Any novice square dance student just learning the “grab-your-partner and do-si-do” moves is soon paying attention to distance and space. The night of Bear Trap’s special hoedown witnessed one couple stagger backward and break into laughter after conking heads at the “now bow to your partner” call.
Our return to Tulsa from the Colorado Rockies found our team and volunteers shifting gears as Spring Semester was soon to launch. Brisk January days shocked the system of some students – especially those transitioning from the equatorial climates of their homelands. It meant shedding their ultralight sweaters in exchange for garments more suited to our Oklahoma winds sweeping down the plains.
Most students in the coming days discovered the need of having their own vehicle. But many had never driven. ISM volunteers and staff stayed busy, both pursuing reliable cars that may correspond to a student’s thin budget and the considerable courage demanded in coaching the new owner to drive!
Travelers over the world know that streets and thoroughfares are hazardous places, especially at times when adrenaline runs high.
Yingli was set to graduate. The commencement ceremony would begin in an hour. Cap and gown in hand, she rushed to cross the street en route to the venue where crowds had already gathered. Yingli missed spotting the oncoming car until the last second. She immediately halted but not soon enough to avoid the tire crushing her foot. Though Good Samaritans rushed to her aid, her fractured bones waylaid any hopes for the near future to ‘walk’ for her diploma.
Our friends were quick to locate her at the hospital. Comforted through the trauma by their presence and prayers, she settled into the long season of recovery – several weeks of it back in her homeland. Afterwards, again in America while advancing her academic pursuits, she entrusted her life to Christ.
Yingdi’s smile shone with humble radiance throughout those subsequent weeks, then into coming years. She had embarked on a new journey, along another kind of thoroughfare; a passageway like no other.*
©2024 Jerry Lout *John 14:6
Love these stories! So happy Yingdi recovered ! 🙂