Hello Again, Part 1

For your convenience as the reader, here's a list of the people mentioned in this story:

Robbie and Audrey, my siblings and traveling companions.

Amy, our aunt in Denver.

Rob and Andrea, our uncle and aunt in Colorado Springs, and their children, Creed, Ryann, Autumn, and Redmond.

"Grammy and Pampa Buddy," our grandparents in Colorado Springs.

Josh and Nicole, the youth pastor and his wife from Springs Church

The Anthem students and leaders: Corban and Riley, sisters; Jess; Leah; Michaela; Kia; Jonathon, Brandon, and Ryan, brothers; Aubrey and Abi, sisters; Kira; Jared; Josh; Conner; Jayme; and many others.

...

The day dawned misty and gray--unusual for Colorado. Almost made me wonder if I really wanted to be here.

But here I was, with two siblings, in the car with our aunt on the way back to Colorado Springs, the place we'd said goodbye to almost three months earlier. In spite of myself, I started noticing all the familiar places. There, far in the foggy distance, was the Wal-Mart, and right next to it, lifting my heart, Springs Church. There was the Cracker Barrel where we had eaten our last meal in the state, and the world's busiest Chick-Fil-A. There was the Chapel Hills Mall, where I had last seen Leah, and the Mod Pizza where Corban had recounted her experiences in Guatemala. There was the Starbucks Jess and I had bonded at, and the old adobe restaurant that had once been the only landmark I ever recognized. Now it all seemed so familiar. I could navigate these streets. I knew this place, almost--though not quite--like home.

And in my heart rose the tell-tale excitement of saying hello.

...

We had left home on Tuesday, far too early to be reasonable.

Then again, I hadn't felt completely reasonable when we'd bought the plane tickets. I'd felt desperate to go back. I'd felt the tug of love I couldn't sever. I'd felt like I'd do anything to spend time with them again. God had done something over the summer, and I wanted to return to it--even if it meant getting up at 4:30 in the morning.

Amy, our aunt, had picked us up and whisked us off to a French bakery for breakfast. We had spent our first day with her, eating good food, sleeping in comfortable beds, and generally getting spoiled. The rest had been good, necessary, and I'd been thankful to have it before jumping in to an overflowing week.

...

They were outside when we drove by.

“It’s the cousins!” I pointed out, intending to drive on. “With—“ I squinted the dark-haired figure they were talking to at the fence. “Corban!”

I braked, hard. The cousins and Corban turned to look.

“Turn around! Turn around!” my siblings commanded. I did, reckless, while Corban danced in welcome.

“Hi!” We jumped out as soon as the key turned, and got swept up in a flurry of hugs and hellos.

“What a coincidence!” Corban exclaimed. It wasn’t, though. She hadn’t known where our cousins lived; they’d stopped her when they saw her out for a run. We hadn’t thought they’d be out at all.

It was God’s “Welcome back.”

…

He was sitting alone.

I had to do a double take, his hair had changed, but it was Jared, deep in thought as usual. He didn’t look up as my siblings and I came in.

“Lechero!” I swung my bag at him. Now he looked at us, recognition washing over his face, and he stood to his feet as fast as he could. Three strong hugs later and we had picked up where we left off.

My eyes wandered to the next room over, where a group was playing ping pong.

“They’re probably eager to see you, too,” he pointed out. I flew to the door.

...

It took a couple of seconds to spot her, but the instant I did, she was sprinting over and throwing her arms around me. “I’ve missed your hugs!”

“Ugh!” I held her tight, then released and looked into her eyes. “Same, Kia. Same.”

...

Behind me, Michaela had attacked my sister. As soon as Kia let me go, Michaela was there, holding me tight, letting go, and holding on again. “I missed you so much!”

“I missed you, too!” I didn’t mind the double hug one bit. Two and a half months had deprived me.

...

“The Bees are back!” Someone exclaimed it in the flurry of hugs and excitement. Never had I experienced such a sweet reunion.

Kira moved toward me as if propelled. We hugged tight.

“Is Robert here?” Conner looked concerned. I jerked my thumb at the door. He took off without another word, no doubt on his way to tackle my brother.

Even the onlookers, the ones who didn't know us, smiled at our home-away-from-homecoming.

...

“It’s Jess.” My sister pointed behind me and I whirled around.

No matter how overcome the rest of us became, Jess would always exude calm. Every movement was measured and graceful, but most striking, as always, were her eyes. Huge pools of gray-blue, perpetually a little sad, and old somehow. I’d written about old eyes before meeting her, but never truly experienced them. Some people masked their feelings, pulled shutters over the “windows to their souls”—she didn’t. One could read her testimony in her eyes. I read it there, as she approached, but I also read something else—excitement.

Drawn by a bond unspoken, we embraced.

...

I almost didn’t recognize Josh with his hat.

“Hey.” He smiled soft, loving, and gave me a hug. “It’s so good to see you guys.”

Sometimes, he seemed so cool I wondered how he could possibly be sincere. But times like this, I remembered his genuineness and was thankful.

We sat down on the stage.

“So I heard you taught something.”

"Taught something?” I wracked my brain. “Oh! It was a girls Bible study.”

“Yeah, how’d that go?” He really wanted to know.

“Really good.” I told him the story, how two of my friends had the idea and I worried maybe it would fall apart, but after days and days of prayer, not only did it hold together, but God moved.

"That’s so cool!”

“Isn’t it?” Two Christians, living miles apart, converged in this one moment of thankfulness to God. I reveled in renewed fellowship.

...

“One, two. One, two.” A leader traveled down the line, numbering us off for dodgeball.

“Two!” Michaela, the redhead, held up two fingers.

“Hey, me, too!” My sister, the other redhead, touched her fingers to Michaela’s.

"Sisters,” Michaela said, referencing their summer connection. “Long lost sisters.”

“Aw.” Kia’s face fell; she held up only one finger.

I reached over the long lost sisters and wrapped my single finger around hers.

“Yay,” said Kia.

...

“Jessi K!” Corban walked up with Jess and gave me a gentle hug.

"Jess!" A leader called from across the room, and pointed to the place next to her, indicating Jess needed to join the other team.

“No!” Corban stood in front of us, and Jess clung to me. We ended up getting separated, but just the fact that they wanted to stay struck a chord in me, somewhere deep.

...

“I’m leaving!”

“Noooo, Michaaaaela!”

“I know.” She hugged me tight.

“But we’ll see each other again.”

The words were balm to my soul.

...

“Are you going pumpkin-patching?”

I laughed at Jayme's made up word. “Maybe. People keep sayin’ we should go on the retreat.” I hoped to plant a little seed, so that somebody would bug Josh into asking us to go.

“You should!”

“Well, Josh hasn’t said anything, so I’m kinda debating if I should talk to him.”

“You should!”

"Okay, I will.”

...

The line to talk to Josh was long.

“She was in line first,”a leader teased, pointing to another girl."

“Oh, okay, she can go first!”

“No, I’m kidding, hers isn’t big and you probably just wanted to say hi, I’m guessing.”

I hesitated. “Well, actually, I was gonna ask him about the retreat.”

She made a face. “Well, we’re already overbooked…”

My resolution wavered a moment.

The other girl went, and then I sat down next to him. Students hovered to hear his answer. “People keep sayin’ I should talk to you about the retreat.”

He sighed. “You guys wanna go on the retreat…”

“Well, yes, but I know it’s complicated, and we’re not in Kenosis, and I’m not even in high school, and—“ I looked down.

"Yeah…” He was burdened about this, truly. “I’ve been prayin’ about it. I really want you guys there, but…”

“I know, so totally don’t feel bad about saying no!”

“How about this: I’ll pray about it, and I’ll let you know by…three o’clock tomorrow?”

“Perfect.”

I walked by Jayme and the rest. “Pray about it guys! If God says yes, we’re in!”

“I heard from God!” Jayme called. “He says yes.”

...

I thought I could be happy either way. We could wait for them over the weekend. More family time, more exploring time--we'd be fine.

But Thursday morning as we wound our way up mountain roads, I realized how much I wanted to go.

"Please, God," I whispered to the window pane, "Please let us go."

...

I expected the call when it came.

"Hey," I answered.

"Hey, Jessi, how are ya?" Josh sounded relaxed.

"Good, how are you?" I hung on for the answer.

"Good. So we'd love to have you on the retreat..."

Something in me exhaled, deep.

"...there are just a few conditions that I can't quite help."

I grew nervous.

He couldn't offer us beds. That was it. They were all full up, so we'd have to go home to sleep.

"Yes!" I said. Oh, a million times yes! Of course we'd accept the conditions! How could we not?

I hung up and smiled. God said yes.

The question was--why?