The Greeley's: Friendship

When we first moved to Vancouver I was worried about feeling isolated, but I also imagined Regent to be like a small Christian bible college that was a close knit community, so I wasn't too worried about making friends. Those first few months, however, were some of the loneliest that I've experienced.

Regent holds a retreat at the beginning of each year to help students get to know each other. It's held in ~~COLD~~ Warm beach, Washington each year, and students have the option of staying in cabins or camping. Adam and I had just bought a new tent for our trip across the country and were eager to try it out so we decided to camp. Unfortunately, the only other people who decided to camp it seems were all the single guys at Regent, not a great precursor to making the solid girlfriends that I had hoped to make that weekend. So that plus the fact that it was going below freezing during the nights made for a very cranky Suzanne.

During the weekend Adam was involved in leading worship, and preforming at a coffee house event. Since, I had yet to make any friends I spent a lot of that time walking around on my own (it should be noted that if I wanted to make friends so bad I probably should have put some effort into introducing my self to some people, but I had a bad attitude and told myself something along the lines of everyone already having their "groups" and if nobody was going to make an effort to get to know me than I certainly wasn't going to try and get to know them... like I said, bad attitude). During one of my walks I saw a couple ahead of me and since I wasn't really wanting to be around people I decided that I would speed up and pass them. As I continued walking I heard a little voice i my head say "Suzanne you really should turn around and introduce yourself". I debated this back and forth in my head for awhile, and finally turned around and introduced myself. Little did I know at the time that that act of obedience would be the foundation for many of the girlfriends that I met during my time in Vancouver. It was through meeting Thera that I eventually became friends with a group of girls that have been such a source of support and friendship over the last 3 years. The couples in that group became some of mine and Adam's closest friends during our time at Regent.

In the last 3 years we have shared much laughter and tears in that group. Since we are all finishing up our time in Vancouver a few of us who are left decided to get together and say an unofficial goodbye. We had a dinner party at our house and let me tell you, between the 5 kids under the age of 2 things were a bit crazier then they had been when we first met! Getting to know these girls has been such a blessing to me and although I am sad that our time here is ending, I also look forward to seeing how God will use each of their families in the future!

Here are a few pictures of our get together