colfax

I got to know my husband walking Colfax street. Yes, it's true.

I guess it all started before then, the semester before (my first at CCU). I transferred in mid-year. I had one friend already attending CCU, and I guess we hung out...I really don't remember. She was doing her thing, I was trying to figure out my thing (whilst working full time and being a full time student. I think my thing was energy drinks, coffee, and diet coke and barely making it to anything I needed to be at).

The other half of "my thing" was figuring myself out. I fell in with a crowd of people that weren't the most positive influence, and by the end of my first semester I was disgusted with who I was.

I left that year hoping for and pursuing change. I asked myself what kind of person I wanted to be. And then I asked myself "how do I become the person I want to be?".

I spent a lot of time reading-the bible (the whole thing that summer!), and other books. And that was helpful-purified my heart and mind. But I also, more, or at least as importantly, realized that a person becomes who they hang out with (what your parents say is true!), and I needed to surround myself with people that had the qualities I desired to possess.

That's where Mark came in. Really and truly.
With the start of the year my mission began.
By chance,I was blessed with a fantastic group of roommates.
I also began my internship in the missions department of CCU, and there encountered an incredible woman/co-intern/ccu student named Lauren. Her heart was (and still is!)a heart of gold. Oh, I learned so much from her.

Beyond those people, as I surveyed the student body, the only other person that came to mind, that possessed unquestionable character, was Mark.

I watched him. I noticed his ways... I got involved in the things he was involved in. I re-learned joy, loving the unloveable, the power of a smile, to bask in the simple things, innocence.

Those things were so important for me-so life-giving and life changing. And then I re-learned some other things too...how funny I could be, how interesting some people may think I am, how other people can share my heart for the poorest of the poor, how a gentle man can command my attention, and so much more...

And, boy howdy, it was those second things I learned that really did me in. I was smitten.

I loved getting to know Mark. I started volunteering with a homeless ministry called Fatboys on Thursday nights (not JUST because of Mark), and although there were multiple "routes", I eventually ended up working the one Mark led-Colfax to Day Labor. So ya....that's where I got to know him...walking down Colfax on Thursday evenings. I loved it. (and, side note, I love that we started our "friend" relationship serving alongside each other. Ministry with Mark is my absolute favorite thing to do with him.)