I can remember driving away from the IVCF camp in Santa Cruz
thinking I’ll never see or hear from this Anne girl from Pakistan. I was
excited to return home from the summer and do my various jobs to be ready for
the start up of the following school year. Little did I know that I would
become totally taken with this short missionary kid from some far away place?
I loved my present life with being a college student at an
amazing place like Cal Poly SLO. I was close to the beach, had my own car and a
bike on top of that. I had made lots of friends and was content without
thinking about a girl friend or God forbid a future wife. Yet, there was
something inside of me, I’m not sure whether it was the Lord or lust or maybe
both that drew me to Anne. So I did the adventurous thing and called her. We
talked a little and I could tell that I needed to actually see her before she
left for her year away in Ethiopia.
I started working at the peach weighing Station thanks to my
neighbor Al. It was an easy job that brought me cash, which I needed for school
and my car. I called Anne a few times before I got my nerve up to consider
driving to San Diego to visit her and take a risk that seeing her face to face
might destroy this dream like world I was presently living around. I talked to
my boss and found out that we weren’t working the weekend shift yet because the
crop wasn’t being harvested in full yet.
I did something typical for a college student and drove all
night to San Diego. I had to get directions to her house. I had an approximate
idea where she lived but without Google maps or my iPhone it required me to
actually pull into a gas station and ask someone for real directions. I had
driven with my top down to my Fiat Spyder so I’m sure that my long hair was a
little out of place. I pulled onto her street and I can remember knocking on
the door. I knew that because this was a surprise visit she might not be there.
I rang the doorbell and to my surprise someone actually
opened it. This wasn’t Anne but someone that looked a little like her. Kerry,
Anne’s older sister, greeted me in a rather curious fashion and I explained
that I was a new friend who had met her at the IVCF Camp a month ago. She must have just gotten out of the shower
because her hair was still wet and she was wearing one of those blue work
shirts but she didn’t have any problem opening the door. She explained that
Anne was spending the month working at an orphanage in T.J. and that she wasn’t
coming back, unless I went and got her.
What happened next is truly an act of faith or sheer
craziness. I actually drove to Tijuana and looked for the orphanage. I had
taken 2 years of high school Spanish and that wasn’t much for communicating. So
I got on the freeway and was in T.J. in about an hour. I had no idea where this
orphanage happened to be but trusted God to guide me in the right direction. I
pulled into a gas station and asked in broken Spanish something about de donde
orphanage and discovered that it was literally around the corner. I was now on
a spiritual high thinking that this really was a God thing that I could go
across the border and almost pull up to where she was at without much help.
I pull into this orphanage, which was off the main road and
see a sign, Casa de Esperanza. This was the place and I couldn’t believe I was
about to see Anne. I see another gal from the camp, Carol, who is Anne’s close
friend who is obviously also working at the orphanage. I asked her about Anne
and she runs to go find her. I don’t
think Anne expected me to be bold enough to actually drive to San Diego and
then find her at the orphanage.
I’m glad that she hugged me and didn’t tell me to take a
hike. We talked a bunch and then I asked if she could go back to San Diego and
we could spend some time together. Remember this was before cell phones, Internet,
texting or e-mails. So she couldn’t ask her parents but decided to just do
it. We load her stuff into my little car
and sped off back through downtown T.J. on our way to San Diego.
Looking back I can now understand why her father wasn’t
necessarily thrilled to see a guy who might steal his middle daughter and stop
her from finishing college and not follow in his footsteps of doing missions in
Pakistan. I can remember visiting this gigantic fortress type of church in
downtown San Diego. It was rather intimidating to even walk into this place.
Anne took me to her dad’s office and I met him. Remember I’m the longhaired
Jesus freak and Anne’s dad is the traditional pastor in a suit with short hair.
He was gracious and shook my hand and we briefly chatted.
We left and headed towards her house in La Mesa. I hadn’t
met her mom yet but looked forward to it. Again, I’m the stranger come into a
mission family that had just recently moved to the states after having been in
Pakistan for 20 years. I soon came to realize that I represented everything,
which Anne hated about the States. I was into rock music, had a military dad
who had already been to Vietnam and didn’t have the slightest clue about cultural
sensitivity.
Over the next 24 hours before I left to return home we did
some crazy things which looking back didn’t make it any easier for her parents
to see me as not being a crazy Jesus freak. We connected with Anne’s friend,
Carol and drove actually to see one of her friends that was flying into an
airport in LA. I’m not sure why we drove there but we did. I hadn’t planned on
pulling another all nighter but we did with greeting Carol’s friend, Scott. We
arrived just as the morning sun was coming out. I could tell that Anne might
get in a little trouble for being out.
I had become enthralled with this girl from Pakistan who had
a British accent and had an amazing spiritual energy that drew me to her. I
wasn’t looking forward to talking to her dad. Yet, it was clear that Anne did
have some power with her dad because of her unique place in the family. So the
all nighter didn’t find me being escorted down the freeway back to Sacramento
but instead we ended up in a park were we talked for a few more hours?
This will sound totally out there but as we were at this
park, just the two of us, I shared my heart with Anne. I tried to explain how I
hadn’t come to camp looking for a girlfriend or a future bride but she seemed
to be that person. God seemed to be pushing me to tell her that we would be
married soon and that this was totally driven by the Lord. I know looking back
it sounds rather weird to say that my proposal to Anne was really a God wants
me to tell you that you are going to marry me type of statement. Yet, this is
exactly what I did. Anne didn’t tell me to leave but she also didn’t tell me
that she was ready to get married at the age of 18.
We spent the rest of the afternoon at La Jolla Shores
enjoying the great weather and the waves. I can remember taking a little nap
before I had to drive non-stop for 9 hours. I had to work the following morning
so I needed to leave by 5pm to get home before 4am. I can remember it wasn’t
easy saying good-bye but I knew that I would be able to persuade Anne to come
and visit before she left for Ethiopia.
I wish my asking Anne to marry me could have been more
romantic and less God told me but this is what happened. The rest of the summer
saw us spending more time together before she literally disappeared to Ethiopia.
We sent aerograms back and forth to each other. As we celebrate our 39th
anniversary I can remember this summer as if it were almost this last year. I
was willing to work at my two jobs and juggle Anne. She was able to meet my
mom, dad and brothers. They obviously loved her, even though it was crazy to
think that I had already asked her the big question.
The next school year was odd having a long distant
relationship with Anne. She will admit that she had this strange dream that she
would return to the States and I would be some oddball mutant that wasn’t the
person that had written her. We both matured and grew over the 9 months while
she was away in Ethiopia.
I will have to continue with the last part in another blog.
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