Friendships

I am so blessed to have friends.

There is my friend I walk with regularly.  So I see her quite a bit.

There are my peers I do Bible study with each week and the young moms who have become dear friends too as we dig into God's Word and learn about being moms.  

And several others.  And I have to say I enjoy Facebook friends too!  

And then there are friends I don't see too often.  I see Kaori each week, but Chiyoko and Ayako not much.   We had hoped for a couple more Japanese friends to come but it didn't work out this time.

Ayako is from Hokkaido, the northern most island in Japan and brought some sekihan (red bean rice). The region she is from makes it quite a bit sweeter than Kyushu, where I came from.  It was delicious!!  She brought some other goodies too and it was so sweet of her!

So adorable!!!

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There are friends that you don't get together weekly, maybe not even monthly, but when you do get together, you just take off from where you've been.  Kindred spirits!  Jennifer and I enjoyed coffee (we always enjoy coffee together!) at Mojos a couple of weeks ago.  

Then last night we went went to Hesston College to see the Minguet quartet. We love going to these string concerts!  It was an amazing concert!  What an honor to have such a group come to little bitty Hesston in the middle of Kansas!!

This quartet was joined by Andreas Klein, a German pianist.  I have NEVER seen fingers fly so fast across the keyboard!  What an uplifting time with an "old" friend!

Jenn used to be in Bible study with me for several years but life has made a turn for her to where it just didn't work the last couple of years.  So we try to get together when we can and going to a stringed concert is just the ticket!  And coffee afterwards, of course!

I met another dear friend in Wichita last week.  We met in college days.  We were married a day apart and we couples both lived at Stouffer Place, the married student housing at KU.   We did lots of fun things together at KU and then after college we both lived in Wichita for a time and had our first babies there.  Now they live in Derby and we live north of Wichita so we have to plan our get-togethers.  

We met at the Old Mill Tasty Shop last week.  It has been opened since 1932! 

There have been changes over the years.  You can read about it here.

Becky and I talked on and on and on.  Over 2 hours at the restaurant and then we went down the street to the Nifty Nut House.  Such a fun store!

On Saturday we had a surprise birthday party with friends we don't get together with nearly as much as we'd like.  It was fun to all get together to celebrate Don's 60th!  

We are making some new friends!  We had several people join our small group, or Community Life Group, as we call them at our church.  Excited to get to know these new people!

If you are lonely, reach out.  Join a small group.  Meet a neighbor.  Join an exercize group.  Smile a lot.  Laugh.  Have fun!

I was reminded in my devotions this morning that Jesus enjoyed being with friends.  He enjoyed a good party!  Max Lucado writes: "It's been awhile since I pegged Jesus as a party-lover.  But He was.  His foes accused him of eating too much, drinking too much, and hanging out with the wrong people!  (See Matt. 11:19)   Jesus took time for a party ....shouldn't we?"