Amazing Story to share with all of you Today... So here it goes...
Many Many Many Many Many Years ago back in my hometown of Clarksdale,Ms, there was a family by the lastname of Hill and I went to Church at OakHurst Baptist Church & school at PDS - Presbyterian Day School with the Hill Girls, Christina - Who now goes by Chrissy, Ami Hill. One Day Ami Hill was killed. I won't go back into all of that now. I would rather share the happy part of this story, anyway, The Hill Family Moved Away to Grenada shortly after Ami's Death in 1994 shortly after I started school at pds. my family & I never saw them or heard from them again after that until Tonight and this is when the happy tears and laughter and looking back and reconnecting and putting two and two together and realized who each other is.
It all started Lastnight in my life group bible study when I shared a funny story about my church back home in clarksdale,Ms Oakhurst Baptist Church how one time the whole youth group came down with strep throat at the very same time LOL DAVID! NO I WILL NEVER LET YOU LIVE DOWN GIVING US ALL STREP THROAT!!!!! all because the youth pastor David as mentioned above gave us all strep throat because he came to church with strep throat and we were suppose to be helping serve at a dinner at the church and as I was telling this funny little story tonight my life group leader says, OH DO YOU KNOW TIM & SARA HORN and I said yes, he was taking over as the pastor at First presbyterian day school church the year I was Graduating 6th Grade at pds.
So when I got home Lastnight I pulled out my pds annual from 6th grade and scanned a picture on the computer of Tim Horn LOL! To show my life group leader Shawn, And a girl from church who is in the praise and worship band on sunday mornings comments on the picture and says NO WAY, I WENT TO PDS IN CLARKSDALE TOO. and so it began..... I asked her what years she went to pds and she said 1991-1993 Pre-K and a little of first grade and then I told her I started school at pds in 1994 and that I started in the middle of first grade and that I came from LeeAcademy and that I went to Pre-K and part of first grade at Lee and then she proceeded to tell me that she left and moved away after the death of her sister and I said who was your sister and she said Ami Hill and so I at that moment stopped and put two and two together because her lastname now is Sanders so I never would have known had lastnight not happened, she's married now to a guy named Steven he is also in the praise and worship band, he is the lead singer in the praise worship band. I then said WOAH WAIT A MINUTE.... YOU'RE CHRISTINA HILL ?? WHO KNEW all this time since I've been at the exchange since end of July since right before the exchange actually launched in August and became a church at first it was just us folks who helped start the church that Christina Hill has been right there at church with me all this time.
anyway, so the moment I realized that Chrissy Sanders is actually Christina Hill, I said I remember your sister very well, and she said was Ami in your grade and I said yes, I ran into the living room and said mom.... do you remember The Hill Family and Ami Hill that was killed and she said yes I was really good friends with her mother and said okay you know the girl who plays the bass guitar in the band on sunday mornings I know you're going to be shocked but that's Ami Hill's sister Christina Hill and she said REALLY?? we were both in complete shock, I was still having trouble taking that moment in I was wanting to pinch myself and go SOMEBODY PLEASE WAKE ME UP.... THIS CAN'T BE REAL...
I still feel at this moment as I'm typing our story Like I am in a dream. it's so hard to believe this is happening right now. anyway, so I came back to the computer and chrissy and I continued talking for a good while and I told her my mom is Ellen Litton and my mom was really good friends with your mom.
she said OMG! you have no idea what you've just done for me and I said yes, and also what the exchange has done for both of us, we not only have Shawn to thank but we also have heather & bryant to thank because if they had not of started this church we wouldn't have ever reconnected like this on such a huge level. and she said I agree and right before she said that I had just said bryant our pastor is going to be like WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTT?????? she said I know Bryant is going to flip! I can't wait to tell him sunday and I said Wait until I get there we will go talk to bryant together when I get there and so we agreed, I told her I had all the pds annuals and all the oakhurst photo books out looking through them and she ask if there were any pictures of her in the annuals or books from oakhurst and I told her yes and promised her I would bring the books sunday for her to look at. I also told her I said what Bryant didn't know when he started this church was that this was all in God's plan.
so anyway, we continued talking a lot more after that, I started naming people she probably remembers and I told her about how Bro.Jeff Holland is at Pinelake now and he lives in Mill Creek just a couple of minutes down the road from my neighborhood.
I ask her if she knew about our pds principle mrs.farris passing away a few years back and she said she had heard about it and we both talked about what an amazing person and what a sweet sweet lady mrs.farris was. We talked about some other people she probably remembers, I asked if she knew about mr.ricky ferguson's mom passing away too, I reminded her that that is courtney, chris, tully's grandmother, she said YES I REMEMBER THEM and then she said remind me to tell you the whole story sunday.
I reminded her that everybody at church knows me as Casey's cousin except for Heather because Heather & I knew each other before the exchange, we knew each other at CrossGates Baptist Church in highschool, so I then said now everybody is about to know me a whole nother level with our story we are about to share sunday morning.
I feel a little more at home now at the exchange and I knew there was some reason why I loved the exchange so much. because I am surrounded by pds- clarksdale alumni, sara & tim horn and christina hill, shawn.
I don't know but it sure does seem like God just decided to bless me like crazy Yesterday with answering two prayers, one for a job and the other to get out of working in retail and clothing stores all together, and now this, It really warms my heart to know that I could be such a blessing to christina after she told me I had no idea what I had just done for her. she said also shared with me that she has had no one to talk to about Ami except her family even though this wasn't my doing at all, this was all God and she kept saying how nuts this is. I sat there thinking MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY! you've already seen me state my thoughts on how nuts this is.
I Look Forward to us reuniting sunday morning for the first time in person since we've figured all this out and found each other and sharing our story of how we go waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back and our story of how finding each other and reconnecting and how The Exchange brought us back together.
For those of you from back home who would love to see her now and what she looks like now,
well here she is. I will try to get a picture of us on Sunday!
No comments:
Post a Comment