Mike Lynch – Real Life Romance – Part 1 of 1

Shannon here: Science Fiction author, Mike Lynch shares how he met his wife. Every time you comment, your name goes in the drawing for Roseanna M. White’s Love Finds You in Annapolis, Maryland. Deadline: Jan 7, 2012, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Mike:

I count myself fortunate, in that I have been involved in missions and evangelism in one form or another since committing my life to Christ at a Billy Graham Crusade back in 1981. When the opportunity to go to the former Republic of Yugoslavia for a summer missions trip in 1989 presented itself, I jumped at the chance. During that time I had been leading a mid-week singles Bible study at our church, and thought this would be a good way to deepen my walk with God. I turned over the leadership of the study to a friend of mine, and went on my way.
            Unbeknownst to me, Kathleen and her friend, Kay, started going to that very same study after I had left for my trip. I made sure to send letters to the group whenever possible so they would know how the trip was going and how they could pray for me. Kathleen had likewise spent some time in Europe, and thought I would be an interesting person to talk to when I returned, swap stories as it were, and so she committed to praying for this guy named “Mike,” whom she had never met.
            When the mission trip finally came to an end, I picked up where I left off with the study. Since it was the end of summer, and the weather still nice, we decided to have a barbeque in lieu of a Bible study. As happens in many church barbeques, someone had purchased those frozen hamburger patties from the grocery store, and hadn’t thought to defrost them before trying to cook them. As you can imagine, the 60 or so of us waiting in line for dinner stood there a good long while. Since I was the teacher of the study, I took it upon myself to help with the cooking, hoping I could speed things up.
            I should have given the matter a little more thought before taking action. I had never been much of a cook in my adult life, the extent of my culinary abilities going as far as pouring cornflakes into a cereal bowl. Yet, there I was, standing over the grill, trying to coax frozen burger patties to cook faster. When Kathleen finally reached the front of the line, she noticed that I had been cooking the burgers with the barbeque top open, and suggested they would cook faster if I put the top down. I immediately made the witty retort, “Oh, I suppose you know something about cooking?” To which she replied, “As a matter of fact, I do.”
            We had a nice little laugh, and she happily walked off with her barely cooked piece of meat. As the hungry members of the study went by one after the other, I started feeling a little guilty about what I had said to Kathleen. Here she was trying to help me out, and I more or less shot her down, even if it was done in jest. After I had finished my meal, I made it a point to find Kathleen and apologized for what I thought was an insensitive remark.
Turns out she was feeling the same way about what she said, thinking she might have stepped on my toes. When I assured her she hadn’t we sat down together and started talking. I shared some of my experiences with her about my trip, to which she told me about her previous summer in France where she interned at a restaurant there. Turns out she had graduated from a prestigious cooking school in San Francisco, worked at a number of upscale restaurants, and actually spent two summers in France building up her culinary resume. So when she said she knew something about cooking, she wasn’t kidding.
            As the months passed, we found ourselves spending more and more time together, sharing the fellowship of mutual friends at the mid-week Bible study, and looking for opportunities to spend some one-on-one time together. Through the friendship we had developed, it became apparent to the two of us that our feelings for each other ran deeper than either of us had expected, and started dating. Twelve months later we were married.
            That was twenty years ago, and we occasionally talk about the circumstances of our first meeting. We both recognize the fact that God has an interesting sense of humor. Food is not something terribly important to me, whereas Kathleen has a passion for it most people will never possess. And yet, I inexplicably stepped up that day and did my best to cook those frozen hamburger patties, which God used as an introduction into each others hearts.
About Mike: Mike Lynch’s first book, Dublin, came out in 2007, followed by When the Sky Fell, American Midnight, The Crystal Portal, and After the Cross. He has also published numerous short stories in various magazines. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two children. Learn more at: http://www.mikelynchbooks.com/

Faced with the planet’s imminent destruction, Commander Yamane has no choice but to seek the help of the Antarans, an alien civilization he had defeated in a war a decade before. Though they have every reason not to come to Earth’s rescue, Yamane sets forth on a desperate journey to the Antaran home world, knowing that the survival of mankind is hanging by a thread.
Follow the adventures of Commander Frank Yamane and his crew as they struggle to determine whether this will be Earth’s finest hour, or the destruction of us all.
Come back Jan 2 for Andrea Graham’s real life romance.