One aspect of this adventure of life that has been
unexpected, sweet, and fun has been new friendships with a group of college
students.
It all started when we moved to the little house on Long St,
in Stephenville. There were two college students living across the street. Les
met one of the girls right after we moved in when they had a garage sale. He
introduced himself to Rebecca and gave her our number to call in case they
needed help with anything. That was the start of a very special friendship.
We
became adopted grandparents to Rebecca. She had lunch or supper with us at
least 2 times a week. She began to go to church with us, and really became like
part of the family. She introduced us to
some of her friends, and eventually, we had a whole group of college girls coming
to church with us, then to our house for lunch.
Rebecca’s friend Harlie was not a Christian, but she began
to enjoy coming to church with us and having lunch afterward. She came to
believe in Jesus over the course of a few weeks in the summer of 2014, and was
baptized on Feb. 1, 2015. She has pursued
Jesus with passion since that time. Although she moved to Nashville in December,
she is still dear to us and in frequent contact.
Harlie brought her friend Morgan, who came to faith in
Christ in the summer of 2015.
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Morgan and Harlie with Les |
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Emily R. baptism |
Harlie’s friend Emily attended Harlies
baptism, and, through the next months considered the things that she heard that
day until she gave her life to Jesus in November, and was baptized the first of
December.
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Harlie, Carter, Emily M., Morgan |
Throughout these months, young friends of Rebeccas have joined
this precious little group. As the weeks
went by, we invited other college students to dinner who we met at church, and
the group grew. This fall, our grandson, Carter, attended Tarleton and found
himself with a group of best friends (all girls) that were here ready to
receive him when he came. We joke about Carter’s
cool grand parents who introduced him to a bunch of girls when he went to
college.
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Back row: Rebeca, Emily M.
Front: Harlie, Olivia, Morgan, Brannon |
Every week, we have six to fifteen college students in our
home on Sundays for dinner.
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Melissa, Jenny, Rachel, Monique, me |
Most weeks, we see these kids two or three times
during the week also. They play with our grandchildren, take naps on our sofa,
help clean the kitchen, serve the church with us, just are part of our family. We have found ourselves invited to bowling
parties, Christmas parties, other get-togethers of young people. These
relationships have brought a new purpose and vitality to our lives.
|
our Grandson Dillon with Bach |
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Emily M, Rebecca |
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Back Row: Bach, Morgan, Emily M, me, Les
Front' Harlie, Rebecca, Dillon |
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Back: Rachel, Morgan, Chance, Les, Monique, Carter
Front; Emily M, Harlie, Marla, me, Rebecca |
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Morgan, me Les, Emily M
Harlie, Rebecca, Cassie |
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Harlie, me, Rebecca, Cassie |
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Samantha, me, Monique |
It is amazing what God has done, all starting from a move to
a fixer upper on Long Street.
We had no idea what was starting.