“Marty!” The voice on the other end of the phone exclaimed. “I HAD to call and tell you that I got to see my friend Olivia, my BEST FRIEND from my crew on our mission trip last summer!”
Last Friday, I received this joyful call from Cece Baer, who had just accompanied her father on a business trip. As they were driving down to Nashville, Cece decided to check Snap Maps, a feature on the social media app Snapchat, just to see whether anyone she knew might be in the Nashville region. To her surprise, she found her friend Olivia who she had met two years prior during the CSMSG High School Mission Trip.
Here is Cece’s story:
“It is crazy how God brings people back to you who make you rethink your purpose in life. I recently went to Nashville for a trip with my dad. He had a business meeting and I reached out to Olivia who attends Belmont University. Olivia is from Connecticut and was in my work crew two years ago when I was on the CSMSG High School Mission Trip in Erie, Pennsylvania. We have kept in touch through Snapchat over these past years and were so happy to see one another again! Olivia was by far the one person who I clicked with right away. In those seven days of knowing one another we shared many stories about our lives and how God is always with us through these experiences. When I saw her last we ended a conversation about a friendship I had with someone, and then two years later we picked right up where we left off. It is so easy to talk to her and it is crazy how God brought this long-distance friendship among us. We went out for dinner and laughed the whole time about stories we shared from the mission trip. It was most definitely a nostalgic conversation! After spending about three hours with her we already planned another time for me to go down and visit her at Belmont. It is CRAZY how God works in these mysterious ways and brought this person into my life and brought us back together two years later."
In today’s world, cut off as we may feel at times from many of our normal routines and activities, perhaps we can be encouraged from Cece’s experience of reconnecting with someone important to her. One of the benefits of technology is its ability to help us maintain the relationships that sustain us - both earthly and spiritually - whether by phone, email, social media, or video chat. Is there a relationship that you would like to revive today?
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.
.............Ephesians 3:20-21
Marty
