I Will Be Here

After I graduated from UW-Madison,  I returned home to Milwaukee and began attending Eastbrook Church, where my brother Mark & sister-in-law Carol attended.  I began attending the college age group, because I loved the passion of college students.  The guy who did announcements offered free tickets to the church's play that weekend called Treasures in Heaven based on this passage, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal." (Matthew 5:19-20).  I asked a friend who had been at the church a while to introduce me to the guy who announced the free tickets, so I could get one, and she did.

He and I ended up talking for hours that Sunday afternoon in my parents' station wagon in the church parking lot.  His name was Andy.  As we talked and got to know one another, I noticed in him a desire to please God and a caring heart for the poor, two qualities that are very attractive to me.  I had a sense this was the man I was going to marry.

Over the next several months we continued to get to know one another better as we saw each other regularly at church and at the college-age fellowship group, often staying after to talk for a while.  My grandma died a short time after I met him, and I remember him asking me about her, listening attentively, and giving me a warm hug.  After I had a car accident and no longer had my own vehicle, he frequently gave me rides home from the Hope House homeless shelter where I worked regularly 'til 11pm.  That gave us lots more time to talk and get to know one another better.  It was clear that our growing feelings toward each other were mutual.    

We both were part of a short-term missions trip to Irkutsk, Russia that summer, along with other friends from our church and a nearby church.  That gave us an opportunity to see each other in other settings.  Andy gave regular talks, with his interpreter, about evidence for the Christian faith.  I spent much of my time leading Bible discussions with teenage girls, as well as striking up conversations with people I'd meet around the city.  We both returned to Irkutsk the following winter and spring as part of a smaller team to be with our beloved Russian friends who had become believers in Jesus and to encourage them in their new faith.  It was an incredible, unforgettable time in Russia that left its people deep on my heart.  I'm glad Andy & I got to share that experience.

A couple months after returning home, Andy asked me to marry him, and I said yes.  It was after that that I told him that I sensed on the day we met that he was the man I was going to marry.  We exchanged vows in front of family and friends four months later.  One of the verses on our wedding program was, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart" (Psalm 37:4).  At our wedding, Andy sang a solo to me, "I Will Be Here" by Stephen Curtis Chapman.  It goes like this:

Tomorrow morning if you wake up
And the sun does not appear
I will be here
If in the dark we lose sight of love
Hold my hand and have no fear
'Cause I will be here

I will be here
When you feel like being quiet
When you need to speak your mind
I will listen
And I will be here
When the laughter turns to crying
Through the winning, losing and trying
We'll be together
'Cause I will be here

Tomorrow morning if you wake up
And the future is unclear
I will be here
As sure as seasons are made for change
Our lifetimes are made for years
So I will be here

I will be here
And you can cry on my shoulder
When the mirror tells us we're older
I will hold you
And I will be here
To watch you grow in beauty
And tell you all the things you are to me
I will be here

I will be true to the promise I have made
To you and to the One who gave you to me

And just as sure as seasons are made for change
Our lifetimes are made for years
So I will be here
We'll be together
I will be here

We've been married now for more than 23 years.  We've had good times and hard times.  We haven't always seen eye-to-eye on things, but God has kept us through it all.  And Andy has kept his promise to be here for me.  He was at the hospital praying for me during my heart surgery a few days ago and has been here during my recovery, even when I've been too sleepy to be good company.  It was nice to see the joy and warmth on his face when I awoke from heart surgery.  I had tubes coming out all over and couldn't talk, but I was happy to see him and have him by my side.  And I look forward to more years of being by each other's side.