I found out last night, through a face book chat, that a good friend of mine was killed recently. Her name was Laurah Sylva. the last time i saw her was a few months ago. i randomly ran into her at multnomah where i found out she was actually going to school there. i was so excited to see her! litterally a few days before that i was at home digging through some old papers, and i found this little blue note that she had written to me severals years earlier during one of TCL weeks. I remember sitting on my floor reading the note and realizing how intense of a spiritual impact she had on me. one of my most favorite things to do was machette the trails with Laura and Eric and Bobby. there was this one time when Bobby and Laura planned this "picnic" up on one of the more remote trails. we packed some lunches and a couple huge juggs of water and drove to a drop off point, where we hiked for about fifteen minutes to this beautiful spot. Bobby and Laura had us all spread out and for 6 hours we did nothing but read the Bible in solitude. we had a break after three hours. (i am pretty sure it was six hours...) that was the coolest thing we did. and the nights in the girls room were spent talking about God with Laura. she loved Him so much and that love spread to me. so as i looked at that note i thought of her. and a few weeks later we ran into each other. we set a date and a time and got each others numbers, and in a few days we were sitting in then commons catching up. it was so nice to take time from my hectic life to be able to see her again and to hear all the Lord was doing in her life. i asked her if her and bobby were going to start having kids soon, and she said any surprise would be a good surprise (not excactly what she said...a definate paraphrase.) she told me how her and bobby were looking into doing some extreme adventure camps. it sounded so cool and exciting. Laura loved extreme sports. that's what i loved about her. how adventurous she was. she was one of the coolest women i know! and i miss her so much already. i can't stop thinking about Bobby...and how lonly he must be every night. and it tears my heart. i cried alot last night. it dawned on me this morning that i still have her number, i was looking forward to calling her somtime and asking if she wanted to go out for coffee and talk. i think this is the first time that i have lost someone close to me. i know i hadn't seen her in years, but the memories of her keep flooding in. i remeber walking in her room on her wedding day. she looked absolutely amazing! and i knew bobby was such a lucky guy. she looked so happy! oh my...i'm going to start crying again. just thinking about the pain that death brings, it's horrible. but i also can't stop thinking about how happy she must be with her saviour. i have to keep telling myself that, yes i will miss her, but she is by the side of the Almighty God, her creator. i am almost jealous, but still quite sad.