Some Friendships Are Costly AND Worth It

Revival continues to go well at Landmark Holiness Tabernacle. We are loving our time with Pastor Jeremy Brooks, his family and his church folks. We intend to put up a Revival In Pictures post on Friday.

Some Friendships Are Costly AND Worth It

There is an almost endless list of things we enjoy about the life we live on the road. A few of them we have probably never talked about here, but many of the things we love, we talk about all the time. Those of you that read regularly know the list well. 

We love new places, new faces, the food, the fellowship, the fun and the frivolity. We love revival, watching people get saved, watching saints receive encouragement and witnessing Pastors and their families gain strength.

We love driving into new cities, walking into new churches and falling in love with new people. That never gets old to us. It makes us nervous, it challenges our tendencies that naturally turn inward, but it ultimately enriches our lives.

We love new cultures, new languages, new traditions and we love jumping right into the middle of it. We love when the unfamiliar presses against the hard edges of our comfort zone and pushes down the wall.

Another thing we love is that we get to build relationships with people all over the world. I was a little concerned when we hit the road that we would be "cheated" out of getting to really be a part of peoples lives by not staying in one place all the time.

What really happened is that even though we are only in one location for a short time, we are often blessed to return time and again. We may not have the same relationships with people that we would if we were with them every week of the year, but surprisingly God has blessed us with dozens and dozens of really good friends in multiple locations. We love that!

Some of those friendships come naturally and fall into place with little effort on our part. We are now very close to many folks and it happened so fast we were dear friends before we knew it.

Other friendships we have had to work on.

We walked into an instant and comfortable friendship with Bro. Brian and Sis. Stacy Cole several years ago. They were a young couple when we met and we liked them a lot from the start. When God gave them a miracle baby, we were thrilled for them.

For several years I tried to get their little girl, Kaitlyn, to talk to me or even look at me. She acted painfully shy and scared to death of me. Every time we were any where near Oklahoma City I would go to church prepared with a package of M&Ms, hoping that some day the tasty chocolate treat would do the trick.

I did not seem to be making much progress even as Kaitlyn grew into a teenager. We pulled into Calvary Holiness in Midwest City for revival in 2014 and we zipped into a store on the way to church to so I could be armed for my charm offensive. With a package of M&Ms in hand I approached her pew and handed it over.

Kaitlyn reached to receive my gift and then smiled as she was reaching beside her and handed me something. What was it? It was the biggest bag of M&Ms I have ever seen. It was a 42 ounce bag and she was giving them to me!

I was speechless! She really got me. That seemed to do the trick and broke the ice. After many years, we were now friends.

Well, Kaitlyn graduated from high school this year and is off to Bible school soon. We knew we would probably see her in Amber, so we went prepared.

Kelly Jo designed and created a beautiful M&M bouquet. We presented it to her after church at the tent one night. I think we got her this time.

We are proud of Kaitlyn and of what she is allowing God to do in her life. She is a fine young lady and living proof that some friendships are worth pursuing and a few M&Ms along the way are pretty good too!

Thanks for tuning in today.

Davy