Sooo, new stuff in the life of Joseph/Ishvi... Ummm, school? Community finally coming back? Ooo, we'll talk about community, school reminds me I have homework to do.
Okay, so as many of you probably don't know, I started going to college lifegroups (Kinda like bible studies but more focused on felloship, I think the best way to describe them is like this) when I was 12 or so. We had just moved to Waco and the awesome church we were going to decided to multiply. A little less than half of the "regular" church and most of the college group going with one of the pastors to start a more church planting focused church (ACC), and the rest staying at Highland.
My two oldest brothers (Moon and the chubby orc himself) and I went to the new one, while our parents and remaining brother stayed at the old one. But anyways, all this to explain why I ended up at a college lifegroup at 12 or so, and have been there for the last 8 years.
For most of those 8 years I expierenced some GREAT community, I'm talking stuff straight out of Acts 2, we ate together, had fun together, anything that was worth doing, we did as a lifegroup. But over the last few years I'd started to drift away, not get busy with other stuff mind you, but just kinda stop going. After all, everyone I knew to start out with had graduated, I would name old appartments that had HUGE memories from back when I started, and all the new crowd would just kinda look at me funny.
Buuuuuut all this changed! As most of you know I went to Germany this summer to do childcare for a mission conference, turns out one of the girls who was helping out with the older kids had an awesomely active section (group of lifegroups) and invited me to come along. Again, all that explaining was pseudo-necessary to explain why I was so excited to say yes and go along. I spent two weeks hanging out with the kids of people I hadn't seen in several years! We had good times, shared good jokes, talked about their kids (who were AWESOME), and best of all, I was reminded that I was the origenal Broseph.
The name Broseph came about largely because I LOVE to hang out with people, Don't care what you're doing. I've happily cleaned people's houses with them, cooked for them, gone shopping with them just to fellowship! I. Love. People. So I became known as Broseph, a term one of them carried to San Diego with them and used as a term of endearment for people, but none of them knew it was mine! This was evident when he had to explain to one of his church plant buddies why he called me the origenal Broseph.
So I've been getting to hang out with people again, it's awesome. Spent last Sunday night hanging out eating pancakes with a bunch of people from my lifegroup, it was great. Oooo! That reminds me of something!
Okay, so we all know God provides (If you don't talk to me, Moon, Wulfa, or Dammerung and we'll happily explain it to ya), but sometimes he does it when we REALLY don't expect that we need to be provided for. I say this of course because I have example!
Okay, was watching a friend's house for him this last week, his g-ma (good christian woman that had cancer and while kinda expected still sad) died down in Florida and he had to take his family down to the funeral, and then stayed a little longer when a relative gave his family tickets to Disney Land. They were due back late Wednesday night, so I put some venison in to marinade so they wouldn't have to cook Thursday, also I love cooking AND I'd get to hang out with them before/during/afterwards. So I marinade, and off to class I go in the morning, after a quick talk informing them I'd be back later to cook said meat so not to plan for dinner.
Get to class, call my mom like I normally do, well, sometimes my dad but anyways. My dad answers, this is by far not odd, but the crying in the background was very odd. I ask what's wrong and get told one of my homeschooling friends from growing up had died in an accident the night before. While I hadn't talked to Keller in some time I still think of him as a friend. He was one of the most energetic, active, and completely looney people I know, knew (I hate grammar).
Needless to say this shocked me, I mean, who expects 24 year olds to die? Normally my reaction to this sort of thing is to tell people who will want to know but might have been out of the loop, do whatever needs to be done, and then go catatonic somewhere thinking of good memories. But God wasn't gonna let that happen! I had promised to make dinner for this family, and what a Wauson promises to do we do, or at least try really hard to do, and in my somewhat depressed state "My friend died, can I not cook?" sounded like a really crappy excuse. So I showed up, I'd already texted my friend earlier and had forced myself to feel better so I didn't drag them down, so I had a short talk with him before I started cooking.
It's amazing how cooking dinner for a family of five (5y old, 2?y old, and 9?y old) just makes you feel good. We laughed, joked around, ate some awesome food, and then I went home feeling great. Still sad my friend died, but remembering all the great times we had and how he was having such a better time in heaven right now, lucky dog.
Anyways, this post has gone WAY longer than I wanted it too, but who knows, maybe someone will actually read it down this far!
~joe/ishvi
