Amber & Mike
June 23rd will be our tenth anniversary. Since we are in the process of buying yet another house and have three little ones, extravagant trips to Venice or Bora Bora are out of the question. So we are exploring other opportunities, namely something overnight in lovely Palm Beach County. It's nice this time of the year, you know?
Anyway, I also wanted to write a little about how Amber and I met and why I married her...from my point of view of course. Amber can chime in if she wants to, but I'm mostly writing this as an exercise of remembrance. A lot happens in ten years and we don't often get a chance to recall all that God has done and why he brought us together in the first place. So, if this is too cheesy or boring for anyone...sorry...go read someone else's blog.
In the Fall of 1992 I was a sophomore at the University of Florida. My first year at UF was spent getting used to going to college with 40,000 other people, living in the dorm and hating it, and becoming part of Campus Crusade for Christ. Crusade became my family that first year and (as became my habit in ministry related things) I dove in with both feet and did everything. I went to all the meetings, led Bible studies, and walked around campus handing out Four Laws tracts talking somewhat reluctantly to people about Jesus. I also became one of the de facto skit leaders for the weekly meeting. My claim to fame was dressing up like the Blues Brothers with my friend Matt and performing a remake of "Soul Man". I won't repeat the lyrics of our remake here lest I lose all credibility. So when I arrived for my sophomore year, our campus director invited me to begin emceeing some of our weekly meetings. One of those meetings early that Fall, a certain freshman named Amber Davenport asked one of her friends, "Who is that cute guy leading the meeting?" (Her words...not mine:) Her friend replied, "Oh, that's Mike Bishop. Don't even bother with him. All the girls have their eye on him."
Years later, Amber told me what her friend had said. That would have been major news to me at the time. From my point of view, I was a dorky 20 year old who had trouble communicating with most girls my age. I had had one girlfriend in high school - a brief romance that ended quite abruptly after prom - and a few other very short (two weeks tops) dating relationships. My trouble was, I just didn't feel comfortable talking with girls. There was always an agenda in play - either mine or hers - that just seemed to get in the way of truly being able to sit down and have a conversation. I did not like "playing the game"; my engineering brain could not solve those equations. So I was left with a blind and hopeless pursuit of a few girls that I sort of liked but never "clicked" enough with to even ask them out.
The following Spring, I signed up to go on Crusade's Spring Break evangelistic project in Daytona Beach. It was an evangelistravaganza of epic proportions. Hundreds of eager Crusaders descending on helpless drunk college students with our little yellow and blue booklets. If you don't know the difference between yellow and blue...then you must have been an Intervarsity nerd. They were always doing barbeques and stuff trying to be "relevant". Ha. Anyway, on the team from UF that year was myself, about 10 other students and staff, and Amber. The week was pretty unremarkable spiritually, although we did have quite an eye-opening talk with an African-American Muslim on the campus of Bethune Cookman University. The significant thing was this was the first time I "noticed" Amber. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that I also "noticed" another girl on the team that week, but more about that later. Amber was a cute, fiery little girl with long, brown hair and a look in her eye that said, "Hey, don't mess with me you punk unless you love Jesus." Literally, that's more or less what one of her friends told me that week. "Don't bother with her. She's going to become a missionary and could care less about guys right now."
One night after a hard day of proselytizing, the group decided to take a walk on the beach. It was a little chilly that night, so I offered my jacket to Amber who was shivering. As we all walked on the beach, Amber and I struck up a conversation. Mostly we talked about our background - what our parents did and our church experience. But we also talked some about the future, or should I say, Amber talked about the future. My life at the time was pretty much on auto-pilot. I was going to do five years of engineering school and become an industrial engineer and go work for a large company. My years of experience with Crusade would make me a good Christian leader and I would become a valuable member of some church somewhere. I would get married, have kids, and live quite comfortably. Amber would have none of that. She was signed up to go to the Czech Republic that summer with Operation Mobilization and would eventually go full-time on the mission field. Crusade was nice, but she had her sights set on radical overseas missions. Eastern Europe most likely. That remained to be seen, but it was going to be someplace far away that really needs Jesus. During all this, I nodded my head and felt a mix of attraction and dismay. I really loved her zeal and determination, but I was bummed about the mission to Eastern Europe thing. Not great marriage material there. (Recall, these are the thoughts of an shy 20 year old with not much relationship experience).
The night ended and my pea-brain turned to thoughts of the other "noticed" girl that week, Janine. We had a few awkward conversations but after returning to Gainesville I asked Janine out anyway. That, as usual, lasted for about two weeks before the utter lack of conversablity caused us to amicably drift apart. The rest of the Spring was fairly uneventful, but there were three events about to unfold that would eventually bring Amber and I together in a very unexpected way. Those events were, in no particular order: a missions trip, a crush on a girl named Kristen, and The Toronto Blessing.
Stay tuned...
Anyway, I also wanted to write a little about how Amber and I met and why I married her...from my point of view of course. Amber can chime in if she wants to, but I'm mostly writing this as an exercise of remembrance. A lot happens in ten years and we don't often get a chance to recall all that God has done and why he brought us together in the first place. So, if this is too cheesy or boring for anyone...sorry...go read someone else's blog.
In the Fall of 1992 I was a sophomore at the University of Florida. My first year at UF was spent getting used to going to college with 40,000 other people, living in the dorm and hating it, and becoming part of Campus Crusade for Christ. Crusade became my family that first year and (as became my habit in ministry related things) I dove in with both feet and did everything. I went to all the meetings, led Bible studies, and walked around campus handing out Four Laws tracts talking somewhat reluctantly to people about Jesus. I also became one of the de facto skit leaders for the weekly meeting. My claim to fame was dressing up like the Blues Brothers with my friend Matt and performing a remake of "Soul Man". I won't repeat the lyrics of our remake here lest I lose all credibility. So when I arrived for my sophomore year, our campus director invited me to begin emceeing some of our weekly meetings. One of those meetings early that Fall, a certain freshman named Amber Davenport asked one of her friends, "Who is that cute guy leading the meeting?" (Her words...not mine:) Her friend replied, "Oh, that's Mike Bishop. Don't even bother with him. All the girls have their eye on him."
Years later, Amber told me what her friend had said. That would have been major news to me at the time. From my point of view, I was a dorky 20 year old who had trouble communicating with most girls my age. I had had one girlfriend in high school - a brief romance that ended quite abruptly after prom - and a few other very short (two weeks tops) dating relationships. My trouble was, I just didn't feel comfortable talking with girls. There was always an agenda in play - either mine or hers - that just seemed to get in the way of truly being able to sit down and have a conversation. I did not like "playing the game"; my engineering brain could not solve those equations. So I was left with a blind and hopeless pursuit of a few girls that I sort of liked but never "clicked" enough with to even ask them out.
The following Spring, I signed up to go on Crusade's Spring Break evangelistic project in Daytona Beach. It was an evangelistravaganza of epic proportions. Hundreds of eager Crusaders descending on helpless drunk college students with our little yellow and blue booklets. If you don't know the difference between yellow and blue...then you must have been an Intervarsity nerd. They were always doing barbeques and stuff trying to be "relevant". Ha. Anyway, on the team from UF that year was myself, about 10 other students and staff, and Amber. The week was pretty unremarkable spiritually, although we did have quite an eye-opening talk with an African-American Muslim on the campus of Bethune Cookman University. The significant thing was this was the first time I "noticed" Amber. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that I also "noticed" another girl on the team that week, but more about that later. Amber was a cute, fiery little girl with long, brown hair and a look in her eye that said, "Hey, don't mess with me you punk unless you love Jesus." Literally, that's more or less what one of her friends told me that week. "Don't bother with her. She's going to become a missionary and could care less about guys right now."
One night after a hard day of proselytizing, the group decided to take a walk on the beach. It was a little chilly that night, so I offered my jacket to Amber who was shivering. As we all walked on the beach, Amber and I struck up a conversation. Mostly we talked about our background - what our parents did and our church experience. But we also talked some about the future, or should I say, Amber talked about the future. My life at the time was pretty much on auto-pilot. I was going to do five years of engineering school and become an industrial engineer and go work for a large company. My years of experience with Crusade would make me a good Christian leader and I would become a valuable member of some church somewhere. I would get married, have kids, and live quite comfortably. Amber would have none of that. She was signed up to go to the Czech Republic that summer with Operation Mobilization and would eventually go full-time on the mission field. Crusade was nice, but she had her sights set on radical overseas missions. Eastern Europe most likely. That remained to be seen, but it was going to be someplace far away that really needs Jesus. During all this, I nodded my head and felt a mix of attraction and dismay. I really loved her zeal and determination, but I was bummed about the mission to Eastern Europe thing. Not great marriage material there. (Recall, these are the thoughts of an shy 20 year old with not much relationship experience).
The night ended and my pea-brain turned to thoughts of the other "noticed" girl that week, Janine. We had a few awkward conversations but after returning to Gainesville I asked Janine out anyway. That, as usual, lasted for about two weeks before the utter lack of conversablity caused us to amicably drift apart. The rest of the Spring was fairly uneventful, but there were three events about to unfold that would eventually bring Amber and I together in a very unexpected way. Those events were, in no particular order: a missions trip, a crush on a girl named Kristen, and The Toronto Blessing.
Stay tuned...
posted by Mike Bishop at 10:00 PM
4 Comments:
10 years later and you still make me laugh!
That's good, you can still laugh at him Amber. Will be thinking / praying on the 23rd. Like you (another parallel), we've just sold our house and are in the process of packing so that we can move out prior to the 8th July. Renting a smaller house for the rest of the year; hope to build a new house in Feb. 2006. Blessings :-)
Paul, That is crazy we are doing the same thing..although our new home will not be done until April of 06. But we will finally have space for overnight guests...so bring the fam on over:-)
Did you know Erin Forrest? She did CC Beach parties and when to Bethune.
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