Goodbye, my friend

Today they are burying my friend in Minnesota, and I am an ocean away. (Here is her obituary.)

I was friends with Wendy for about seven years, since we got to know each other through the Young Adult group at Wheaton Bible, or the class formerly known as Ecclesia. I gravitated toward her warm smile and we found out that we had a lot in common. We both loved our rescue dogs, we were both fascinated by biology and God’s purposeful creation of the human body, we both loved watching movies and were learning to knit, we both had sweet tooths, and we both loved Jesus. We enjoyed going out to eat together… she was famous for ordering a big stack of chocolate chip pancakes! We loved taking our dogs, Stormy and Angel, to Red Mango for frozen yogurt. Wendy was an avid sports fan, especially for the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bulls, and you could count on her to know the score of last night’s game. Speaking of games, she had a competitive streak! If you had dominoes, watch out! One of our favorite memories was going to the Cascade Drive-In to see “Wonder Woman”… Stormy and Angel loved it, too! We also went to a couple of Newsboys concerts, since they are her favorite band, and I’ll never forget how we screamed and jumped up and down when we saw their drummer lift up in the air and spin vertically, while drumming to “God’s Not Dead!” I can only imagine that Wendy had about the same reaction when she met Jesus face to face.

Wendy and I were in the same small group for over four years, and when I would give her a ride, we would discuss how our lives were going, our hopes and fears, the difficulties we were facing as we followed our Lord. We could sit in her driveway for an hour after small group just talking. She told me that God had called her to help people by becoming a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), and I shared my calling to missions with her. I knew that she had more obstacles to overcome than most, but with her passion for studying medicine and with lots of prayer, she found a fulfilling career. I am humbled by her determination and perseverance through it all. When she told me that she got up at 4am every Sunday in order to work the camera at WBC, I was amazed by her dedication. I will miss our talks in the car, I will miss her smile and her sense of humor, I will miss all of the sweet messages that she would send me to let me know she was thinking about me in Africa, and I will even miss her giggle when she beat me at a game… but most of all, I will miss her hugs. I am not very good at asking for hugs, but that didn’t matter, because Wendy was great at giving them.

This morning, I ate chocolate chip pancakes in her honor.

One day, we will eat them together again, with Jesus our Lord.