haley.

Haley spent the afternoon with me at work yesterday. I really enjoyed having her here for the fellowship and encouragement. She's such a refreshing friend!

She's not one I post a lot about, but someone who means a lot to me. I met her just a few weeks after she became a Christian. She joined our Tuesday Night Bible study during our senior year and brought so much life to the group with her questions and thoughts about the things we studied. I was amazed by her obvious love for the Lord and challenged to pursue Him more because of her example.

Fast forward a couple of years. Last spring/summer we were in the same place, wondering WHERE our letters back from Moody were. We texted and called each other for a few weeks as we waited for our futures to be determined by MBI. She heard back first... she was accepted to a campus in Spokane, Washington. 

Meanwhile, I asked myself what if God wants me to go to WASHINGTON? Will I go? No, God doesn't want me there. It's Chicago or nothing. Or not. The letter came a week or so after Haley heard. And I accepted, as you know. 

So anyway, we both came from Beaufort, both went to school in Washington. We and only a handful of other represented the Eastern side of the country. We'd planned on rooming together but it didn't work out. Who knows why... but not rooming together meant that meeting her for coffee or catching up in the halls at school was a treat. It was SO nice to have someone from home. We talked about church, people we'd known prior to school starting (our histories with everyone else only went back to August), what it was like when she first got saved, Beaufort... though our talks were few, they were a treat. 

It's summer now, and only eleven months since we made the trek to Spokane. I'll be in Chicago in August and she'll be in Wisconsin. We won't be together but we will be a mere three hours from one another. 

Now we have lots more in common, since we're the only ones from Beaufort to venture to the other coast. We talk about those people, those churches, that school, that town... and once again, it's nice to have that connection to the not-so-distant past. We're also going through some of the same things and in that, we can encourage one another. What a relief! How great!

I love that God puts people in our lives like Haley. We're completely NOT alike, different in every way. Yet He's placed us in the same situations, giving us the ability to be used by Him in each other's lives. We're both believers and we're able to encourage one another in Him, to lift things up, and to pray together in His name. It's super. 

Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Colossians 3:14

Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing. I Thess. 5:11

cell phone pic of us, yesterday.