2:8 Update

Erin's Column
(This column first appeared in the Connections e-newsletter of the Norman Community Churchof the Nazarene and is used by permission.)

by Rhonda Dean Kyncl
We're getting ready to say goodbye to Erin. We should be used to this by now; it's the nature of any work with an academic community. Life is a cycle of first-year students, fall, spring, and summer semesters, and at some point, always, inevitably, graduation. Naturally, the attachment to some is deeper than to others.

The nature of the departure is a little different as well: in some cases, for an apartment across town, in others a graduate school across the country, or a job that begins to fulfill a call. In Erin's case, our attachment is deepened by the time she has spent sharing our home, and so the goodbye is feeling a little more poignant.

Something else makes Erin's departure significant to me...I didn't immediately connect with her. She's a quiet soul, much more subdued than I. In fact, I didn't know Erin very well at all until her move into the 2:8 House last summer. The fact that Erin and I have become such good friends, even though we are different, has made me even more attached perhaps.

Many would describe our work at the 2:8 House as influencers, encouragers, missionaries to a campus that needs our message and our investment. Many would say, and we would agree, that our home provides a safe place to find God's love and acceptance no matter the crises and issues that arise at the fateful time of university experience. Of course, in God's grace-filled work among all of us, our influence and encouragement and investment often result in our own lives being changed more than those to whom we would reach. Erin Kesselhuth provides an apt example.

Erin and I started meeting for lunch on Thursdays back in February. We decided to read and discuss the book of Ruth. It was appropriate on many levels, not the least of which was the similarities between our own stories and those of the ancients we were reading. As we read the story of an established woman of faith, navigating life, love, and community with a younger friend, I couldn't help but notice the similarities. And a young woman transitioning from a place of home and familiarity was not lost on Erin, who now begins her own transition into a life of work and calling and career.

Naomi's journey of faith was not without its difficulties, shared unashamed with her younger daughter-in-law. Furthermore, the story clearly establishes that when Ruth attached herself to Naomi, she attached herself to Naomi's God. And the book is a beautiful description of how Naomi led Ruth into redemption: literally and figuratively. And in the process, Naomi herself was redeemed and given a son, in the face of the loss of the other two: an encourager becoming the encouraged.

Likewise, Erin and I have shared a journey in the last few years, particularly in the last several months. She has shared a journey with each of you as well, as she has been a part of our NCCN community of faith. She has learned from what you have said to her, what she has seen in you; you perhaps have learned from her. She particularly mentioned putting the chairs away from Wednesday night family meal times, how that process is now shared by several, and how it's just a microcosm of how she has found her place in our community.

I asked her last Thursday what the journey had meant to her:
"It's been important for me to be a part of a faith community, because here at school I'm always away from my family. I'm with peers who are all the same, and who all have the same basic perspective. Being part of an inter-generational faith community puts you in your place. You hear stories from those who are older than you and you know, someday you will be in that same place." And she assures me, she will find another such community in Houston, she will faithfully invest in other lives in other places. She added, "I hope they have some chairs ready for me to put away."

Erin went on to tell me that she's learned a lot from the younger members of our community as well. We talked about her involvement with Mary and Jonathan, how very much they love her and like spending time with her: playing soccer, playing board games, going to Starbucks (okay, it's just Mary that enjoys that really). But again, influence does not flow one way in these relationships, Erin HAS been influenced, AS Erin has influenced.

We have put Erin in her place; she has put us in ours, and I'm going to miss her. Last night, Erin chose our book club selection and led our discussion, since it was her last book club as a student at OU. She chose Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis. Here was her influence again, I'll admit, it wasn't a choice I would have made, but out of respect for Erin, I read it...and I loved it. A passage I found particularly poignant perfectly describes the lifelong influence that we have been a part of for the past few years, "When you and I met, the meeting was over very shortly, it was nothing. Now it is growing something as we remember it. But still we know very little about it. What it will be when I remember it as I lie down to die, what it makes in me all my days till then--that is the real meeting. The other is only the beginning of it."

And so, my consolation is this, our time with Erin has been very short, hardly anything. But as we remember her, and as she remembers us, we are growing something. We don't know yet what her influence in my life, in David's life, in the life of our children, will eventually be; she surely can't yet imagine what our influence on her life will eventually be. What our influence means to each other for the rest of our lives, that is what community is...this is only the beginning.

Go with God, Erin, in His grace and peace. Know that He has plans for you, plans to prosper you and give you a place of service, of calling, and of fulfillment. I am blessed to be a part of your journey and will never be the same as a result.
rdk