Lisa was our one
connection between Calvary, a church we attended and loved in Hannibal,
Missouri when we lived there, and OBU in Arkadelphia. She grew up in Calvary,
and when she showed up in Arkadelphia, we took her under our wing. She worked
for Barbara, on occasion. She was a photography assistant, cleaned our
baseboards when Barbara was down in her back, and helped Barbara throw a tea
party. Those kind of jobs are more plentiful in Arkadelphia, more so than the
real jobs. She was training to be an athletic trainer, and had to transfer to
continue that pretty quickly. Way too quickly. She just got married. This year.
Dayton graduated
last year, and is currently getting a good, long look at some of the hard
things in life, as well as some of the beautiful ones, as an African
missionary. She's had dozens of marriage proposals while there, and took a
young child, dying of Aids, in to live with her. She's there for a year.
Bethany is a
Spanish major, and is currently studying in Spain for a year. We miss her. But
we'll get her back, for a time.
Hillary and Annie
have an even longer relationship with Fellowship Church than we do. Their
parents, Michael and Shirleen, were some of the founders. Michael, my best
friend, was killed in a motorcycle accident, years ago.
In later years, I
suddenly felt a need to call Hillary. Then later Annie. And finally, Shirleen.
They later reported that each of those calls came during a major low point in
their lives, and were a bit spooked by it. They wanted to know how I knew to
call at that moment. I didn’t know, but I have a strange feeling about how that
came about. Michael was the strongest lay Christian I have ever known. I’ll let
you write your own ending to this little story. I already have mine.
Hillary graduated
from HSU, Annie from OBU.
Hillary and John
now live in Tennessee, Annie and Clayton in Texas. Fortunately, they both pass
through Arkadelphia to visit each other. That gives us a chance to see those
beautiful babies they are having.
I took Aaron
catfishing several times, setting out sixty or so cane poles. Aaron says I
taught him a
Good lifetime hobby. Aaron is a biology major, like I was. He
soon hooked up with Cayla-Marie. They
married, and have moved on to Fayetteville. Cayla-Marie is a distance
runner, like I once was, sixty pounds and fifty years ago. They are a perfect
match. Like two bookends. With emphasis on the word perfect. Africa became
their next home.
Gobi was two weeks
short of a Master's degree when diagnosed with cancer. He was alone in this
country, a student at HSU. Our church took him in, along with a lot of help
from HSU. We drove him to Hot Springs to chemotherapy treatments regularly.
When he became too weak to look after himself, Barbara and I took him home with
us. Barbara often helped him dress to take him to yet another chemotherapy
treatment. Barbara stood up in our small church one Sunday, said Gobi needed to
go to MD Anderson Hospital at Houston. She needed $2000 by Friday. On Friday,
she had $2000, a plane ticket, and paid motel reservations. He is now cancer
free, a professor in Malaysia, has a beautiful wife and daughter. Our daughter put up a wonderful post on
Facebook recently about her parent's love. A comment immediately popped up from
a world away. “I know all about that love. It saved my life.” Barbara and I had
a good cry.
Joann graduated
from OBU, sold everything she owned to raise money to go to China as a
missionary. She stayed for years. When in this country recently, she came by
and spent the night. I got out a truly weird thing I bought at a garage sale in
Australia, to ask her if she knew what it was. She ran away screaming. Seems it
was a Chinese idol or god of some sort. But it has been a totally well behaved
weird thing in my closet for years now. Maybe she knows something about it I
don't, but need to.
Daniel is one of
the few who has not broken our hearts. He graduated from HSU, and found a real
job in Arkadelphia. A rare thing. He still shows up regularly at our house on
Sunday nights.
Another Daniel
spent much of his time, while in Arkadelphia, wandering the poor neighborhoods,
meeting children, bringing them to church, playing with them, as well as making
them totally adore him. A local lady once saw what he was doing, called him
over to her car, handed him several hundred dollars. She told him to spend it
on the kids as he saw fit. He did. He also visited elderly, lonely ladies
regularly, and drove them wherever they needed to go. We finally hired him to
do his thing for the Church, and train others to do the same. But there was
only one Daniel Graham, and when he and others he trained moved on, that work
lessened. But others were inspired by him, as we all were, and are beginning to
take up the slack. Before he left, Barbara asked him to be her Words with
Friends (internet Scrabble) buddy. He told Barbara he would take it easy on
her.
Barbara replied,
“No! I want you to do your very best!” Soon Barbara was beating him like a
drum. There's only one sixty-four year old scrabble player like Barbara. I
learned that long ago.
Kate hung around
Arkadelphia after graduating, even ran her own business for a time. She worked
tirelessly on the Kid’s Festival for our church. Now she and Brian have moved
on. Seems a seminary is now in their future.
Yet another
Daniel, and Kathleen, are twins. They were both in our group. Daniel and Lauren
fell in love. That romance, also, could have started in our living room, but
maybe not. We now see their beautiful baby regularly. On facebook. Kathleen is a gifted dancer, a talent best
used in a larger city.
Most recently,
Tim, our tireless power point and computer expert at our church, and his wife
Kayla, who could always be found at our church working with the kids, left for
Colorado, he for seminary and she for a university job.
Kylie was my best
renter ever. An old soul, still in her twenties. She hung around for an
advanced degree. Then, she had a chance to work with Neal Nelson, one of our
pastors and director of HSU's Baptist Collegate Ministries. Who could pass up a
chance to work with Neal? As a really big plus, she met and married Daniel, (We
just love our large flock of Daniels!) still finishing up his own degree, a
budding Sports Analyst or Sports Information Director. But, we fear he will
soon carry her away from us, to a larger city, where his expertise will
probably lead him. But we won't like it.
This is just a
sampling. I could go on and on. My apology to all those equally loved students
I didn't have room to include. Wherever our wonderful university kids/adults
are in this world today, they will always be in our hearts. But we'll see them
again. In this world or the next.
By Pat Gillum
No comments:
Post a Comment