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Tuesday, August 5, 2008

what it's all about....




Relationships continue to deepen and given that we are almost in the middle of our last week, I encouraged the team and the students to ‘finish well’. There is a tendency this far into the program for the students to become tired and lose momentum. Both the students and the team can also begin to disengage, as a way to protect themselves, as they anticipate saying goodbye for the final time. This morning, I urged them to remain open with each other because I feel that God has something special for us in our final days together and also in the pain we will feel as we say goodbye.

If you’ve never been on a missions trip before or even if you have, it may be hard for you to understand why it has been so difficult for the teams and the students to say goodbye. The setting for this trip is so different. Each team has spent two weeks living in community with these students….eating together, learning together, playing together, laughing together, crying together, worshipping together. We have shared parts of our lives with each other…hopes, fears, joys and hurts. It may be hard for you to believe, but we love each other. I will truly miss Daniel, Robson, Aline, Carol, Irene, Cristy, and Fabi. Each of them brought something different, something unique into my life.

God does extraordinary things on this type of trip. Bonding happens quickly and just continues to deepen. We will not just be saying goodbye to a group of students this weekend but to new friends who we know, we, most likely, will not see again this side of heaven.

And…not only have we impacted them…they have deeply impacted us. They have touched our lives, teaching us what it is like to respond to a call and give up everything to be available to God. We are in awe of them and of what God is doing in them and we are so thankful he has allowed us to be a tiny part of that work.

Grace and peace,
Deb

2 comments:

deb said...

What a beautiful post describing the uniqueness of the program for the students and the teams. Continuing to pray.
Blessings,
deb

Kim said...

What a gift it was this morning to see my two friends enjoying the company of their new friends. Blessings to all as you "finish well" and safely return home.
-Kim