Greetings from Heathrow International Airport. I'm sitting in the lounge waiting to get on my final flight before I reach home. It all feels so surreal... I simply cannot envision being with my family, in my house within the next 15 hours. It is just too strange a thought!
My last few days at GSF were eventful, packed and oh SO good. Thursday night I was blessed by all the teenagers at youth group where we ate dinner all together-almost 30 people in our house! (cooked by my roommates Amanda and Katie, and friend Lucy). After the teens each said a favorite memory with me (surprising number of "thanks for taking us to the dentist," or "thanks for the tetanus shots"), they sang some goodbye songs. Those songs used to be sung back-in-the-day when people left GSF, but recently they have only been a legend. It was an HONOR to be sung to :) One of the older teen boys repeated the words to one of the songs about how although someone is gone, we should remember that we are looking at the same moon, stars and sun. Cheesy, maybe-but it made me tear up!
Friday night had an all girl sleep over, which ended up being only half of the girls-some were on punishment and some didn't want to be in the house we had it at-but it was still a great time together. Saturday was a friend's wedding-my namesake, Auntie Sarah! It was so fun-and my first African wedding! My favorite part was when everyone danced down the isle to singing and shouting! That night all the teens came over to our house and we watched the movie The Rise of the Planet of the Apes-so good! It was a great surprise for Solome's little sister Teddy to be there!
Sunday everyone at church prayed over me-the man who prayed, Big David, said that I was one of them, and he prayed for my return someday. Me too Big David! :) Lord knows.
Monday was a quick trip to Jinja town, met a good friend, Paul to say goodbye. That night all the missionaries made a HUGE dinner, homemade mac and cheese as the main course YUM!!! And prayed over me as well.
Tuesday went to all the houses and said goodbye to each of the kids-cried about half the time (not too bad!) and escorted the teens to their day school, and cried a lot! Kissed the girls on the cheeks and probably embarrassed them-alright ;) THAT goodbye was very tough. Those kids are some of my biggest joys. Went to all the houses and left little gifts for each of the kids and said bye to all of the housemoms too. Left GSF in the late morning and went to pick up Solome at university!
It was great to see her again. We also picked up Barbara and Ruthie and all of us went to a late lunch, and then to the beach of Lake Victoria where we took pictures, played in the water a bit, shared stories and laughed a lot-all the way into the night. It was a perfect way to spend some of my last hours.
Wednesday morning was really tough. Saying goodbye to Solome was particularly difficult. She has become one of my best friends, and a HUGE blessing to my life. I already miss her dearly.
Flights have gone well, and I'm off for the last one! Talk to you State-side!
No comments:
Post a Comment