O.L.S. – installment 3

Jarod mentioned the other evening that it’s just about the 2 year anniversary of when he discovered that “Hetti” and I were the same person and that got me thinking about the early days of our friendship all over again….

After meeting him at the wedding, I went home and found his blog online.  My reason?  I wanted to know how best to pray.  I used to attend the church where he was pastoring and had been actively praying for the families there – especially the young people.  I was concerned about this “young” interim preacher they’d hired and whether or not he would be a good influence on them.  Basically, I wanted to know if I should pray for God to bless his time there or for God to quickly move him.  Was he a man of truth or just easy words?  I knew I’d enjoyed his fellowship that evening, but how much can you really get to know the gut of a person in a few hours with multiple interruptions and a hundred other people around?  And so I found his blog and left an anonymous comment.  Within a few days I received an email from him (I’d had to leave my email address to leave the comment.  I was very new to blogging and had rarely commented before.  I’d thought leaving the email was simply for the ability to monitor and for controlling content.  I’d had no idea Jarod would actually have access to it.)  Needless to say, I was shocked to get that email!  I talked with Daddy and he encouraged me to respond but to keep it anonymous.  Thus began about a 6 week long correspondence with me knowing who I was talking to and him having no idea.   [Now, it must be understood, this was not a “casual” email friendship.  Jarod and I discussed some pretty deep doctrinal and social issues and there was always a purpose to each writing.  We weren’t just passing “hello’s” and “this is what I did today” stuff and every email to and from was read by Daddy before and after.]  After a few emails had passed between us, he gave me the nickname “hetti” taken from my email address (hettihuanne).  I thoroughly enjoyed this time of sharpening and the study it involved.  It helped me to better know how to articulate my opinions based on the Word of God.  And I was encouraged that there was a young man out there in my generation who valued the Bible and desired to apply it to his life.  I don’t much enjoy “fluff” nor am I too good at surface relationships so most of my dearest friends through life have been a generation ahead of me.  (What a blessing!!)  So you can imagine how refreshing it was to be able to skip some of that “stuff” and go to some core issues (like – What’s wrong with the church in America, a woman’s role in the home and church, a father’s authority over his children, the biblical foundation for homeschooling vs anything else, the breakdown of politics, predestination, entertainment…) and to be able to discuss them with complete freedom because he didn’t know who I was.  

That was a fun season and had a few awkward moments!!  He didn’t really know us well yet, but was playing basketball with my brother, they were eating lunch together on occasion and such.  Thankfully, he didn’t come to the house any during that time, though he did have an invitation.  You can just imagine me trying hard not to give it away or bring up anything we’d written about – it would’ve been a near impossibility!!  My sister and I did bump into him at Chikfila once and it was all I could do not to bust out laughing everytime I made eye contact with Lynn.  He talked about maybe coming out to the house to get his hair cut but I remember telling Lynn not to count on it.  I knew his interimship was up shortly and he’d be heading home.  I’d never thought I’d see him again and surely not at our house.  That was part of the reason I’d been so peaceful about our emails.  He’d never know who I was and eventually life would get busy and the emails would cease.  Little did I know God had other plans…

Well, I knew he was watching carefully everything “Hetti” wrote to him for clues as to who I was and I was being very careful.  Daddy hadn’t freed me to tell him and so I continued to be guarded.  One week in late April ’06 my sister let me know that she’d had to dodge a guess from him that it was me and I took it as confirmation that maybe it was time to tell him.  His interim position had been extended, he was likely going to be in the area for a while longer and I didn’t want it all to become a distraction.  Before I had the chance to talk it over with Daddy, we received an invitation to dinner from friends and Jarod was also going to be there.  I knew I couldn’t go all evening without giving it away and so we decided to go ahead and let “the cat outa the bag.” 

I’ll never forget his responding email!   “Take my hat and call me a duck!!  I was right!”  was his opening line.  And how I laughed…how my whole family laughed!  I now know Jarod’s side of the story a little better.  At the time he was beginning to sort of “notice” me, he was also beginning to sort of like this girl “hetti” but both were hands off situations.  He remembers telling the Lord sort of in jest that if it turned out to be the same person, God would certainly have his attention, but nah…there’s no way that’s the case.  God definitely got his attention! 

We had a great visit with him and our friends a few nights later.  Jarod was still quite comfortable to be around.  It was the first time he’d met Momma and spent more than a few moments with Lynn and he planned for a haircut the next day.  Just like the Lord, 4 hours of piano students canceled and it just happened to be right over his appointment time.  We again had great fellowship together…