THE PHONECALL

(written by Christopher's mom)

Picture a whole house full of family ranging in age from 14 months to 86 years old happily celebrating Mother's Day together on Sunday afternoon...engaging in light conversation...cute little girls enjoying a tea party on the floor, laughing at times...teenagers on the sun porch talking about AP tests and prom...baby napping...adults preparing the upcoming meal. A web of extra phone lines and cords is strung from the wall to a speaker phone placed beside grandma along with an arsenol of cordless phones. The extra footage of cords has been cleverly camoflaged with throw rugs by Grandpa so Grandma won't worry about anyone tripping over them. Anticipation hangs in the air surrounding every spoken word, every little sip of invisible tea, and each and every tick of the antique clock on the mantle.

I hold a worn piece of paper in my hand everywhere I go, containing scribbled thoughts and questions that I have compiled over the past 3 months that have not been answered through letters. Every few minutes I look over the list again to be sure I haven't forgotten something. My husband checks for a dial tone on the phone for the 5th or 6th time to be sure it is still working.

At 3:17 the phone rings! We leap to answer it. My sweet niece is calling from Las Vegas with Mother's Day greetings! We express our thanks but tell her we will call her back in a little while! Sorry Ang! We do love you!

Activity resumes for a few minutes. Maybe if we all pretend we are not so excited he is calling...

RING!

"Hello?"

A familiar voice answers over the speakerphone "Hi everybody!" In only two words, I can tell that he is happy.

"CHRIS!!!!!!"

He is deafened by the deluge of hellos from 18 people speaking simultaneously. We all take turns saying hello individually, then take him off speaker so we can pass the phone around. We learned that he is loving his life as a missionary, he has never walked so many miles in a day, he was baptizing Edson Torres last evening (funny story there--apparently he didn't realize that he had agreed to baptize Edson until his companion told him about it later. Chris said he didn't understand what the guy was saying, so he just smiled and nodded!) Amy talked to him next, with a lot of words like "dude" and "awesome." Heidi was so excited to talk to him that she giggled for a full two minutes before she could even speak. Holly found out that Chris was teaching someone who had a pet goat, which pleased her to no end. Jeffrey and cousin Steven broke the news to Chris that his prized "Universe Gel Globe" which he has kept on his desk for about 10 years, had exploded in a cosmic catastrophe when Chris' bulletin board fell off the wall and a push pin popped it. Now if the apocalypse happens we will all know why.

In the end, I didn't get to ask many of my questions on the list. They somehow didn't seem so important. He said he is witnessing miracles occuring in people's lives as they become excited about the gospel of Jesus Christ. What else could I possibly need to know?

Chris did want me to express HUGE thanks to EVERYONE who keeps sending him letters even though he can't often send any personal letters back. Special thanks to cousin Kayla and friend Kimmy for not giving up on him. And hello to everyone who reads the blog, but doesn't have enough time to write! He understands, and is happy that so many people are still checking in on him. He thinks about everybody and wishes he could write SO much more, but (mom speaking now) he has truly dedicated his life to the Lord for this time, so we all need to be patient. I personally feel like Hannah in the Bible, who took her precious son Samuel to the temple and turned him over to the Lord's service. I hope that my faith can be strong like hers because I know that he is doing such an important work for good in the world.


So that was it! The phonecall! It was the fastest 40 minutes of my life! Chris is still Chris! He sends love to everyone...AND now we get a letter tomorrow too! Cool! It is like a communication feast. Hah.