Clark's First Days of College and His Text

I'm not getting much information from Clark about how his first days are going. Classes at OBU don't start until Tuesday, but they have all kinds of things going on between now and then. Clark says that every minute of every day is packed full of stuff. I told him there was a reason behind all of that. They do want the new students to bond, before all the upperclassmen get there...and they also want to keep the kids busy and active to stave off homesickness.

He sent us a schedule, so we kind of know what all they are doing. That's been helpful to see what all has been going on.

They broke up into "family" groups and they hang out together during the day. They eat their meals together and go to the activities together. The first night, after we left, they had meetings and stuff for everyone to get to know each other.

On Friday night, they went to eat at the faculty's houses. Clark and his group ended up at the interim president's house. OF COURSE HE DID. Jim said, "tell him that your dad was the one who sat beside him on the stage...who was wearing the SHORTS."

Ha.

On Saturday, they had some sort of competitions between the groups, dinner at the football stadium...and a pep rally. Holly looked through 300 30 pictures of the evening, and zoomed in on everyone's faces until she finally found Clark. Actually, it's a thousand wonders she recognized him. The picture was of the side of his face. Basically, it was of his ear and the back-side of his head...but you could see his cap, and that's how she found him.

This morning, he texted me to say he and Faith were going to church. I asked him to try and get a picture out in front of the church, because that's where Jim and I went to church when we were there and in college. Clark sent me a picture of him and Faith in the car...in the parking lot...in front of the church.

Rat-finks.

And tonight, we saw a couple of other group pictures, and we looked at each and every face until we found him.

Tomorrow is his last family group day. They are winding those down, and gearing up for classes to start. They will spend the afternoon at the lake as their last big thing.

Clark isn't much of a texter. Or a call-er. On the rare occasion he does text me, the messages are short and to the point...no details. But Saturday morning, I got a lonnnnnng, detailed text from him. It was FULL of details about what he was doing, and the friends he was meeting...and how he was realizing how blessed he was.

WHAT?

He said that, for some reason...and he doesn't know why...their room is the hang-out room, and everyone wants to be in there. So he and his roommate found a couple of extra chairs, and WENT TO A THRIFT STORE to pick up some "signs and stuff" to "make their room more hospitable for all of their visitors."

WHAT?

But, the best part of the text came at the end. He said, "don't be worried about how I'm doing, because God is making every little thing fall into place. I'm so happy here."

No better words for this mommy's heart.

"Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far [home] country." Proverbs 25:25