As I waited to hear from Ben, I realized that unless he got in touch with me, I had no way of getting in contact with him. Facebook was out of the question because I didn't even know his last name. After a few days of waiting, I couldn't take it anymore and was eager to hear from him and set some concrete plans in place for the race day.
My roommate was also a member at our church, and she was able to tell me Ben's last name. I don't remember if I found and added him on Facebook right then, but I did message a mutual friend who was in his small group at church and asked him for Ben's number.
When my friend sent me his number, for a moment I felt like I was being crazy. After rationalizing a phone call for practical plan making purposes, I typed in his number and hit the send button before I could change my mind. As it rang, my heart began to pound.
Ben answered with a "Hello" that revealed he had no idea who was calling, but once I told him it was me, his reaction turned to pleasant surprise. Emphasis on pleasant. Emphasis on surprise. I could literally hear the smile on his face as he spoke. We chatted a bit and then set in place plans to meet up on Saturday morning so we could all carpool downtown for the race.
After we hung up, I was satisfied not only with his excited reaction to receiving my phone call, but also with the simple fact that he now had my number and we now had plans for Saturday.
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On Friday, the day before the race, I was having lunch with my small group leader and his wife, and another couple in our small group (the same couple I had sat next to in the member's meeting the previous Sunday). We were chatting and having a good time when out of the blue my small group leader asked me if I was interested in anyone.
I couldn't recall him ever asking me that question -or even that kind of question- before and with the recent turn of events it caught me off guard. I felt like I had been outed, but I told him that someone had actually recently caught my eye. Without missing a beat, he pointed his finger at me and with a look of delight asked, "Is it Ben Fennell?"
I was shocked. "How did you know?!" I asked. My small group leader had seen us talking once and just had a feeling. I confessed that I didn't know much about Ben, but both my small group leader and the other brother who was there at lunch that day informed me that they would begin getting to know him more in the Pastoral Apprenticeship program at church.
Again, I felt satisfied. I was looking forward to meeting up with friends that night, looking forward to seeing Ben the next day, and my brothers at church were looking out for me. I felt good, but the day was not over yet.Labels: every day life