Our good friend Joe married his sweetheart, Kari, this weekend in Mansfield, OH. Joe is someone we befriended during our Seminary stay. He too was a youth ministry major and from day one's introductions... he and Keith became pals. First Keith said "Hi, I'm Keith and I'm from Pittsburgh. Go Steelers." Then Joe said "Hi, I'm Joe. I'm from Cleveland and I'm sorry, I can't be your friend." Funny thing, they bonded immediately!
Joe was obviously a bachelor back then. His Kari lived back home in Ohio. He had an efficiency apartment on the other side of town from us... no tv, no computer, no thrills, etc. He would visit us frequently and even watch the house when we were away at times. If we would have had more room, we would have let him live with us. When we first moved there, we had service for 4 as not many more dishes would fit in our small kitchen. We figured we could eat twice without doing the dishes. When Joe came along, I told Keith I needed to get out service for 6. He was a regular for dinner and he seemed to appreciate home made meals. It was nice for us too because it's a little bit easier to cook for 3 than to cook for 2. Anyway, it was nice that Keith had a pal to hang with, especially when I wasn't home.
One time Joe's fiancee came into town with a few of her friends for the weekend. We figured we wouldn't see much of Joe other than to meet Kari. He lit a candle in his tiny bathroom and shortly thereafter they all went out for dinner. As they arrived back at the apartment, the bathroom was on fire!!!! They had forgotten to blow the candle out before they left. It's amazing that they returned when they did. It melted the shower curtain, the shower head, a picture frame, burned up some toilet paper and some towels. They got the fire out, but there was a good bit of damage to be repaired. They all came to our house to shower and sleep for a couple days as the smoke was just too much for them. Funny thing, we not only got to meet Kari, we got to visit with her and provide some accomodations.
I think Joe was sad when we left Kentucky. There are few things we truly miss about being there and Joe is definitely one of those things. I'm so glad that we got to see him this weekend. He seemed delighted that we were there. The wedding was beautiful. The ladies wore lavender summer dresses and carried white daisy bouquets. The bride was glistening in her gown and smiling ear to ear for the entire affair. Her father was one of the ministers and Joe's former pastor also had a part in the ceremony. There was a lovely cake reception in the church basement... and then we motored home for Amanda and John's picnic. I can't wait to have the film developed!
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