Sad Day

Well, it a sad, yet happy, day for Ryan and I. Today at General Assembly for the Church of the Nazarene, Dr. John Bowling was elected General Superintendent and he accepted. Ryan and I watched the live feed, and I cried.

You see, Dr. Bowling is just some church guy. He is (er...was) the President of Olivet, our alma mater. Ryan and I love him as a person and as a leader of the fine institution.

He is friends with my family, so I always have something to talk with him about. (There is no getting away from my family.) Although he couldn't remember just how long I had been at Olivet, he knew who I was. I say that because one fall day he asked me how my sophomore year was going. I was a senior. I will forever remember his remark when I corrected him, "Wow, that went by fast". At that point in my life, it wasn't going fast enough. When I walked across the stage to recieve my diploma a few months later, he gave me the warmest smile and "Congratulations". He did however have a hard time tearing his eyes away from the tiara I had hot glued to my cap. :o)

Fast forward a couple years. Ryan and I were engaged and were heading to the Northwest Illinois District camp meeting. Ryan wanted to introduce me to people from his home church who would be there. Before leaving town, we stopped at Monicals (a local pizza joint) for a bite to eat. Dr. Bowling was there with his lovely wife Jill. We stopped to chat and told him where we were going. They happened to leave before we did. When we asked for our check, the waitress said that Dr. Bowling had paid for our dinner. We were shocked. Who does that these days?

And now he's off on to a new adventure. God Bless you Dr. Bowling. ONU wouldn't have been the same without you.

~Lori