Last Days

We are now exactly one week removed from our departure from Congo.  It is still hard to believe that we won't be going back.  We have left before- several times across the river to Bangui, once to Gamboula for Soleil's birth and once to Kenya for the RG Africa Conference- but this time there is no expectation of return, no timeframe, no date.  It is strange.  

Our last days in Congo were a flurry of activity.  We intentionally left our final week in country free of any training responsibilities so that we could focus on packing up and saying good-bye.  Yet, somehow, there seemed to be plenty of last-minute work-related things to wrap up even during the final week.  Many people invited us over for a final meal together so we ate very well, no doubt about that.  Our church in Libenge-Moke also had a special church service at the Elikya Center to bless our departure.  We had our own church service as well with the team we've spent the last few years training.  They have become so much more than colleagues.  They are true friends and we will miss them dearly.  I am sure that they have taught us more than we ever did over the course of our time there.  We worshipped together and prayed for each other.  The tears were never far from the surface. 

The hardest part was saying good-bye.  For me, the opportunity to come back to Congo, where I'd spent eight years growing up as a kid was something completely unexpected when it was presented to us back in 2008.  So to come back and be able to reconnect with the land and the people was something I will be forever grateful for.  And to be able to return with my wife, to live there together and to raise our daughter there for the first eighteen months of her life are blessings that will forever impact who we are as a family.  And now that it's over there's this perpetual feeling that two years isn't long enough.  It's long enough to adjust to the culture, learn the language well, make good friendships and even complete the work that we went to do.  So it is long enough.  But it feels as though, after all that, it's just the beginning; like the full potential of the ministry and the work and the friendships were just coming to full bloom.

The last two years have been such a blessing and such a rare gift of an experience.  It was never easy, to be sure and filled with it's share of dissapointment, discouragement and sorrow.  But God has taught us so much through it.  And the pain in leaving is a gift too.  It means simply that the Lord forged something of great value between us and those we are leaving behind.  In that sense I am happy for this sadness that is tempered by the accompanying hope of return.  If not for two years, then two months will do; if not for two months, then two weeks.  God knows and we are confident that these things too will work together for good.