Thoughts on friendship and more on Jesus Camp

I met Sheri one Sunday morning at Airport Baptist Church in Des Moines (yes, the church was across the street from the airport). My family had recently started attending Airport Baptist after leaving another church, Adelphi Calvary Baptist, which was just a mile from our house. We left Adelphi after a church spat that ended with two deacons fist fighting on the front lawn. The fight happened after a business meeting and if I remember it right, had something to do with the color of carpet in the sanctuary.

My parents had had enough and thought it best to take us kids elsewhere...even though my ancestors had founded the Adelphi church. So we started driving into Des Moines to attend Airport Baptist, a bigger and, at the time, "hipper", Baptist church where my older sisters had friends in the youth group. Sheri and I were in the 6th grade at the time, and she led me to the 6th grade girls Sunday school classroom. She seemed sure of herself, confident, leading this shy new girl to class. She introduced me to Lori, and the three of us became friends as we sat in the pink shag-carpeted sunday school room. We had sleep overs, went to camp together, and wrote notes during the Sunday morning service.

A few years later, when Sheri's family moved to Arizona, I was devastated. We vowed to keep in touch...and amazingly enough, we did. We wrote letters every week or two all through high school. We mailed each other gifts -- sticks of gum, cheap necklaces, and once, after Sheri's family vacationed in Mexico, she sent me a sombrero. We told each other about our latest boy crushes, our new hair styles. We'd send each other school pictures with "Friends forever, xxooxx" written on the back.I kept all of her letters for years in plastic bags in my closet. I finally threw them out once when I was moving. I regret that. I wish I could go back and read them again.

Sheri and I went to the same college our freshman year and were roommates. She eventually moved back to Arizona to finish school, but I visited her every few years. Like any friendship, we've had our ups and downs, but I'm thankful to have a friend, a kindred spirit, who has known me since I was 12.

After reading my "Jesus Camp" post, Sheri wrote her memories of camp:

"Your blog entry on "Family Camp" sure brought back a lot of memories. I only went through Junior Girls camp and the family camps in the summer my elementary years and remember them so fondly from a young child's perspective. I remember some speaker talking about how evil pierced ears were, comparing the practice to demonic native habits in the jungle! My mom remembers that after some lady sang a solo, little Andrea (3-4 years old) spoke out (loud enough for everyone to hear), "I like her voice but I hate her body!" (My mom admitted she had a weird figure.) So there's my stream of consciousness on family camp. I'm so glad we're still close and that I can enjoy and relate to your eloquent expressions of some of these things. I have told others, 'Karen and I had the same childhood in a lot of ways.'"

It's not often you find a kindred spirit...a lifelong friend that just seems to "stick." It's been 30 years since that Sunday morning at Airport Baptist Church. The church building was recently razed to make room for a new airport runway. Our friendship remains.