As I’ve told many people, the two weeks of goodbyes leading up to my leaving for Africa were so precious and encouraging, but at the same time made it all the more painful to leave. I know that I am blessed with many, many friends all over the world who love me and who are like family to me, but to have an overflowing opportunity to spend time with so many of you over the last few weeks has just made that fact all the more obvious to me.
I literally have been just barely keeping my head above water responding to emails and phone calls and I LOVE IT! If there is anything good to be overwhelmed by, it’s people loving on you! We had a beautiful goodbye party at my parents’ house last Friday that was possibly one of the most special nights of my entire life. I was absolutely floored by the amount of people who came, even though I couldn’t talk to everyone for as long as I would have liked to. I would have been happy to have a few hours with each person who came and those of you who wrote me notes gave me that kind of time, in a way. I have already pulled them out to read in moments when I feel like, “Oh my, I do NOT want to live here for a whole year!” Your words of encouragement are holding me up in ways you can’t even imagine. Life is so hard here, even after only a few days. There are many promises from the Bible that I have hung onto during this time of preparation for Africa and in a way, the prayers and advice and encouragement I have received from you all makes those promises hold true in such a tangible way.
Here are a few of your notes. I scanned them into the computer to bring with me because they were too precious to risk losing the originals.
These are among my most prized possessions in Africa…I’ll have you know.
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