And now, the lovely and talented Arika B...

I've been having some trouble getting a new post around, and my wonderful friend Arika was kind enough to guest star. Over to you, dearie...


I met Jessica on Friday, August 20, 2004. I’d like to say she made a lasting impression on me. But she didn’t. I only know I met her that day because it was Freshman Orientation at Huntington College (now University) and we were in the same College Life class. Each semester we had classes together, we both worked at the library - we even started a short-lived American Historical Film Society our sophomore year.
But I did not really get to “know” Jessica until our junior year when her computer came down with a bad case of the blue screen of death and she asked for my assistance fixing it. It’s amazing how a technology crisis draws people closer. I will always be grateful for that crazy computer. It had so many odd problems that year - I must have spent at least a two weeks total working on it. The result: Jessica had a mostly working computer and we gained a closer friendship.
Since that time Jessica has become a rock in my life and I try to be the same for her. When something joyous or devastating occurs - I call Jessica, confident she will drop everything and listen. I do the same for her. The last few months we have drawn even closer together as we watched our mutual friend, Jill Haskins struggle through the pregnancy, birth and death of her son Joshua.
As a member of World Gospel Church of Terre Haute, IN, a church with very close ties to OMS, it was almost surreal to learn her plans to work for organization. I have observed Jessica the last few years as she raised funding for OMS and am convinced that regardless of how ‘atypical’ a missionary she is, Jessica is where God wants her. The closer Jessica and I become, the more I am amazed at the extent of our similarities - sometimes its scary! I am confident that we are friends for life. We will probably end up in the same nursing home where she will organize my pills, while I fix her hearing aid.
I could ramble on and on telling you about Jessica and our adventures together, but I’ll end with this: if you have computer problems, ask for help. If you are asked to fix a computer, do it. You never know when a computer problem may bless your life more than you could ever dream.

Tomorrow, I hope to get a new post about OMS life out for you to read. But right now, I want to give an update on Joshua Haskins. I shared a couple of weeks ago about his situation, and you can read that post below.

Last Wednesday, Jesus took Joshua home. I wanted to thank you all for your prayers for Joshua and his family, and I would ask you to continue praying for Jill and Shane and their children Caleb and Hannah. I would also encourage you to visit Jill's blog to add your thoughts and prayers.

As a rule, I don't post really personal thoughts on this blog for a couple reasons. I prefer to use it as more of an informative tool, and to be perfectly honest, I am a very private person. This situation with Jill and Joshua, however, has raised a lot of questions and deeper issues in my mind. It has been very difficult to continue on with normal life in the face of such a tragedy. Even now, I don't know if I'm actually going to post this.

Please just keep the situation in your prayers, and please pray for me as I work through some of these issues.