It’s a tradition for me and whoever’s with me from our church staff attending the annual ACU Summit / Lectureship to take the Central kids at Abilene Christian University out to lunch. That day was yesterday and Mary and Josh J and I were so blessed to be able to spend that hour at a table with seven fantastic young people in our church family.

What a great honor that these college students will actually sit down to lunch with us. And, yeah, we had a blast. Talking to Chelsea about her Bible classes, asking Audrey (an honorary Central member) about the color of her armpit hair, hearing Grant describe Freshmen Follies, learning about Brooke’s post-graduation plans in New York City, meeting Kathryn’s boyfriend, finding out what Josh S does on his Tuesdays and Thursdays, and marveling at Chloe’s study habits — we had so much fun.

The only one who couldn’t make the lunch was Josh D. He has a noon class on Tuesdays. I urged him to skip the class — it’s just a daily quiz; it’s just Statistics — but he wouldn’t take the bait. We had already reconnected Sunday night when he threw a water balloon at me in the University Church of Christ parking lot. Of course, my cat-like agility prevented my getting soaked. Still, it was a good thing for him I was in my church shoes. If I had needed to, there’s no way I could have chased him down.

The Sharkey’s in Abilene isn’t nearly as good as the one in Amarillo. Unless you’re eating and laughing with these great kids in whom and through whom our Lord is powerfully at work. God bless ’em.

Peace,

Allan