Missing My Sweetheart

My post today is full-on selfish: I miss my wife! She left Saturday for a week-long mission trip to Guatemala with a group from our church.

Brenda's sister called the other night to ask how we did through the storm/ flood and how I was doing with Brenda being gone. As for the flood, we made it unscathed but as for her being away, I am a mess! I received a photo yesterday from a blog on Facebook about the trip. She is standing in the midst of the children she's ministering to with a little puppet named Gozer. She looks absolutely content.

When I first met Brenda she was totally sold-out to being a missionary. She was a student at what was then called Mobile College and is today the University of Mobile. It was in the chapel service that Truth, the group with which I was playing guitar at the time, were playing a concert. She was in the audience. I noticed her as she unashamedly raised her hands in worship to God. Two things struck me immediately: 1) she seemed to be the only person openly praising God and; 2) she was a total FOX (and is to this day!). So much for my knees and their ability to hold me up at that point. I was smitten! I met her afterward and we quickly became friends through letter writing (this was 1983, kids, before email and cell phones!). I visited her family one evening for dinner at some point in the next year. I noticed a sign above the inside of her bedroom door (we were "just friends", kiddos!). It was written in her own block-letters and it simply read, "You are now entering the mission field."

When Brenda's sister reminded me of the sign the other night, all of my sadness (I am a wimp!) was replaced with joy. She, even to this day, is a missionary at heart. When we met she didn't think our friendship would amount to a life-long relationship because I wasn't planning to be a missionary. Well, if having written worship songs that travel all over the world, translated into several languages, isn't a close second, then I have have failed her. Of course those songs wouldn't be written until several years later. I pursued her like a hound because I didn't want to live without her. She married me anyway, despite my leanings toward a music ministry career. She quietly tucked the dream of one day being on the mission field in her heart for a future date of fulfillment. 25 years later she found the opportunity and in the photo she looks like she's just about "bust" with joy.

I am going to pick her up at church on Sunday evening when she arrives back in Nashville with the team. I know I am her sweetheart and the kids are jewels in her crown. But we will never replace the yearning in her heart to love God and serve him in a foreign land. Selfishly, I wanna be right there with her next time!

Brenda (middle) in her Mobile College dorm, fall, 1983

Brenda with the "jewels in her crown", Josh and Betsy (recent photo)

Brenda and the Hound, engagement photo, 1985