Getting together with friends
Jennifer and I had the opportunity to share an evening with some old friends of mine. David was a good friend when I attended 9th grade at Joint Embassy School (now Jakarta International School). Tina and I shared a class at JES, but we became friends when we renewed that acquaintance in Dr. Guzman's Math 151H and 152H Calculus for Engineers classes at A&M.
Tina and her husband got together with our family last August at Siciliano's A Taste of Italy in Garland. I mention the restaurant specifically because it is a very distinctive experience and uniquely Garland. (I have mentioned that the Fox network show "King of the Hill" is based in Arlen, TX which is modeled after Garland haven't I??) We had fun sharing, renewing the acquaintance, and meeting each others families.
This time Tina's husband wasn't available and we decided to just have the adults meet as we included David and his wife Theresa. As we sat around the table and talked about where folks had lived and how we met spouses and such, it struck me how much my time overseas shaped who I am as a person. It was only 3.5 years out of my (now) 45. But the impact has been enormous.
I felt very comfortable with each of them. I could tell that my wife and David's wife felt a little outside of the conversation as neither ever lived outside of the US. But the cameraderie between Tina, David, and myself was shared, understood, and instantaneous.
It turns out that all three of us were in Indonesia for different reasons. Tina's dad had worked with the UN on resettlement programs in Indonesia. Java has been traditionally very crowded and the outlying islands are much less densely populated. So the UN attempted to help Indonesians move off of Java and onto other islands. The effort didn't go well, she said, and I am aware that it caused some real problems on Kalimantan as it exacerbated religious tensions between Christians and Muslims by redistributing the demographics there.
David's parents were there doing petroleum work and his dad managed one of the fields on Kalimantan. The year we came on furlough in 1976, his family moved to the petroleum field and David moved from JES to an international school in Penang, Malaysia (which was closer than JES.) David's parents later worked in Saudia Arabia during David's college years. Remarkably, David's first year was also at A&M!
The unexpected surprise of the evening was the arrival of the pastor from our church who, coincidentally, is also an Aggie. That caused us all to smile broadly as we joked about how coincidences--more and more--don't seem very coincidental.
As the evening progressed, I very much enjoyed the gentleness and sincerity of the conversation. It was both intimate and considerate. We were able to include both David's wife and Jennifer. We remembered other close friends. As I write this I feel very happy about taking the time to get together with them.
And I also compare that time to how I think heaven will be. I think that as Christians we put too little emphasis on how the people we know and love is what will make heaven comfortable and familiar. Yes, I want to see Jesus there! Yes, I long to be face-to-face with my Creator! But I also long for relationships untainted by sin and all of its distorting influences.
Last night I think I got a glimpse of that. Gentle people gathered around a table for fellowship together. No pretense. Lots of love. It was heavenly.
Tina and her husband got together with our family last August at Siciliano's A Taste of Italy in Garland. I mention the restaurant specifically because it is a very distinctive experience and uniquely Garland. (I have mentioned that the Fox network show "King of the Hill" is based in Arlen, TX which is modeled after Garland haven't I??) We had fun sharing, renewing the acquaintance, and meeting each others families.
This time Tina's husband wasn't available and we decided to just have the adults meet as we included David and his wife Theresa. As we sat around the table and talked about where folks had lived and how we met spouses and such, it struck me how much my time overseas shaped who I am as a person. It was only 3.5 years out of my (now) 45. But the impact has been enormous.
I felt very comfortable with each of them. I could tell that my wife and David's wife felt a little outside of the conversation as neither ever lived outside of the US. But the cameraderie between Tina, David, and myself was shared, understood, and instantaneous.
It turns out that all three of us were in Indonesia for different reasons. Tina's dad had worked with the UN on resettlement programs in Indonesia. Java has been traditionally very crowded and the outlying islands are much less densely populated. So the UN attempted to help Indonesians move off of Java and onto other islands. The effort didn't go well, she said, and I am aware that it caused some real problems on Kalimantan as it exacerbated religious tensions between Christians and Muslims by redistributing the demographics there.
David's parents were there doing petroleum work and his dad managed one of the fields on Kalimantan. The year we came on furlough in 1976, his family moved to the petroleum field and David moved from JES to an international school in Penang, Malaysia (which was closer than JES.) David's parents later worked in Saudia Arabia during David's college years. Remarkably, David's first year was also at A&M!
The unexpected surprise of the evening was the arrival of the pastor from our church who, coincidentally, is also an Aggie. That caused us all to smile broadly as we joked about how coincidences--more and more--don't seem very coincidental.
As the evening progressed, I very much enjoyed the gentleness and sincerity of the conversation. It was both intimate and considerate. We were able to include both David's wife and Jennifer. We remembered other close friends. As I write this I feel very happy about taking the time to get together with them.
And I also compare that time to how I think heaven will be. I think that as Christians we put too little emphasis on how the people we know and love is what will make heaven comfortable and familiar. Yes, I want to see Jesus there! Yes, I long to be face-to-face with my Creator! But I also long for relationships untainted by sin and all of its distorting influences.
Last night I think I got a glimpse of that. Gentle people gathered around a table for fellowship together. No pretense. Lots of love. It was heavenly.
posted by greg.w.h@6:20 AM link-to-post
2 comments
2 Comments:
Sounds like a great night that you and Jennifer needed! I am so glad that you had that.
Wow so interesting how 3 years of your life can have such impact..
I am so behind on blogging and on catching up with others. It's good to read and catch up a bit!
Wendy
Ok, ok...I missed this message because Thunderbird wasn't hooked up to Gmail. It is now!!
Glad you could catch up, Wendy! We're starting a new phase soon and I'll spend some time talking about it. I'll drop you an email about it with more details soon!
Greg
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