Kim
By Slick
Once, there was a girl named Kim who was quite active in her youth group, going to Sunday School on Sunday mornings, being active in the youth Drama Team, having a perfect Choir attendance record and coming to the youth group's Wednesday night services.
One day at Choir practice right before a small performance, the Choir director, Miss Sophia, instructed all who were not planing on singing that night to sit on the floor on the far side of the room near the soprano section.
As Kim was singing soprano, she had a good view of the people who were not going to sing that evening, as they were sitting not five feet from her. As she studied the faces she came to a young man's face whom she had not seen before. He was the closest to her of the people sitting on the floor and as the choir rehearsed Kim noticed that his gaze would sometimes run quickly around the room. She also noticed that he seemed to occasionally engage in conversation with the people around him, particularly a young woman who was sitting beside him who Kim knew to be named Marie-Anna. Kim assumed that Marie-Anna must have brought him and that he was friends with some other people in the youth group.
A few weeks later, Kim participated in going on a mission trip, from Florida where they lived, by bus, to Virginia and the surrounding area.
On the ride up, the bus stopped around midnight to unload all passengers in order to create beds inside of it for the remainder of the night. As the bus reloaded half an hour later, Kim, who was already in bed near the ceiling, began to remind the taller young men about the decrease in headroom. Several made comments to her, one even playfully swatting her with a pillow. Then, for the second time in her life, she once again saw the young man, who's name she had heard was Jose, whom she had seen weeks ago at Choir practice.
As he came through the narrow aisle of the bus she reminded him of the low ceiling saying, "Duck." Being in a playful mood he was quick to correct the mistake she had not really made, by saying, "No, Jose." And making her chuckle. Kim always remembered this instance as the first time Jose had spoken to her.
She thought a lot about Jose on that trip, and watched his actions carefully. The more she watched him, the more she came to respect him. And the more she came to respect him the more that respect grew into admiration. Kim thought that he was very good looking. He had dark hair, dark eyes, had a dimple on his cheek and his skin was freckled. He spoke with an accent that she couldn't place and had a good sense of humor. Never once did he frown, or snap at somebody and never once could you tell that he was irritated.
Kim had family problems and was a strong girl. She did not cry often and often helped to lift others up when they broke down.
One night, as the choir was about halfway through a concert for a small church that used a high school building for their services, and after several drama's by the Drama Team and several testimonies were given by other students, Jose came up to the stage and, in his humorous way, began to tell his testimony. And what Kim heard brought tears to her eyes that threatened to overflow right there onstage.
Jose began to speak. Not long ago, when Jose lived in Spain, where his was from, Jose's parent's got a divorce. Jose expressed how he was undecided as to who he was going to live with and how hard the divorce was on him. Not long after Jose had switched parents his aunt, who lived in the United States, called and asked him if he would like to come to America to live with her and learn "the English". After a while Jose decided to come to America and learn the language. Soon after he moved in with his aunt, he was invited to the very church that Kim attended by a friend.
Kim began to cry right there onstage and fought to keep anyone from noticing. As Kim and the choir sang the last few songs Kim marveled over the fact that Jose could be so cheerful in spite of all that had happened to him. Especially how he could always be so happy when his parents had gotten a divorce, one of which Kim was going through at the moment.
As the choir finished and sat down and as Matt, the youth pastor, gave a small message, Kim felt a pull on her from God to somehow tell Jose publicly what his testimony had meant to her. Kim felt scared, but she also felt that she couldn't hold all her sorrow in forever and needed to tell someone about what she was going through.
After the service was over and everybody was going out to enjoy the Bar-B-Q that the youth were organizing for them, Kim went over to Matt and poured out her story, crying the whole time.
Matt was very sympathetic and encouraging and before the two parted Matt prayed for Kim. Kim told Matt that she was all right and as he rose to leave he instructed a girl nearby who had come over to see what was wrong with Kim to give Kim "lots of love". The girl, whose name was Kara, put her arm around Kim and helped her to her feet. Kara was very supportive, even though she did not know Kim well, nor did she know what was wrong. Kara quietly asked if the problem had to do with a guy and when she received the answer 'no' she stayed with Kim until her crying had ceased. Kim then went to the bathroom and washed her face. Slightly comforted.
The End