Goodbyes, Hellos, and Change

Several months ago, we said good-bye to the missionary team we were a part of for three uninterrupted years. We miss the sense of belonging that team-life gives you and, of course, we miss the team themselves.

Our family during the farewell the team held for us

We also said goodbye to Deeper Life, the church that had become our home and was filled with our friends. They held a farewell service for us, complete with a message from the district pastor, formal photographs, and gifts. We were deeply blessed by their love and care. 

We said goodbye to friends and pets, neighborhood and house, markets and the richness of overseas living. 

Two of Tyler's pets, turtles Tiny and Moses

Shortly thereafter, we said hello to 19 family members who met us at the airport. We flew through Paris, abandoning a visit to the Eiffel Tower on our short layover after multiple people discouraged us from going, including our French flight attendant. It was good we didn't risk it because it would have been too bad to be delayed in France with all this love waiting to be showered upon us.

 I almost always think of Heaven when I look back at these homecomings. The love, the connection, and the joy of reuniting is surely only a foretaste of what Heaven will be like.

  

On our last day in Ghana, we were able to have our favorite food one last time. I chose kenkey, a steamed, fermented corn dough eaten with a spicy sauce. 

And not many days later, we were enjoying an American breakfast buffet at an adorable country restaurant with my sister-in-law as our server

and made pizzas with Grandma.

We said goodbye to African field trips and said hello to American scenery.

A wild elephant in Mole National Park

I said goodbye to the dearth of sister-time and a lack of books and am soaking up the joy of both of them.

Book shopping with a sister in an attic when its raining.
 Does it get any better?

We three also went book shopping in an
unheated house in a bad snowstorm.
Sisters keep life far from boring.

Change, even good change, is associated with loss. In transitional periods, the good and the hard co-mingle, creating a melting pot of emotions that need to be processed and sorted. If you are going through a major life change right now, you might be interested in my next post, the Bridge of Transition. The analogy (not original with me) brought some clarity to the feelings associated with the pictures on this page.