Dana-And-The-Boss

Yesterday, Nancy was speaking at the girls’ home and let the staff know that all were invited to sit in, if they had time to spare. Being that I’m an intern without too many pressing responsibilities (and all I really HAVE is time), I got to go. I was really excited to hear Nancy speak.

Nancy is in and out of town all the time. She travels a lot, speaking at different conferences and checking up on different Mercy Homes around the world. What a crazy lifestyle!

I was wondering, kind of hopefully, if she would recognize me. I have been interning at Mercy for over a month and have only even seen Nancy one other time. Needless to say, she didn’t see me. Although I expected for a repeat of the last time she saw me, I knew that Coach Sue (FSU’s women’s basketball coach and Nancy’s BFF4L) was in town, too. Since Sue was the reason I even got the internship at Mercy, I was thinking that my chance of being acknowledged by one or both of these awesome ladies was better than average.

As soon as I walked over to the home (I intern at the corporate office next door), I was greeted by the house manager. I introduced myself and stepped inside, feeling pretty awkward, unsure of where I should stand and who I should talk to. I took a couple steps into the foyer and a girl introduced herself to me as a new summer intern at the home! I was really excited to meet her and know that I wasn’t the only newby.

We made our way into the conference-room-area and sat down. Not long after, Nancy appeared in the door way along with Coach Sue and two girls from the FSU basketball team.

Haha, at this point I was trying to pretend like I didn’t care that Nancy and Sue were there when I just really wanted to jump up and say, “Hey!! Hey! Remember me?! Remember when we met that one time?!!” Did I mention how intimidating this woman is?

I was playing it cool. Haha! THEN… Nancy said, “Is Dana Crow in here?”

“I’m right here,” I said. I was sitting, literally, right next to where she was standing.

“Oh! Hi, I didn’t recognize you!” She gave me a hug and then reintroduced me to Sue and the basketball girls. They were there checking out Mercy to see if they would want to intern next summer. I was so excited that Nancy acknowledged me. And that definitely would have been enough. But theeenn….

Nancy walked to the front of the room. There were about 40 residents, plus ten or fifteen of the staff present. She began by telling the crazy God-story of how Nancy and I met on FSU’s campus.* It was cool to hear Nancy’s side of the story. THEN, she asked my director, Whitney to come up and tell a little about what I do as an intern. I was sitting there thinking that it was crazy that Nancy was spending so much time talking about me, when all of a sudden, Whitney said, “Dana, would you like to come up and say something?’

Uuuhh. Seriously? Hah!

I wasn’t sure if Whitney was just trying to be polite or find an easy way to end this little segment about me, or if she really wanted me to come up there.

“Do you want me to?” I said.

“If you want to.” She said. Oh my gosh. So, I decided to go up front and say… something. I guess that it’s usually better to take your chances in this sort of situation than to not say anything just because you’re scared.

So Whitney handed me the mic. (I think the microphone made me more nervous than anything. I mean, really? It seems a little unnecessary, but I guess there is a recording somewhere of this whole event.) She whispered. “Just tell where you’re from and what year you are in school and stuff.” So, I did. I also added some about how this summer was really an adventure for me, and that God had really opened doors for me to just be here this summer. Sue and Nancy then started asking me questions about what I planned to do after graduation, suggesting graduate schools and stuff.

I was really glad to sit down. I was also really glad that I had gotten to reconnect with Sue and Nancy. Those are definitely two connections that I want to maintain. What awesome ladies! And what a crazy morning! All this before lunch!

* There may be some people reading my blog who don’t know the story of how I met Nancy and this internship thing worked out. So I thought I would put a short summary of how that all happened. One Thursday, I was at Edge. Edge is the weekly lunch for a dollar held at the Baptist Collegiate Ministry on campus at FSU. There is usually a speaker… someone from campus or the community who just talks for five or ten minutes. About a year and a half ago, Coach Sue was speaking. Little did I know that her best friend is Nancy Alcorn, Founder and president of Mercy Ministries. And little did I know that Nancy would be there that day, visiting her friend and chilling in the back of the room on a couch.
I had read a bunch of Nancy’s books because she had spoken at a conference I went to FIVE years ago. (God’s pretty faithful, huh?) I was still interested in Mercy and actually had recently been looking into trying to intern there, but wasn’t really figuring out how to get started in the process. So, after Sue was done speaking, I went up to Nancy and basically said, “OhmygoshyoureNancyAlcorncanIcomeinternforyouplease?” And the rest in history.