Jesusluvsall's Blog

Saturday afternoon I was blessed to share a special life moment with some friends at an engagement party for a young couple from Vietnam. It was a significant moment for me to be able to be there and join in on the celebration. I was glad to share in the joy of the moment, yet it was a moment that represents more than the party itself.

One late spring day in 2007 God answered an outburst of mine in a wonderful way. When I say outburst, it was one of those times of feeling exasperated with God over the way my life had gone up to that point.

But let me backtrack a bit. In 1998 after having been through a three ordeal with my health and then transferring to a Christian university in Omaha I prayed. The reality set in of missing basically ten years of my life at a time in life when people normally get married and start a family. So I prayed about that it would be great to meet someone to get married but if I didn’t I would still live for Jesus and share him with others.

So one day in 2007 I was having a melt down with God and had one of those outbursts perhaps we all do at times and yelled at God saying-“You don’t care about my life. Here I am with no kids, no family.”

Then God answered. He dropped a group of teens from Vietnam into my life who needed help with English and preparing for college. That is a story for another day. It was a wonderful nine years of young people moving on to college and new ones coming into my life, of sharing life with them, helping them with English, mentoring them in preparing for college and having a lot of fun.

When the moments come to share in special events with them, it a a huge blessing for me. Today was extra special for me because the engagement party was for Anh the youngest one of the many Vietnamese kids God brought into my life. I met her when she was a shy 15 year old who would giggle and laugh when I joked with her. She came to my Saturday morning group for a few years with her older brother. She blossomed and now is in college. She will graduate next year.

It was meaningful to see her family and the family of her fiance because I know most of them. It was the highlight of my week. Sharing life with people is something I treasure. It was fun to see that I could still get Anh to smile and laugh when I shared my idea for her wedding of having her and her fiance parachute in. Most of all it meant a lot to me to see her smile and her fiance and family smile.