This is: Michelle Dwyer

Sometimes, making one friend makes all the difference. This girl is one of the first girls that I connected with at my church in Chicago. I don't know if you can ever fully understand the importance of reaching out to new people at church until you yourself are a new person at church.

Michelle and I connected initially because we were both fellow suburbanites who commuted to church every week. Not only did she express interest in hanging out with me, but she followed through! After she got my number, she called me within a week and invited me over and so it started!

From the beginning of our friendship, I have been exceedingly blessed by Michelle's heart for Jesus. She loves to talk about what he is showing her, what he is doing in her life, and she truly has a desire to grow in deeper knowledge of him. 

God used this girl powerfully in my life during my first year of school. It was terribly difficult being so far away from so many friend and family back home, but Michelle was one of the many ways that God showed me that he was still with me and hadn't abandoned me all alone in a foreign (sorta) land. 

Also, through her, God provided my living situation in Chicago for the next year! I will be living in a beautiful house with a couple of her beautiful roommates and I could not be more excited. It's absolutely crazy to think that none of that might have come to be if she had never introduced herself to me.

Her desire for more of God is now leading her to Kansas City, Missouri to do an internship with IHOP. While I am obviously sad that she will be farther away from me and that I wont get to see her every week like I could this past year, I will be eternally grateful for the role that God used her to play in this season of my life. 

Michelle, 

Thank you for pursuing friendship with me, even through a really hard winter season where it seemed like I didn't have time for you, thanks for being understanding and welcoming me back with open arms when the spring arrived. Thank you for never missing out on an opportunity to invite me into whatever you were doing--you really taught me about how God constantly pursues relationship with us and how he calls us to do the same to others. I will miss you terribly but I KNOW and am grateful that this is not goodbye. I will see you again my friend. I love you and am so thankful for you. I cannot wait to hear and see what God does in your life at IHOP!