praying for friends, pt1

That sounds lame, doesn't it? I promise it's not that pitiful.

When I went to college, I was the only person there from my high school. I knew no one. No one. Luckily, I hit it off with my roommate and had someone to walk around with the first night. Except for when she left me near Frat Court at 11pm. (Daddy, stop reading. Trust me.) I had to walk back to my dorm, alone, having no idea how to get there. I was skeeeered. I knew I couldn't call my parents to do the whole if-I'm-the-phone-I-won't-get-jumped thing because then they would know that I was walking around alone and that would be BAD. That was like the first thing my dad told me before I left. Break that rule, and I was in trouble. So I prayed, prayed, prayed that God would get me home safely and vowed to never walk alone again.

A few days later, the roomie and I went to Fall Fest, which is where all of the clubs and organizations set up tables to get the newbies to sign up. It's after 9pm on the main street through campus, which they close off. It was great until she left me for some of her high school friends. Wait, did that just happen again? She really wasn't that bad. I was being clingy, I'm sure.

So I walked over to the Student Union (I will never forget this night as long as I live) and sat down on the brick wall outside the door and prayed that God would give me a friend. Just one friend. "Just one friend for me to get to know this place with." And then I got up and wandered back into the crowd.

Not 5 minutes later, I noticed a guy that was in my orientation group over the summer. Armed with the courage that comes only from God and the power of prayer, I approached him. Not in a flirty way, but in a "Oh, hey. I think I know you?" kind of way. He introduced me to his friends and there it was - the answer to my prayer. I would eat lunch with them, go to different freshman meetings with them, explore campus with them. We went to the freshman picnic with Campus Crusade together, where I met Meredith and KL. They were my bible study leaders that year, who took me in and introduced me to their friends. And that's how I met Martha, my bff. And Seth. Who lived with Andrew. Who I married 4 years later. Do you see how this prayer thing worked out?

I didn't really stay close to the original friends, my first friends, after freshman year. But we always had the inside joke that our friendship anniversary was the night of Fall Fest, when I wasn't afraid to pray a pleading prayer out of desperation and fear and shyness and loneliness. It was one of the clearest answers to a prayer that I've ever gotten. And I'm so glad that I prayed it in the first place.

Stayed tuned for part 2, and the point, of this story. Because there is one :)