Good Byes

Many of our Spring class left yesterday – either for their assignments or to finish raising their support.  Only one other family is staying for technical training with us.  The weight of our goodbyes hit us today.   At the end of March we said good byes in Texas and then while in Iowa a few more.   Saturday night’s goodbye party was full of food, fun, laughter and tears.  We said good bye to the friends we made last summer and this summer and who will be serving all over the world.  Chances are we will never see them again.  So today we are a little sad and missing everyone. 

One of the topics of conversation that Saturday  night was sacrifice.  Often people will say that we are sacrificing to go to the field.   The group pretty much agreed that it did not really feel like that to us.  Yes, it will be hard at times but we counted the cost and chose to go.  However, we talked about the sacrifices that our family and friends make, not of their choosing.   Theirs is the real sacrifice.  The sacrifice is often the grandparents and parents who don’t get to see their grandkids and kids on the holidays.   It could also be a niece or nephew not getting to see his aunt or uncle until she or he is 3 years old.   Whatever the sacrifice, we prayed that God would be with them and bless them.   Noel and I are grateful for the support and blessing from our family and friends.   This is something that some of the families who are going do not have. 

Lasty, I would also like to thank my mom and dad for their two and half weeks of service out here in Nampa.  They stayed in their camper here at headquarters and watched our kids while we were in class.  My kids were blessed with memories of biking, playing cards, and eating lots of ice cream.   We were spoiled by mom having supper started when we came home and dad doing errands for us.  They even didn’t seem to mind all the extra guests we kept having over to the apartment.   It made the training go much smoother to know who was in charge of Winter and David and to have extra help when I needed it.