My dear friend Jen

For those of you who were not able to attend Jen's funeral and have asked me about it and what was said I am going to do my best to share this with you. It was hands down the hardest thing I have ever experienced - saying good-bye to a friend is never easy, but saying good-bye for the last time here on earth is the hardest. I believe I will see her again one day, and look forward to that hug that I wish I could give her now! The church where it was held was packed full and I am not kidding you- it was wall to wall - standing room only with I believe an overflow room of people whom her short life deeply impacted (I am never good at crowd "guestimation" but I think close to 500 people attended). That was the most powerful room I have ever been in. I was honored and humbled beyond words to be a part of so many people who called her their friend. I think just about every one in that room could have just as easily gotten up and said the things that I said about her I really do but here is what I was blessed beyond words to share with that crowd of people about Jen:

I met Jen in the spring of 1994 at the University of Idaho. I owe Jen a great deal in my life which I will get to in a minute, but I think I owe her the most for introducing me to her friend, Tim who is now my husband. I had the privilege of rooming with her in a quirky little apartment for the last two years of college. What I remember most about that apartment was the wall decorations were all thanks to Jen and her amazing photography. She really was a gifted photographer. There were 3 of us living together – Jen, myself, and Sara. We had so many fun times in those years it is hard to pick which ones I want to share with you today. I can tell you some of the many things I admired most about her. I admired her self-discipline and remember fondly that just about every Sunday night the 3 of us would get drawn into watching some cheesy made for TV movie, and at ten o’clock whether the movie was over or not Jen was off to bed. Sara and I would beg and plead with her to stay up, but she was as you may know pretty strong-willed. Every once in a while she would cave and stay up with us. I was not a big sports fan, but I loved watching college basketball with Jen on TV. She was so cute at the end of every college season when they would play that song “One Shining Moment” she could always be found crying as she watched.

I admired her dedication to her studies too. I laughed as I remembered how she would put her self to bed at night listening on tape to bird calls that she needed to learn for one of her wildlife classes. At times, our apartment sounded almost as if it were in the middle of a forest.

My most favorite times with her in those days though happened in our senior year of school when she reconnected with an old flame, Jeff. I loved sitting around, munching on a bowl of this sinful treat she called sticky popcorn reading brides magazines and day dreaming about each other’s weddings. We even had names picked out for our perspective imaginary kids. I hope I don’t offend anyone here but we teased her about her “girl” name – Libby Jo. I was pretty relieved when Grace was the name they used instead.

We all graduated in 1997, and went our separate way, but Jen and I stayed in touch as each other’s pen pal. Jen was a great pen pal to me for eleven years. One thing I cherished about being her pen pal was we wrote real, actual letters. We both liked getting those letters in the mail instead of just bills and junk mail, but let me tell you my husband gave us flack for that. He would say, “You know they invented this cool, new thing called email?” But we were not to be detoured.

Jen was a huge part of my daily life even though we were 91/2 hours away. Every morning, I would wake up grab my coffee and I’m guessing like many of you check out what her blog Mangy Moose Acres had to say. As her blog evolved, and our letters increased I started calling her my Paul, from the New Testament of the bible. I am by no means a biblical scholar, but I am hoping you will go with me here for a moment to see why she was so like Paul to me.

Paul was a brilliant writer, a writer of letters in fact, and what he loved to write the most on was his love for Christ. He wrote “For me to live is Christ.” I find it amazing that Paul wrote a great deal of those letters while he was in prison being persecuted for his faith. Paul’s focus was not on his sufferings, but on how many people his sufferings had brought into his life for the soul purpose of ministry. It is easy for me to see the parallel here and know that Jen’s focus was not on her suffering, but on how many people God brought into her life that she could minister to.

Paul, was an incredible encourager with his writings much like Jen was with her blog and letters. I would like to share with you one of the many ways she encouraged me over the years. She gave me this book in 2004 for my birthday called” Hope for Each Day” by Billy Graham and I would like to read what she wrote for me on the inside of the book. She wrote:

Dearest April,

If you look at the Sept. 9th devotion, it talks about storms. Your faith and guidance has kept me close to God in the storm I've dealt with for the last 4 years. I love you for it and know I can never repay you.

Please spend a quiet moment each day in your swing, by your waterfall, drinking in The Hope for each day.

Happy Birthday!

Love, Jen

She encouraged me to want to be a better friend, a better wife, mother, and most importantly a better follower of Christ. I am hoping as you sit here today you can call to mind what it is she encouraged you to do.

I am so thankful to everyone who prayed for me on Wednesday as I read this. I felt those prayers I really did. I encourage anyone who is facing any adversity in life whatever it is to check out Jen's blog - www.mangymooseacres.blogspot.com