Not sure how I met him but suddenly somewhere along the way at Calvin, a guy named Marty Freeman showed up. He hung around with our group every now and then. He was a little different, not exactly organic to the Calvin College tradition. I don't even think he was Christian. He didn't seem to affirm being Christian when I mentioned it.*
Apparently he had transferred from University of Michigan to Calvin. To work on his pre-med requirements after getting a masters in math at Michigan, if I recall correctly. So he was intelligent enough to complete the difficult math and science classes. I think he said he was from Beaver Pennsylvania which is near Pittsburgh maybe. Think maybe said his dad was a professor.
Didn't really get to know him that well other than a few social gatherings with other Calvin College kids. I do remember one time he came over to my house the house I was living on his bike and he was upset because I had taken a girl he knew or was interested in to play soccer with a bunch of Calvin kids.
It was like he was trying to intimidate me & tell me I shouldn't be doing that. At the end of it all I said "all I did was ask her if she wanted to go play soccer". I didn't ask you to marry me. It wasn't even a romantic date or anything. She's a free woman. They weren't even a couple . He was just interested in her.
He was like an old school kind of bully type sometimes, but at other times he was a nice guy and he would laugh and be funny. I remember his car was an old American maybe some kind of Chevy or something & the front bumper had fallen off so he had stuck a wooden plank on the front..
I remember going sledding with him and Trevor Rubingh out at the hill by Holland Pier . Just us three or was there four? was Steve with us too? Steve brinks may have been there too. pretty fun. In the middle of the night.
He also helped out apparently at Grand Rapids Christian high with the wrestling program. And he didn't trust the Calvin professors. He said he would ask for references and then also give his own address so that he could read what they wrote about him.
Last time I saw him was when we gathered out of beach thing must have been Labor Day I had just returned from California to start seminary or restart. We all went out to the beach for the weekend. He had a girlfriend now- not the soccer girl - and he was at Case Western medical School in Cleveland.
That gathering was sort of strange as well. I was not treated very nicely by the group. Have been gone in California for 2 years teaching school and now it's back. And they almost kind of treated me like a stranger. There was this guy named Robbie I remember him from undergrad at calvin. He was from Chicago. Not sure how he ended up at our gathering but he did and he didn't like me- that was clear. And the feelings were mutual.
Not sure what happened to Marty. I think he may have married that girl that he met in Cleveland. Or maybe they're just living together I don't know. But I think I saw that he was doing emergency room work last time I checked.
The main point now is to pray for Marty to accept Jesus Christ as Savior and be saved . We pray 🙏 ✝️
(*It always sort of annoyed me when students would attend Calvin even though they didn't really have any Christian convictions or commitments. Apparently they just made up some nonsense on their profession of Christian Faith which is part of the application. )
