Go back and read this post for the story behind "Five Small Things Friday".
For this week, here is my list:
1. Sight: D-Now Pictures / Austin
2. Hearing: Autumn, Julia, And Julia's Mom Laughing
3. Smell:
4. Taste:
5. Touch: Hug From Julia
The stories behind the list:
1. Months before he left, Bro. Mike gave me a plastic box full of youth group pictures to sort and organize. We'd been having some conversation about the pictures around the youth room (he always tried to have a bulletin board or display out with pictures of the latest youth event or mission trip Victory Rd. had been involved in), and I asked what happens to all the pictures when they got taken down to be replaced. He replied that there was a box full of them somewhere. I expressed disappointment that they were just stuffed in some box instead of people being able to enjoy them still (me being the history buff that I am). Long story short, I volunteered to go through them and see if I could get them put into albums, and Bro. Mike was happy to let me. Well, since then, I haven't had much time to work on them. It turned out to be a little bigger and more involved project than I had invisioned, and the plastic box has been sitting in a corner for several months. This past week I decided to tackle the project, and it has been a neat experience.
I came across the envelope that had all the pictures from D-Now in 2011. My, how time flies. I spent a long time going through that stack of photos, re-living memories, studying faces, thinking of all that life has brought to the people in the pictures since that time. Looking at many faces that are gone from Victory Rd., and studying some that are now leaders in the youth group.
It was a bitter-sweet experience, going through those photos. But mostly sweet, knowing the God that was great then is great now, and still may have wonderful surprises in store for those lives.
/
Austin came to the restaurant Wednesday to get lunch for the lawn-care crew he works with. It surprised me when he came around the corner, and his big grin and teasing really gave me a pick-me-up.
2. Trissy and I were some of the last to leave church Wednesday night because of the visiting we like to hang around and do. When we finally headed outside to leave, Autumn was still parked there, talking with Julia and Julia's mom at their car, so we stopped and chatted and joked with them a little bit. All of us were needing to leave, but it seemed like every time we'd 'finish' the conversation, someone would say or think of something else to tell, and we'd keep going.
Finally we said good-byes and Trissy and I went to get in my car. I slid in, adjusting myself in the seat. When I turned around to reach out and pull my door shut, a little 'shape' was perched on my steering wheel, staring back at me unblinkingly in the half-light. I jumped and yelped, and an erruption of ecstatic cackles exploded from the three ladies parked on the other side. I realized almost immediately what the 'thing' was - a giant black and gray horned beetle, probably two-and-a-half inches long and an inch wide. I'm not afraid of beetles (even giant ones), but the unexpectedness of seeing 'something' on my steering wheel, about ten inches from my face... Well, I think I had a right to be startled!
My mind was working in a whirl, trying to figure out if it was real or rubber, if Autumn and Julia had brought it back from their recent mission trip to Central America, and what made them play the joke on me - I actually felt quite honored (you'd have to understand these two girls - they'd only play a prank like that on someone they really liked)! Autumn was by this time beside my driver door, laughing hysterically. I got back out, laughing and congratulating them on their cleverness, and she reached in and plucked the beetle from my steering wheel.
Law had found it and somehow it had come into Autumn and Julia's possession, and they decided it was too good of an opportunity to pass up - they needed somebody to prank! They noticed my windows were rolled down a little and they tried the door. When they found it unlocked, I was chosen as the 'victim'. And you know the rest of the story! Evidently they had been waiting all that time in the parking lot, just so they could see my reaction!
We said good-bye again and left, laughing the way back to the house, my evening made!
3.
4.
5. When Julia went on that mission trip to Central America, I gave her some money and asked her to pick me up some souvenirs. There have been teams or individuals from Victory Road taking mission trips to a country in Central America since 2010, and I wanted a couple of specific items like ones they'd brought back before. Julia said she could get them for me.
Wednesday night when she came in the room before class and saw me, she threw up her hands. 'I forgot to bring your things!'
'It's fine!' I assured her. 'Just whenever you can get them to me is fine. Hey, and I want you to keep the change and save it for your trip next year,' I said as she gave me a hug (which is rare - she doesn't just give out hugs). There had been about $30 worth of things she hadn't been able to get for me because she'd been sick on the day they were going to do their main souvenir shopping.
She shrugged it off exclaiming, 'I won't keep track of it 'til then!' She's planning to be down there for the whole summer next year, and I knew good and well that she'd be starting to save for it soon.
'Sure you can! Put it in a bank account or something!'
The conversation moved on with other people in the room, but before she left (it was her turn to take care of the babies in the nursery this week) she whirled and gave me a long, super-tight-squeeze hug - the kind I'd only seen her give to people I know are really special to her - and I wondered if, in her own way, she was thanking me.
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