Prologue

Back in summer before my Senior year, a lot of things happened.  The first was an epic adventure in Northeast Minnesota called Leadership Quest.  It was a program that basically taught high school kids their strengths and weaknesses in a Christian environment, and also focused on evangelism; both cold and friendship-based.  You know, bridge diagrams, breaking down Romans 6:23, and just being Christian to other people.  And this place also taught me a lot about prayer, and I would say a three hour period of prayer in solitude was a life-changing experience.  Hey – I still remember it.

At the end of the camp, many of us wanted to stay in contact and gave away personal email addresses.  I was still back in the dark ages, so I had to give away my parents’.  Upon returning home, I immediately set up my own personal address.  It felt so cool.  “Hoppy,” unfortunately, is a common nickname for all beings Hopkins, and I had to add numbers, so my moniker was my nickname and the last four digits of my cell phone number.

I still keep in touch with a couple people from that camp… in fact, pretty much only the international people.  Japan, South Africa, New Zealand…

Then I went to hurdle camp.  And you were there.  You were the first person with whom I shared the Gospel.  Crazy the coincidences, aren’t they?  And then I gave you my email address after it was all over.

And then you had to create your own. 

And you took the mispronunciation of your name and capped it off with four numbers eerily similar to mine.  Just to mess with me.

Believe me, it did.  I actually slowly leveled off our email conversations because I felt guilty – I already had a girlfriend at the time.  Maybe we both realized that any kind of relationship – friendship, romantic, or even discipleship – wasn’t very practical over 250 miles.  So once a day turned into once a week, then a couple times a month, then during important events like birthdays and finals.

I really wish I could have done more and been there for you during those long years.  But I am glad I went out on a limb and asked for your home address to send you a support letter.  That single act probably changed my life.

I miss you.  I’m going to post some of your stuff every once in a while.  I don’t think you’ll mind.

~Me