How We Met- Part 4

In the middle of the summer, the staff team left. This staff team consists of the full time adults who do ministry with college students all year long. They are the directors, interns, and disciplers in our campus ministries. To replace themselves, the staff team chose 4 college students. This new "leadership" team was in charge for the rest of the summer. They would oversee all the serve teams still in place, give the talks at the weekly meetings and women's nights, and make sure everything went smoothly for the rest of the summer.

Guess who was chosen to be the director of our summer project- the guy in charge? Jason Vandever. My heart should have melted right then but it didn't. Many other girls hearts melted though. There were suddenly a handful of girls that had crushes on him.

I was also chosen to be on the leadership team. The assistant to the women's director. So it was Jason and Julie with Matt and I as the assistant directors. I was shocked to be asked to be on this team. It was kind of a big deal at the time. I was just hoping I wouldn't mess it up. :)

Jason and I at that point were forced to work very closely together. Our team made some decisions for the rest of the project, yes. But we also gave talks. Something none of us had ever done before. We had not gone to seminary (obviously) and were generally a little fearful of the whole idea. Jason and I's talks fell into the same weeks. He gave his during the weekly meeting and I gave mine during women's time.

This is about the time I started to consider him a friend. We would be in the office preparing for our talks at the same time. We would bounce ideas off each other or ask for help on a certain passage of scripture. I found out that Jason had been a Christian for about a year. I was amazed at his dedication and study for someone so new to the faith. I found out that he had been a vegetarian from middle school until that summer. He had grown and changed a lot in that year. It was fun to hear more of his story and see his heart for others and Jesus.

Yet, still I was not attracted to him. I just saw him as a friend. He started to become attracted to me though. I just didn't realize it. He later told me that he would call a good friend of his and ask for advice about how to handle his feelings. This is so funny to me now, because I couldn't even tell. :)

This is a picture of all of the college students from that summer.

I also found a website describing our project. Everything they do is the same except for where they stay.