How We Met Part 2

Looking back on when Tuan and I first met, I have very few episodic memories, but interesting snippets from that week of camp. I was kind of thrown into the fun with a group of folks who had worked together several weeks before I got there and I'm sure I was clueless about all that was going on, but I LOVED camp and was so thrilled to be there.

Tuan and I were paired up as "co-counselors" and led a small group of boys and girls. We named our team the ducks and Tuan would act like a mama duck, make a tail with his hands and all of our "little ducklings" would act like ducks and march around to our team cheer. I think it was, "but the one little duck with the feather in his back, he ruled the others with a quack, quack, quack!"

We taught Bible together. I have no idea what we taught and honestly, we were very Theologically different, so I'm not sure how we did that!

I remember sitting at a table with him in a small room trying to figure out who was getting which activity awards--for Riflery and Archery?

On the Thursday of Day camp, the kids went home at lunch-time and returned for the evening and an overnight. I still did not know Tuan very well, but had spent a lot of time laughing with his sister. All the other staff were leaving for the afternoon and I had no idea what to do with myself since I lived too far away to run home. Shauna (Tuan's sister), invited me to spend the afternoon with her and Tuan. So Shauna and I piled into my 1987 Nissan Stanza (swanky, yes) and followed Tuan (who, incidentally was driving his 1991 Nissan Stanza--so cool) into Columbia for the afternoon.

I laugh especially, at this, because I got my first taste of their family and family culture that day and had NO CLUE I would have the joy of being a part of it one day.

Tuan drove very fast up and down the country roads. I was not a fast driver (then) and was trying desperately to safely keep up with him. We went to their house where I met Mrs. Dorothy for the first time and Brownie (the family's beloved dacshund) escaped from the house and we all went chasing after him. After meeting my unbeknownst-to-me future-mother-in-law, they took me to this Chinese restaurant in downtown Columbia.

I remember really enjoying that afternoon, but in no way more than thinking, "hey, this brother and sister are fun and they like the same music I do!" I actually had more fun with his sister, Shauna that week than with Tuan.

I also have to point out that our camp cook that week was none other than Mrs. Beth Sanford, whose oldest daughter Julia was a counselor and whose next oldest daughter, Elizabeth was one of my campers---it is amazing how God weaves people into your lives. The Sanfords are one of our favorite families and we love them all so much!

I left that week of camp giving nary a thought to Tuan, excepting the letter that our camp director sent me after camp. It was a "thank you for working, hope you come back next year" kind of letter, but written in red ink at the bottom of the page was this:

"I thought you and Tuan worked especially well together."


Is that foreshadowing or what?

I left Harvest giving little thought to the cute half-Vietnamese guy with the bowl cut and airwalk sneakers who drove the same car as me. I was afflicted with the early stages of Young Calvinists Disease and Tuan's bumper stickers sort of explain why I NEVER considered him an option:

One said, "Yes, Lord, we will ride" and another warned that "in case of rapture this vehicle will be unmanned".

Ha! Totally not an option for me! I was about to put in my two years of service at JCJC and get onto Belhaven where the real marriage potentials were!