In October (maybe September) my brother, Todd, shocked all of us by announcing his engagement to someone none of us knew. My dad was the only person that had met her. Long story short . . . it's now 9 months later, we all love Janine and they're getting married this Saturday!Because of that surprise turn of events, I got to return to the States for an unexpected 3-week summer trip. I knew I would be flying back to go to the wedding in July, but I thought that would be it. God opened up another unexpected door for me though by giving me the opportunity to speak to 333 Jr. Girls at the camp in Iowa I used to attend as a kid. So on June 22nd, I flew to Iowa where I spoke 8 times in 4 days to 4th-6th grade girls. It was a blast, seriously. I got to stay in the air-conditioned retreat center and eat slushies and sit by the pool and ride jet skies. To top it off, 20+ kids prayed to receive Christ as Savior and many more made other decisions, some for missions! I decided to be a missionary at exactly that age, so I truly believe some of these decisions were probably big ones. This trip also gave me the opportunity to see a friend I haven't seen in close to a decade. Eric Farmer is a friend of mine from Iowa and we attended BBC together. He drove me to the camp Monday night and then picked me up again on Friday and drove me back to Des Moines. What a guy! So there are 2 blasts from the past already - Iowa Regular Baptist Camp and Eric Farmer. Oh, plus the camp director (Phil Betz) used to babysit me as a kid - so that makes 3.
After camp I spent some time in Chicago and then hung out at Trav & Kaci's house in Kalamazoo, MI for a few days. Now we're all headed to Ypsilanti, MI for Todd's wedding. You may or may not know this, but all three of us were born in Ypsilanti (10 minutes from Ann Arbor). Now, Todd is getting married in the same church where my dad was youth pastor when we were little. Weird. This is Todd's fiance's home church and also Todd's new local church out of which Todd and Janine plan to launch a ministry to area college & university students. So, this Saturday Todd, Trav and I will all be back where we started. (Oh, and our old youth pastor Tony Tice will be at the wedding.)
Life takes some funny turns.
