“Hey there!  Let us help you take your stuff up the stairs.  What room are we going to?

 

“Fourth floor, first room to your right.”

 

“Fourth floor!?  Whew!”

 

It was Move-In Day on The Hill and area churches were there to help us get our stuff moved in, just trying to be a blessing to Freshmen and their families.  A blessing they were, indeed! 

 

Mars Hill College.  Moma, Megan, and I had visited their campus the summer before and I remember walking around campus in a storm thinking “there really is just something about this place.”  However, I made most of my college decision with a bruised heart and a map.  Five and half hours.  That’s how long it took you to get from our yard to campus.  Plus, I could major in Youth Ministry.  So, here I was.  In a quaint little town, on a breathtaking campus, where no one knew anything about me or my family or the guy who was engaged to someone else within a week of not talking to me anymore, unpacking everything into my side of our dorm room.  My mom was making my bed and my dad was hooking up all of the electronics. 

 

In just a few more hours, they would be gone.  And I would be throwing myself into most every Campus Activity opportunity that I could, hoping that buried heartache would just disintegrate.  It was the Christian Student Movement (CSM) Ice Cream Social where I would meet some pretty incredible folks who would take me in as one of them and where I would find my home away from home until I missed home more than I thought I would…