Dear Gina

Happy one year anniversary! Technically, it was yesterday… so I’m a day late.

Oh, you mean you don’t remember what you were doing one year ago yesterday? I didn’t remember either, until breakfast this morning. I have an index card file on our kitchen table, with 365 index cards inside. There’s one for every day of the year. Each morning at breakfast, I pull out the card from the previous day and write one or two sentences about what we did that day. As the days and years pass, I’ll have an instant time capsule to go back and look at our life and the daily minutiae.

Today, I looked at November 13 and it said, “2010: Dan grilled for Second Saturday and Eric came too. Elizabeth took kids for haircuts. Church tonight with first-time visitors Gina, B, and L.” (initials for privacy)

I got tears in my eyes. Katie said, “Why are you crying?” She was in the midst of filling out a leaf for our November Thankful Tree, so I told her, “I’m thankful for friends who go to church with us.” She looked at me with a confused look on her face, so I showed her the card. Then I explained by saying, “You know L’s mommy and daddy? A long time ago, I asked her to go to church with us. She said no. I think it was because she wasn’t so sure about Jesus and God. But I kept asking her and asking her. Finally, after a year of asking, she said yes. She went with us a year ago, and I think since then she has become a follower of Jesus. And I’m so glad for her!”

Oh, Gina! My heart is so full of joy in watching you and your husband and the changes God has brought to your life this past year. I love when you write on your blog about your growing faith, and I LOVE when you text me about the little ways The Crossing has permeated your life. The best was this one you sent me yesterday, after your first day of training in the kids ministry and how much you enjoyed it. You wrote, “I cannot believe it took me a year to agree to come.”

That sentence literally makes me weak and fills my eyes with tears. What a testament! To know you fought it for so long, but God is faithful and He wooed you. Most importantly? He NEVER gave up on you. I am blessed beyond measure to be a witness to that.

I can’t WAIT to see what He continues to do in your life and B’s!

Love,

Elizabeth

P.S. I looked up the first emails you and I sent to each other. In only the second email I ever sent you, I invited you to The Crossing. The date was 6/5/09. It took you until 11/13/2010 to attend, or exactly 526 days. (But who’s counting?!)