Inspire, Summer 2005

22 Summer 2005 be shared entirely. They would never be this close again, either geographically or in their shared experiences, or so they thought! Becky and Lynn carried their friendship into life past Cedarville. Lynn was the maid of honor in Becky’s wedding to Steve Dye ’89 (the student body chaplain), just before the newlyweds moved to Indiana for seminary. Right before the birth of Becky and Steve’s first child, Lynn drove to Indiana to fill their freezer with home- cooked meals, helping them get ready for life with a new baby. Lynn and her soon-to- be-husband, Scott, also paid some weekend visits to Becky’s mom in Cleveland, just before she died of complications from breast cancer. Sitting around the kitchen table with Becky’s parents just like the girls did during their Cedarville days was a way of honoring old times for Lynn, even if Becky couldn’t be there herself. Becky had the chance to return the favor, reacquainting herself with Lynn’s extended family the next year when she made the trip to New York to be in Lynn and Scott’s wedding. The years passed, life moved forward, and each family grew, keeping in touch through cards and e-mail as the geographical gap continued to widen. Then Becky’s life took an unexpected turn: she and Steve felt the call to go to Berlin as part of a team involved in the planting of CrossWay International Baptist Church. While exciting, the painful realization of what such a commitment meant soon became clear. Suddenly, Becky understood that goodbyes had a more permanent ring to them and that the separation from friends and family would be marked by years instead of months. The ocean had never seemed wider, even with the work of the new church and the excitement of a fledgling ministry to occupy her. Then the phone call came — news that Becky could never have dreamed up on her own. Lynn called to say that Scott’s employer purchased a company in Berlin and wanted the Thierets to relocate to Berlin for several months. “If Becky’s there,” Lynn said to herself, “it can’t be too bad.” CrossWay International is a church of expatriates, families that arrive for a few years before moving on. A friendship takes fast work, and ministry can seemingly evaporate in such a temporary climate. So Lynn’s arrival in Berlin has been a special blessing to Becky, enabling both women to minister to one another as well as others with the firm foundation of their friendship already intact. They have helped each other in both big and small ways, from giving a tip on the best source in Berlin for Oreo cookies (a precious commodity) to coming through in an emergency (like when Lynn and Scott’s daughter broke her arm and needed surgery just a month after their arrival in Germany. That’s a scary situation when it happens at home, but downright frightening in the context of unfamiliar hospitals with a nearly insurmountable language barrier.) Lynn and Scott have jumped into various ministries at CrossWay, with Lynn using her expertise in leading a craft- stamping demonstration as an outreach for women, passing on to ladies from all over the world the idea that God the Creator wants to imprint Himself on their hearts. Lynn and Becky have both felt the power of this concept as He has worked in their hearts and lives in a surprising way these past several months. Now it’s the turn of the next generation, as Becky and Lynn watch their own children build friendships as they play together on a nearly day-to-day basis. Maybe their own daughters, born just a month apart, will room together one day in Printy Hall, though Becky and Lynn can only hope they won’t have to share all-night study sessions! So the roommates have been reunited — nearly 20 years, six children, and many hours of nursing jobs and ministry later. The bond forged all those years ago in a freshman biology class has proven to be a gift of God for life, providing real sustaining power for both of them in the city of Berlin, as far away from Cedarville as two 18-year-old college students could imagine. The Dye and Thieret families Becky Davis Dye ’89 and Lynn Costley Thieret ’89