Visiting Azusa

I went to Azusa this weekend. To be honest, the first few hours of it felt so strange. I haven’t been on campus since December and now I was going back, but I wasn’t moving anything in or planning on staying. It was weird to be a visitor.

Once I got over that initial weirdness (for lack of a better word), it was AMAZING. I got to see nearly half of my South Africa family, which was…oh man, just too good for words. On Friday, I got to have lunch with Allie & Kristen, and then throughout the day, randomly saw other people. I got to see Jon’s apartment, I went thrift store shopping with Lauren, I got dinner with Josh, I saw Katie in between her millions of RA training meetings ;)

Saturday was definitely the highlight though. Katie and I went out for coffee in the morning, and just spent a couple hours having uninterrupted conversation. Which we haven’t had the chance to do probably since we were in South Africa. Or maybe it just feels that way… Haha. But it was wonderful. We went back to campus and I got to catch up with Logan, freaked out when I saw Sarah Moll (and even met a new friend who is at SPU!), and then Katie and I went to Pasadena. This was our favorite thing to do when we went to APU, so we went down there, got some frozen yogurt, shopped for hours and finished the outing with dinner at a sushi place. I have to say…I love that girl. There is just no one quite like her in the whole world and I miss her so much when we aren’t together. It was such a treat to spend the weekend together.

Then Saturday night…oh my goodness. I just sent out a mass text to anyone from South Africa who’s number I had, saying to meet at this cookie place near school, hoping to see a couple more people before I had to leave that night. To my sweet surprise, probably 20 people came! Everyone was freaking out. Every time a new person walked in the door, we all screamed their name and there was a line of hugs. There was just so much love. From there, we went to Allie’s apartment and even more people showed up!!! By the end of the night, I probably saw 30 people from my group. And we all were just so happy. As Logan said, “I’ve had a smile on my face for the past two hours!” Haha.

As it got later, some people had to leave but about 10 of us stayed awhile longer, and ended up having such a sweet conversation about our summers. The things that were hard about transitioning, what the Lord has been teaching us through hardship, sharing memories of South Africa….I honestly can’t explain how great it was. I was sitting there, listening to everyone share, and it struck me how open we are with each other. As if these last 4 months apart didn’t even happen. I feel like I can share more with these people than some people I’ve known my whole life. It’s just the most amazing bond in Christ. He has united our hearts in a way I’ve never seen before and it’s the sweetest thing.

I was supposed to go home Saturday night at 9pm. But we were in Allie’s apartment at 9:30 and there was no way I was leaving these people yet. My heart just felt so full and happy and content. Peaceful. All summer, I have felt so lonely, and then lonely within my loneliness. I don’t really know how to explain that, but I guess I thought that I shouldn’t be feeling that way and that no one else felt lonely. But when everyone was sharing about their summer, every single person in that room said this summer, they felt lonely and purposeless and apathetic. Words I have used all summer long. There is something so sweet about realizing you aren’t alone in your feelings, and Jesus blessed me with that last night.

Ah, I honestly feel like I could talk all day about it but it was such a rejuvenating experience for my soul. So needed. Thankfully, the Lord is protecting my heart from regret or wishing I was staying at APU. I am still so, so excited for Seattle; I just wish all these people could come up there with me :)

But I’m thankful for that experience. I’m thankful I got to go to South Africa. And I’m so thankful for the family that came from it.