Dave Visits Again

Holly and Dave wait for dinner in the backyard.

My older brother Dave got to visit us for the second time this year. 

He works for an engineering firm that makes hardware to function with its intended software. He had meetings in Dublin, so he thought he would first fly to us and get over jetlag. So for five days, April 27-May 1, he visited and basically relaxed around the house. I think it was one of the few times in about three years that he has just done nothing. I was worried that he wasn’t getting enough action out of his visit. He told me, “I don’t ever do this. I’m happy just sitting and reading, believe me.”

A couple of times he went with me to my morning hangout, the cafe in the Tesco supermarket. The store is 24-hour, but the cafe opens at 8. I like to sit there before opening hours and read and pray undisturbed. Dave and I had great conversations and even breakfast. He would go out to the store and come back with a load of bagels, yogurt, milk, cream cheese, and lay out a spread. He would fortify that with coffee when the cafe opened.

He took us out to dinner Saturday night, at a great Indian restaurant we had just discovered. The food was rocking. We had a great time.

Dave helped me out quite a bit on Sunday, when we were short of help setting up. He does the same thing for his own church in Seattle. So it was nothing new to him. It was great to be working together for the Lord.

He took off to Dublin after church. And some days later I got a call from him: he was changing his plans and wouldn’t be coming back through London. So that was the end of his trip as far as we were concerned. 

I was tempted to be disappointed, but I was so thankful to have time with him. It was way more than we usually get when we see each other. I am so thankful for how the Lord set this up. I’m trusting we get to do this again.