Photos: Megan with her neighborhood women's class; Tom with his good friend Zani)What does that mean anyway? “Finishing or ending well.” It seemed like it was on our lips a lot as we prayed for our team members and ourselves as we prepared to leave. It was a goal-- to finish well. But no one could tell us exactly what ending or finishing well would look like for us, the definition changes for each person and in each situation.
As I prayed for it I think what I was asking for was to be able to give a contented sigh. To be able to say, “it’s finished” and feel good about it. To not feel like we had left tons of loose ends and that we were not leaving other people unnecessarily burdened. To feel like we had been faithful with what we had been given. To feel like we had said what we had wanted to say or maybe more accurately that we had done what we were supposed to do.
We have just finished two and half years living on this little African island. We were teachers, neighbors, teammates, and friends--and each role carried responsibilities for leaving well. As a teacher and a friend it meant that Tom spent hours one day this week helping prepare an exam with one of his student-teachers. It meant that we went visiting as many people as possible this past week to give our final goodbyes. It meant that we gave things away (as thoughtfully as we could). It meant we tried to store our stuff in our teammates’ house in such a way that they can still live in their house. It meant Tom gave out our business card a lot with contact info. It meant we printed copies of a family photo to help people remember us. It meant we said blessings over people and said prayers as we made our final farewells.
So you may ask, were there any contented sighs? Did we leave the islands (this morning) feeling good and with everything settled?
We do feel like things finished well and
we thankfully see that as an answer to prayer. And now that the hectic part of the initial travel is over, I think we can give a good sigh. God was faithful even when we weren’t and this first stint on the islands is done. But our leaving was not a big THE END but more like a TO BE CONTINUED.... We’ve only finished for now.PRAYERS ANSWERED
We made it! We are currently in Kenya where we are catching our breath for a couple days before making the much longer journey back to the States. We made it with all our bags. Moving out of our house went very smoothly and we got to see most of the people that we wanted to.
PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for the brothers as there is no one from our group on the islands for the next three weeks. Pray for our team leaders and teammates and kids as they all prepare to return to the islands from America. Pray for islanders during this month of fasting-- that they will know truth. Pray for our final leg -- we have two long flights with two little kids. Pray that we would all be able to sleep on the planes and make it to Boston smoothly. We appreciate your prayers.
