More than I Dreamed

    In just three months my 18 year old travels across the country to attend Stony Brook, State University of New York.  Questions trouble me sometimes.  Who will she hang out with?  What influence will they have on her?  What impact will this experience have on her spiritual journey?  How will her faith survive the challenges of dormmates or professors who don't believe there is a God who loves us personally and cares what we do with our lives?
    Just one week ago Jenny and I sat in the auditorium of Stony Brook's Student Activities Center on Long Island with some hundred other parents and incoming students to the Honors College or WISE (Women in Science and Engineering).  Students separated from their parents when for a session with the head of the Honors Colege and personal counsel from older students about choosing their classes.
   Four hours later, at 6 pm, Jenny and I sat waiting for the train bound for NYC, where we would spent the night at a hotel reserved in Chelsea.  Jenny was feeling unsure about the classes she'd signed up for.  For me questions like the ones I posed had been triggering my prayers all day. 
    God reached down to us in the form of a young man.  A stranger stopped by us and asked, "Did you attend the orientation today?"
    "Yes."  I stared at his Stony Brook T-shirt.  "Were you an adviser?" 
    "Yes, how did you like it?"
    Jenny explained her background, goals, and  doubts about her schedule and this student advisor's response helped her feel more comfortable with her choices.  He started walking away from us, down the platform.
    "Is there some reason you're going farther down?"  I asked.  After hearing that the coming train didn't stop this far down the platform, we followed him.  We sat near him on the train and talked with him most of the next hour and a half.  I learned his name was Felix, that he commuted from his home in the Queens.
    I ignored some of the initial chatter between him and jenny, until I overheard him speaking about going on a marvelous, life-transforming trip to Ghana.   "Was that through a church?"
    Yes.  And we talked from there about Christian music, heard his story of how Jesus came to mean everything for him and then - marvel of all marvels - when I asked if he was a part of some student group on campus, he said, "Inter Varsity."
    How my heart soared when I heard that, because it's the group that supported and grew my faith and relationships throughout my college years at UC Davis.  He went on at length about how wonderful this group was. 
    Wow.  Just what I wanted my daughter to hear.  Of course I've been telling her about IV, but like any teenager, her mother's words about what might be a good group for her can't compel.  She has to find her own way. Thank God for sending a messenger. 
    If He could arrange this, of course He will continue to take good care of my daughter.