So many causes for rejoicing and mourning going on constantly and simotaneously

My roommate from college is having a baby!! Yay, Stacy! :) She and Paul were married in May, and praise the Lord, a child is on the way already.

I have two best friends from that semester in British Columbia, and several girls I keep in touch with sporadically. Stacy, my roomie, and Karissa, a dormie. We all came to Trinity Western from very different places, were together for a short time, and are now at very different places again. Geographically and occupationally speaking. Spiritually, we are sisters and walking our journies quite close together.

Before going to British Columbia in the Fall of 2003, I had been living in the Bronx. Stacy had been in Africa with YWAM and Mercy Ships. Karissa had completed a year at Dordt University (College?) in Ohio. I grew up in NH, Stacy in Colorado, Karissa in Oregon. (Interestingly, as if for God's own amusement, Karissa visited NYC and walked Fifth Avenue during the afternoon, quite possibly at the same moment as I would have been walking it on my lunch break, as I did everyday. We could have passed each other and not even know it! ha!) So from the corners of the States, God brought us together to the small campus of TWU in Langley, B.C. What a glorious semester, what relationships and growth in a short period of time.

And now, I am back on the east coast doing all that you read about. Stacy is married and expecting (she actually met Paul the first time on the Mercy Ship, though they were only aquaintances then. They met again for a YWAM reunion on campus - Paul lived close by. And what do you know, God brought them together and eventually they became one.) And Karissa is in Alaska for the summer working to save money with which she will join her brothers and a slew of their friends to backpack through Europe for a few months this Fall. What exciting lives lived with abandon for the Lord. I love my Lord, and I love my friends.

There is a connection between Christians that simply can't be understood by unbelievers. Its depth is beyond comprehension unless you experience it. My brother just a minute ago criticized me for bothering to keep in touch with people via the internet. He says I should forget the people who are far away. Move on. They're not real anymore. Well, maybe I won't see them again on this earth. That's possible. But I will see them in Heaven, and we'll be together for all eternity! How can I forsake the ones I love too deeply to describe it? Simply because they are far away? My Lord does not forsake me when I am far from Him. I ignored His presence, denied it even, for seventeen years. Yet He was right there the whole time, and He still is now.

My brother knows not LOVE. My love is not enough to show him. My love - even in Christ - is not enough. Only God's Love, given directly, will be enough. And then he will understand.