Because friends...

In an effort to be more regular in my blogging while I’m here in Virginia, I thought I should write again today. Usually when I think about writing on the blog, I consult my journal for a particular verse or thought that has struck me recently, and then I expound on it. But I can do that anywhere, so I thought maybe it would be more interesting if I continued talking about my experience here and what God has shown me over the past week. It is difficult to believe that it really has been a week already.

A friend from home sent me a text message tonight. She asked me, quite simply: “How are things going?” Without really thinking about it, I replied: “Super great. There are some amazing people here.” Then I thought about it. I thought about how my first response to a simple and vague question about how things are going was to say something about the people here. I could have said any number of things, but my nearly subconscious reaction was to convey something of how the people I’ve become friends with have had the biggest impact on my time away so far.

I don’t exactly consider myself a shy sort of person, but I expected there to be a bit of awkwardness as I settled into life here in Virginia. I expected to feel somewhat uncomfortable around groups where everybody except me knew everybody else. I expected to spend a lot of time on my own. When I first got here I mapped out my potential coffee shop haunts in anticipation of the great amounts of time I would spend in them. But I’m telling you these people are amazing. I say “these people” because there have been many of them. They have welcomed me into their lives as though I have been here for years. Every day this week I have had the opportunity to spend time with various new friends and I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know each of them. It is astounding to me that I can call someone “friend” and mean it most sincerely after having been here for just one week.

As my previously-mentioned friend from home pointed out, this is an incredible “testimony to God, because nobody would be kind to someone for no reason, except that God gives us a new nature and causes us to want to be kind.” Truly, the people of Sovereign Grace Church in Chesapeake, Virginia have no reason to be kind to me. But they, like me, have been given a new nature by God and I have experienced first-hand the expression of that grace they have received. I thank God for each of my new friends and for the kindness they have shown to me.