Weathered Love

MISSION

"Seriously, it'll change you," Leah stated over the phone. She was trying to convince me to join her on one of her mission trips. She figured it would help heal my soul after Ivan.

"I have no doubt," I sighed. "I'm just not sure I can justify missing the rest of the semester to go on a mission trip. I'm lucky that I didn't have to repeat any classes from last semester. I won't be lucky again this semester, of that I'm sure."

"See if there are any groups on campus that do mission trips. They'll probably have methods of not hurting your GPA," Leah continued to encourage. I did want to help people out. And it would be nice to get out of the country for a bit, or at least get away from the people and places that reminded me of Ivan. I needed a change of pace to get out of this funk. I'd made sure things were completely over between Jason and I, and Lewis and I for that matter. Lewis took it really well and we still hung out strictly as friends. Jason took it better than I expected, but I could tell he was avoiding me. I didn't have the energy to care.

"I'll see what I can find," I conceded. "I need to go," I informed her. I was running late for my next class.

"Sure thing. But this conversation isn't over!" she warned. Then, the line went dead. I threw my phone into my bag and raced out of my apartment.

While in class, I decided to do a quick search on the school's website for mission clubs. I figured it wouldn't hurt to check them out. I didn't need to commit to any missions if I just searched. I found the Peace Corps and a couple of philanthropic groups, but I couldn't find any groups that didn't require a few years' commitment but still had significant mission trips.

I chanced upon a Christian group and their description did talk about mission trips, so I figured it couldn't hurt to check them out. Their next meeting was going to be the next night, which I happened to have available, so I didn't have an excuse not to test the waters.

* * *

"Hey guys, we have a few quick announcements!" someone yelled at the top of her lungs at the front of the room. I had just walked in and it was a chaotic mess of college students clamoring around tables of food along the room's perimeter, or else standing in the middle of the room, chatting and laughing. I felt completely out of my element and was seriously considering just leaving. No one had noticed me yet anyway. It would be as if I'd never come.

"Hey, have we met?" someone asked me to my right. I almost rolled my eyes, thinking it was a pathetic pick-up attempt. I was about to let this guy down in as Christian a way as I could when I turned and stopped. He did look familiar.

"Maybe," I finally admitted, examining his face.

"Andrew, can you come up here please?" the girl at the front yelled.

"That's my cue," he smiled, walking away from me and heading to the front of the room. Why was he wearing a baseball cap inside? And then it clicked. The guy from the lighthouse! So, his name was Andrew.

"Hey everyone," Andrew stated. I looked at him more closely, studying his features. He had a really nice smile and very kind looking eyes. "So, the last day to register for the mission trip is in two weeks, and I know we're all college students, but please don't treat registration like your class assignments. There will be no extensions," he joked. There were some shared chuckles in the group.

"Also, for those of you who want to give back to the community but a mission trip isn't quite your style, we have a few service opportunities coming up: there's our weekly visits to the local soup kitchen, so if you ever want to join, remember to sign-up online. We also have our monthly visits to sick kids in the hospital, visits to the local prisons, and our annual retirement home Christmas visit where we sing carols and spend time with people whose families aren't able to visit them. If you're interested in any of those, again, sign up online," Andrew stated.