So I have this friend...

So my friend Lauren...she is amazingly beautiful and amazingly generous with her life! She moved to Santiago, Chile this week for 10 months! Yes, she will be back in December, but Daniel and I will be in Africa so that means we won't get to reconnect with Lauren until Summer 2010!! That is a long time apart from such a dear friend, thank goodness for skype and video cams.

It's actually a crazy story of how our friendship began with Lauren. She graduated from VA Tech in 2007 (yes, she was a part of the graduating class a month after the VA Tech tragedy.) That June, Daniel and I were on our honeymoon in St. Thomas. We were in the pool one afternoon and started chatting it up with a family hanging out in the pool as well. Come to find out this family was from Round Hill, VA (where my dad and step-mom live)...Round Hill is NOT a big place. So funny. We also found out that the guy just moved his younger sister to Charlotte. Also through our conversation we found out that they were Christ-followers. So I told the guy that if his sister is looking for a place to worship to visit Watershedcharlotte.com for directions to our church's Sunday morning location.

Two weeks later our honeymoon was over and we were back to reality of our wonderful life in Charlotte. At church that Sunday our pastor came up to us and told us that some girl was here that found out about Watershed from her family that was visiting St. Thomas. HA HA! This is how we met Lauren! She has been in our life since that Sunday, and consequently so has many of her friends, including Kayla, Zach and Jami who have become close friends as well.

Lauren had been working for Wachovia/Wells Fargo since moving to Charlotte after college. (Sidenote: Charlotte is the 2nd biggest BANK city in the US and has been hit hard by the recession. Wachovia was bought out by Wells Fargo in Jan. 2009.) When all the Wachvoia vs. Wells Fargo drama happened this past fall, she rethought what she wanted to do in life and decided that being missional outside of the USA is what she felt God leading her to do. For the next 10 months she is using her bi-lingual talent to teach ESL in Santiago, Chile.

Click here to read her Chilean adventures!! We love you Lauren!!