I collaborated with other departments and put his mailing address on every list I could find. I also started copying the semester's chapel schedule in a document titled "Don's Chapel Schedule" with an additional column on the right. This column included specifics, explanations, bits of information so Don could pray effectively for our department and our school. I'd mail it to our Pennsylvania prayer warrior along with a thank you note. A few times each semester Don would give me a call. When the Chapel Department wrapped up a big conference or when students were just getting back from a break he would check in. See how things went or how students were adjusting.
Some point along the way he started asking specifics about my life, how all my college friends were, did my son make the baseball team, had Emma chosen a college. Fast forward a semester and he asked how Emma's freshman year was going, how my husband's job was, how I felt missing all those who had graduated and moved on. Quite organically, Don soon became MY prayer warrior as well. Who doesn't need more people praying for them! He would pray for me, right there on the phone as the chaos of my office commenced around me. Then he would say, "I love ya, dear!"
I have never met Don in person, I don't even know what he looks like. I know he loves puns. I know he takes care of his wife everyday. I know he goes on mission trips during the summer months. I know he believes First John 5:14 with every fiber of his being and he prays boldly and fervently for a lot of people. I know my life is better because of Don's prayers and I'm thankful. The common friendship we have with the Holy Spirit makes us comrades in this world despite differing geographic locations, never having met, and experiencing life at completely different intervals. These eccentricities of our friendship make it spectacular. It's a reminder of God's faithful, at times unconventional care for his children.
Don's a keeper. I don't have specifics to send him about the Chapel Department and we've been playing phone tag for the last few weeks. But soon we'll touch base. I'll ask about his wife, tell him about my new job, he'll pray for me and say "I love ya, dear". I'll remind him to let me know when he comes south to visit his daughter. Because the only thing greater than your very own prayer warrior is actually meeting him in person! Stay tuned! I believe one day it will happen!
"But it is greater friendship when the Holy Spirit comes and teaches you all things; it is greater friendship when he bears with your stupidity, and when he opens your hearts to receive the truth in the love of it. This is friendship."
Robert Murray M'Cheyne
