Saying Goodbye

I'm writing to you from the States this week, after an uneventful flight home- Praise God! The goodbyes were said and it felt so strange leaving, knowing that I won't be flying back in a couple of months. What an odd feeling. I know that it was the right time to leave, but it didn't make some of the emotions any less emotional. Some goodbyes were quite easy and others brought me to tears. How do you say goodbye to a friend of six and a half years, where your friendship has had ups and downs, but you've weathered them and trust and care for each other? How do you say goodbye to a roommate who's young and only been in the country a few months and needs someone there for her? How do you say goodbye to girls you've discipled, prayed with, shared your heart with? How do you say goodbye to friends who've encouraged and cheered you on in difficult times? And the most heart wrenching- how do you say goodbye to orphans who've had so many people say goodbye to them?? Goodbye, my friends. I'm so thankful that God placed you in my life.

With Sergei, one of the guys I met at camp three years ago, who went on to go through our mission training center and joined one of the Odessa teams

With Marina, one of the girls I discipled

With Godwin, a medical student from Nigeria who become a good friend over the last couple of years

With Zhenya, a friend I met in Russia six years ago, who introduced me to IM and serves with my former team.

With Andrei and Igor. Please pray for these two boys! Andrei is in the adoption process and things go from being hopeful to hopeless quite often. Please pray that the adoption will go through and that this young Christian will trust that God really holds him in His hands. Please also pray for Igor, as he is now too old to adopt. He's living in a Christian home for graduates from the orphanage and struggling with the adjustment. Please pray for his salvation and for hope in his life.

With my roommate, Lindsey, saying goodbye at the airport

And just for fun: at the airport- a ladder on two boxes on the stairs. Ah, who worries about safety?