Thursday, October 12, 2006

Our Story - Part 1

I decided to write up Geoff's & My Story. Even if no one reads it, we'll have it written somewhere for future posterity's sake. :)
I invite you to share yours with everyone. If you decide to, please post a comment, so we can all go to your blog to read it. I would love to hear of how God led you two together!
Mine has a ton of details that I don't want to forget, so it's pretty long & wordy. I've decided to chop it up into a couple of posts. I've written it from my point of view, but at the end I'll add some details from his point.

A Little Background
When I was a freshman at Northland Baptist Bible College in 1998, I thought with frightening excitement that my husband could be on this campus right now. As time went on, I desired to have a boyfriend, but since nothing was happening in that area of my life, I invested my time in my friends, work, & studies.

I worked in the kitchen my freshman year, and did not enjoy it at all. It helped with paying my bills, but I truly desired to be a secretary since I had experience in that area. The summer following that year, I found out that one of my friends who had a secretary job, decided to transfer to another college. I thought that I could try contacting her supervisor to see if I could snag her job. I was told that the opening had already been filled, but there was a secretary opening in the Extension Office, so I e-mailed Miss Lewis about it. Thankfully, I was able to get the job there, and really enjoyed working with Miss Lewis, the Hairgroves, and the other girls & GA’s in the office. One of my duties was to help with the small traveling teams that minister to youth groups & churches. I would organize their schedule and create a packet of maps and money for the team leader. There were 3 teams total, one that did activities with elementary kids, one that held local teen youth rallies, and one that assisted churches with free maintenance/construction help. The team leaders usually had to be called every once in awhile to be encouraged to give me the info I needed – especially the maintenance team. That leader was very arrogant and hard to talk to, tall & intimidating, and I dreaded calling him to ask questions. The worst part was that I didn’t know what to call him! Everyone called him “Gee-off”, but when I saw his name written it was Geoff (another way to spell Jeff). I felt bad that people were saying his name wrong, but he said there weren’t. He was G’off (Gee-off), but I could call him Geoff if I wanted. How confusing was that? So, I called him both, because I knew at least one of them was right. :o) Mostly, I just tried to stay out of his way.

One day, I had to ask G’off a question, and Jen Schuyler was sitting next to me. I was so tired of this guy’s arrogance; I just turned on my own attitude and got quite snotty with him. When he left, she gave me a look, and I said, “That wasn’t too nice, was it.” She agreed, and my conscience forced me to apologize to him. From then on, I tried to beat him with kindness, and I started to get to know him a tiny bit. Later on in the year, it dawned on me that he wasn’t arrogant and full of himself, but actually just shy and quiet.
As single college girls do, my friends and I would discuss boys. Not that I had a huge crush on him, but I told my friends that I thought he was a nice guy, and I was watching him. Jokingly, during our Junior year, we discussed setting each other up for an upcoming Valentine’s Banquet. I never thought of it again, because the banquet was quite a ways away, and my friends would never even think of doing something like that, and I didn’t have the guts to try it either. As of now, I was reconciled to be a single person desiring to teach in a school, and serve in a church. I joked with my friends saying that I would meet my husband in a nursing home. Secretly, I was praying that God would help me to accept singleness, and if it was His will for me to marry that I would only date the person I was to marry.

To Be Continued . . .

No comments: