On Labor Day weekend, Melanie and I traveled the bittersweet road to Atlanta, GA. Our son in the backseat with his wardrobe and dorm room décor, enjoying his parental alone time, listening to our last warnings, guidance, and wisdom. Melanie and I connected Mack to our extensive Atlanta network and feel this community will aid him with prayer, encouragement, and food. It is a blessing that in Atlanta we know friends who planted a church, Cru teammates, and one of my mentors who lives not far from Mack. To think that our ministry has focused on university students for over 20 years! It is a blessing our son will experience the ministry fruit from a place we sowed seeds years ago.
By 2024, Melanie and I will have three children attending university. Living overseas for so long I do feel foreign, in the past I was familiar with everything a US college student would face campus. However, things have changed post-Covid lockdowns, and Mack will experience this new journey as he transitions to adulthood at Life University, an appropriate name for a university.
Melanie is relieved we have open lines of communication with our son: physical, emotional, and spiritual. When Melanie and I matriculated at Rice University, very few students had personal cell phones and landlines provided by Southwestern Bell was still a thing. Mack is happy he received an iPhone from his auntie. During my college days, I never called my parents when things were emotionally tough, “No news was good news,” was an unspoken motto in my family. Melanie is thankful that Mack requested that we contact him often. She also continues to text our teenagers daily Bible verses. Mack has already asked us to pray for a teammate who needs to know God.
Currently, Mack is playing in preseason rugby games and will begin classes in October. A student athlete’s world can be challenging to one’s faith. Our eldest child will have to stand on his faith and not his parents’. It’s a blessing he is surrounded by a caring community that’s available. Pray for us as Mack enters his first year of Life.
Sincerely,
Leon Best
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