Brief Encounters

Time is flying by! The more I settle in here, the busier I get and the less time I have to post blogs. So it's time to catch up.

Let me take you back to 1996...I promise we won't stay there very long.

I was 18 and experienced my first taste of independence as I toured for 6 weeks in the summer with the Continental Singers (there are actually people who are proud of this fact...I'm still making up my mind). Despite the inevitable cheese-factor of this singing/dancing choir, the experience had a huge impact on my life. For the first time in my life, I was surrounded by people who loved music as much as I did and who wanted to use it to serve God.

There was one girl in particular that I had a "kindred spirit" connection with. Amy & I would hunch down in the seats of the tour bus for hours, solving all the world's problems and a few of our own. When tour ended, she gave me a small gift that she had brought with her on tour to give to a new friend. It was very special...I still have it somewhere!

After tour, I went off to college and Amy returned to Japan where her dad was posted as a US Military Chaplain. This may be hard to believe, but hardly anyone had email back then! We wrote a couple of letters, but then Amy's family moved from Japan and a letter got bounced back to me...and that was the end of our correspondance.

Nine years later, I had returned to my college to teach singing lessons. I went to the Post Office one day and there was a card in the mail...from Amy. She randomly decided to try and get in touch with me, hoping I would still be at the same address (which would be really depressing if I were still a student there!). The Post Office knew me and just moved the card into my new mailbox. We had reconnected! What a gift! It was amazing to catch up and hear each other's journeys. She was now in Nashville, TN, but it was difficult to line up a time to reconnect in person.

And then Facebook happened...making keeping in touch even easier. Amy has developed a speaking/singing ministry that has flourished and has taken her all over the world. In fact, it took her to Australia, to a young adult retreat on Mt. Tamborine, just 30 minutes from Brisbane. And I just happened to be attending this retreat.

So after 14 years, we reconnected in Australia. How crazy is that? It was really cool to see her again...in fact, we found a couch and hunched down to chat just like we did on the tour bus. Her teaching throughout the weekend was rich and it was exciting to see someone so vibrant in their ministry.

Although we didn't get to spend a ton of time together and it could easily be years before we see each other again, it was a great brief encounter. And even "moment friends" are blessings.

(if I had access to a picture of us in 1996, I would include it...it would make for some good laughs)