Looking to find "The One"

Trisha knocked frantically at Becky’s door. She could even jump in through the double-glazed window if she had her way; that’s how badly she was hitching to tell Becky about Rob. 

It was lovely summer day, the lush green grass and occasional wind that blew made it even better. Trisha lay on the floor in the park reading John Grisham’s- ‘The Firm’ as she soaked in the sun. If you know anything about England, you would know that the weather is one of the most unpredictable things. One minute, it’s raining heavily and the very next minute the sun is shiny as though the word rain never existed. 

“One more chapter and I’ll go prepare dinner for mum” Trisha said to herself.

She had said that for the past three chapters. You can’t blame her though, nothing captivates her as much as a John Grisham novel. Well, that was until Rob walked past.

Becky peeped through the door hole, slightly upset that Trisha’s knock had woken Samantha ; her two year old niece who was fast asleep on the sofa.

“There you go, you’ll have to rock her  back to sleep” Becky said, handing over Samantha to Trisha.

“Oh I’m sorry, did I wake her up?” She asked as she leaned over to carry Sam.

“Anyway, I’m sure you’ll understand my excitement as soon as I tell you all about Rob”  said Trisha as she grinned.

*

Rob is a twenty-six year old British-American. His father is from Manchester and his mum, black American. He moved from the US to the UK when he was 10 years old. His father had been working as an expatriate in America when he met his mum. After his contract with the bank expired, they decided to move to the UK.  

Rob grew up in a very strict Christian home. His mother was a chorister in their local church, which probably explains where he got his beautiful voice from. His father was a Sunday school teacher. As a young teenager, his daily routine was school-home-church-home. All his social life started and ended in church and he was fine with it, until he entered the University. 

As a first year student at Durham University, Rob was exposed to a whole new world he never knew existed. Living independently, making his own decisions and just not been able to talk to his dad like he used to were all concepts that were totally foreign to him. 

Going into Durham, he had no idea what to expect   and the fact he was the only child was a major contribution to this. His parents had given him no guidance whatsoever. He felt as though he was just dipped into the middle of the deep blue sea and had had to navigate through the waters all by himself. That’s exactly what he did. He started hanging out with a bunch of boys, most of which were in the same residential  hall as himself, he became very self-conscious.  Well, to be fair, anyone receiving that amount of female attention would be. 

In the beginning, he joined a Church nearby, but as days rolled into weeks and weeks into months, his church attendance dwindled till they became non-existent. It was really difficult to keep up with the partying, hanging-out, studying as well as church attendance.

By the time he got to his third year, he hated the person he had become. The smoking, drinking , womanizing had taken over him. He detested them, but couldn’t bring himself to stop them. That had become his way of life. 

On one fateful day, his life changed. In the wee hours of that morning, he staggered into his room after three days of non-stop partying.  He sat on his bed, facing the direction of the wall that had the mirror on. He stared intently at the man in the mirror and screamed as though he was about to pass out- “Jesus, have mercy on me!”

Within a split second, he was rolling on the floor, in tears. He opened his mouth to pray, but he began speaking in a “strange language”. He tried to pray in his native English language, but he couldn’t. The more he tried, the more he spoke in the “strange language”. That was the beginning of his new life in Christ.

Weeks later, he got to know that the “strange language” was not strange after all but, that was the heavenly language and it was as a result of the Holyspirit that now dwelled inside him.  His life changed dramatically for the best and within a short space of time too. 

It’s been three years since that fateful morning and he’s still going strong.

“Hello, enjoying the sun?” Rob said to Trisha who was lying in the park.

Trisha, immediately rose her head, admiring the young gentlemen standing in front of her well, one of them in particular. Immediately, Trisha turned red as she blushed. One would almost 

he had proposed marriage to her. Even Rob and Alex were a bit taken aback by her reaction.

Rob and Alex were best of friends and had been for a long time. They had gone to the park to evangelise and promote the upcoming youth program when they met Trisha.

“What can I say, we have to make the best of this British bipolar weather, right?” she said as she began twisting some strands of her hair, thinking he was another admirer; the kind of admirer she wanted.

“Well, I wouldn’t call it bipolar but hey, never mind. What are you doing this Sunday?”

“Erm...” she began blushing again, “why do you ask?”

“We would like to invite you to our church. We have an amazing program coming up this Sunday and it would be nice of you to come, I’m sure you’ll like it” he handed are a flyer as he finished.

Trisha glanced at the flyer quickly and indeed, it seemed like something she would like. “Okay, I’m not promising, but I’ll try”.

“Please do, I would love to see you there and always remember that Jesus loves you!” he said, as they began to walk away.

*

“Becky, seriously, there’s got to be a law against evangelizing when you look that ‘hawt’. It has to be illegal or something”. They both laughed. 

“So what church would you be attending this Sunday” Becky asked sarcastically. 

“Is that even a question? The programme starts at 10am, but trust me to be there by 9:30am at the latest” replied Trisha.

“Well then, let me know how it goes with you two on Sunday” Becky said as she walked Trisha to the door.