I met Melissa on probably my second or third day of college as she lived down the hall from me. She was a year ahead of me but I ended up getting to know her because she invited me to go to church with her and she also was part of Intervarsity. She’s one of the few people I’ve kept in touch with since graduation.

When all the chaos started happening this week, I called her to see if I could stay with her or something because I was having to come up to northwestern Washington (where she’d moved) to deal with my family crisis. She called me back and told me she could pick me up at the train station (she actually volunteered to drive to Sea-Tac!!!!) and I could stay with her if I needed to. All I ended up needing was a ride from the train station and she also got to meet my family (who I think probably hugged her to death when they met her).

A couple days later, she called and asked if we could hang out while I was up here. My grandfather was doing well, so I said yes and we arranged to go out to dinner and talk.

We ended up going to Applebee’s tonight as well as going to the mall and doing some shopping. I honestly can’t remember the last time (if ever) I’ve gone shopping with friends and we had a really good time. We got some good conversation in and just being able to spend the time with her seriously blessed me because I miss her (she is literally the world’s sweetest person) and I’ve missed doing things with godly women my age.

So… my personal prayer request of community was answered… in a really quirky “only God would answer it this way” kind of sense.