We have started saying goodbye to people. It's a really strange thing especially since we are still here for a week and thus far things still very much the same. (That is due to the fact that it's Monday and we always have Mondays off so nothing seems to have changed yet). It still seems surreal at times. Sometimes it feels like it has definitely been 10 months since I've last seen my family and other times it feels like this year has flown by. (Only sometimes though).
This past Sunday, Tim, Gabby and I had to share on Sunday – a sort of farewell to the church. (Connie and Kyle will go next week). I don't really remember what I said since I just up there and winged it. However, I do remember what I said during the second service. Here is a rough idea of that.
It's hard to think of exactly how to thank people or say goodbye to everyone here at BCI and South Africa in just a few simple phrases such "Thanks for everything" or "It's been awesome." How can I sum everything up like that? But then I got to thinking about how I am grateful for everyone's hospitality – for letting us live with them and be a part of the church, etc. But still that doesn't sum everything up either when I think about it. I kept thinking about the word "hospitality" and how it has its roots in the Greek, which literally translates into "love and "stranger." So when we practice hospitality in this way we are genuinely showing love to people we don't know. But here, we have moved beyond that. So thanking people for their hospitality doesn't quite say what I want it to because we are no longer strangers here. We have been incorporated into this BCI family. We have been made a real part of this community. And it's for that I am grateful for. This is what I will carry with me wherever I go.
I would be lying if I said my time here was easy. It has definitely had its challenges. But now that it is coming to an end, I am glad that I came and that I "stuck it out" even during the hardest times.
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