Beyond Borders

David with his Mom getting his room set up!

Since it’s Labor Day, and I have a little time to reflect I thought I’d share a sentimental moment. Yesterday, when I went into the balcony at church I saw David sitting at the table where he volunteers for Village 7. He helps with the projection system by running ProPresenter. I saw him for a split second, and a smile came to my face. Then all of the sudden I remembered, “Oh, David’s not here anymore!”

I suppose that was one of the many sentimental moments I will have as I adjust to my son’s new adventure, which takes him away to college. He’s at San Diego Christian College. I wrote about the beginning of his college experience a couple of weeks ago.

David with his R.A., Emmanuel

Dawn and I are happy for David. We believe he is in a good place. We were very impressed with the school when we helped get him started. We are excited by the positive Christian atmosphere at the school. We loved seeing him interact with his new friends. He introduced us to Arturo, his friend from Guadalajara, Mexico. We also enjoyed meeting his RA, Emmanuel from Kenya.

We are thrilled that he is able to intern at Harbor Mid-City. He’s already started working with them. Stephen and Bradford Phelan are some of our favorite new friends. The Lord is blessing their ministry. Stephen just texted me yesterday, and said they had a glorious conversion during the service. Praise God.

Yet even with these many good and happy thoughts there are the sentimental moments. They are not all bad, but they do remind me that I miss having my son close by. This is something that all parents go through as their grown children go off to college. It’s not particular to those in ministry. I noticed when I posted things about David going off to college on Facebook, I got a few more comments than I normally do. My friends can relate.

I had to chuckle when I saw one of our friends, Kian Shuemann’s post on Facebook after leaving her daughter at King’s College in NYC. She said, “is feeling like a horrible mother,” then she listed all these things she got for Caroline for school, and then she remembered she forgot to get her a flashlight. Even though she said this in jest, it’s something all us parents wonder from time to time. Did we do it right? Did we forget something?

20 years ago! Sorry, David sometimes it's hard to remember you are not a little guy anymore

It’s hard getting used to not being able to walk upstairs to my son’s room to talk to him about baseball, college, ministry, dreams. aspirations, etc. Although the other day we used FaceTime to talk to him, which is similar to Skype, and we talked to him for a long time. It was almost as good as being there! Dawn who was crying at first, seemed reluctant to engage. I suppose she was overwhelmed by the emotion, and she too misses her son. After we got done with the call we thought, “Wow, in some ways that was better quality time than we have when we are together.” Maybe because when we are together, everyone is doing their own thing.

Son, our prayer for you continues to be that you grow to be more and more like Christ each day. We pray that will be reflected in how you serve him and love others. Amen!

In His Loving Grip, Dave

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