've thought she was mad.
"And she asks me if I can give you her number."
"Stop it." I said. I've never had a girl give me her number...and now Keila gets a number to give me, "I get those all the time."
"Really?"
"No, no, no." We both laughed. How funny was that?
Later that day we were sitting outside a room where my brother was leading worship. We were just chatting about life when a mutual acquaintance of ours walks up to talk.
"How is the music going?" He asks referencing my brother...I had no idea how it was going.
"I'm not really sure."
"How are you guys?"
"Pretty good."
He ventures out, to this day I have no idea why, and asks, "how is married life?"
"Uh..." I glance over at Keila.
"We're not married," Keila interjects.
He looks confused, "Engaged?"
I know I'm pale as a ghost at this point. I shake my head slowly back and forth, "Nope." I say in case he can't hear my head shaking.
"Courting?"
Wow...this guy is digging himself deep. I think he can tell by our blank stare that we have no definition of "us".
"Good friends?"
"Yes!" Both Keila and I emphatically agreed as our unknowing friend politely nodded and headed in to see my brother.
What were we? Though we both had strong feelings for each other, we never expressed verbal or nonverbals of our feelings. We were both extremely guarded in how we treated each other. We were a growing friendship that I knew would blossom in time.
The weekend was awesome. I saw Keila on Saturday, Sunday, and even Monday. On Monday my brother brought a whole group of us out to lunch before his team headed out of town...with Keila of course. I really enjoyed the steak lunch, but sitting there that day, I knew the "goodbyes" was only a few minutes away.
That was the first, but not the last, time I cried when I said goodbye.
I headed back home and spent the day holding back tears. I didn't know when I would see her again. That night something special happened. I sowed some tears during the day for my future, and I reaped a blessing that evening after prayer meeting at church.
"Pastor Ben, can I talk with you?" Pastor Jim called me into the church office.
"Sure," I walked into the office and closed the door, "what's up?"
"I was thinking. You know Dan and the Clint Rogers Team are going to be in Guatemala sometime in April. So, I thought, how about you and I go to Guatemala, you can meet her parents and family and I could speak to them on your behalf. I can also take the opportunity to see Dan. What do you think?"
I was speechless.
"And could you help me move my stove tonight?"
No comments:
Post a Comment