It’s Not Goodbye

With 5 months of the Race under my belt,  I have said a lot of goodbyes. From all my family and friends back home to all the beautiful souls I have met thus far on this journey. And every one of them has grown my heart for the better.

This month is our last month in Latin America and we have been able to spend it in the beautiful city of San Raymundo working at a school called Morning Glory.

During our first week of ministry, one of my teammates and I were chatting during recess and she said something that changed my month and Race. "I want it to be hard when I leave."

To be entirely honest, no month has truly broken my heart or filled it as much as this month has. From the endless hugs, smiles, laughter, tears and Spanglish; I have grown more than I can imagine. So, when she said this, I realized I wanted the same thing. I want to remember every face and name of the kids I have gotten to know. Whether I awkwardly asked them a bunch of questions about what they like, their favorite class, if they have a neovo or neova. Or if I pushed them on the swing for hours on end. Or even, helping them grow deeper with God.

I want to remember their names and stories.

I want to remember and stay in touch with the amazing interns that work with Morning Glory and that work with Casas por Cristo (a housing organization.) I want to remember our organizers with the school and the teachers I've gotten to know.

I want to remember it all.

And I can.

You see, being with your team living together 24/7 means you can create an amazing community and be able to reminisce on all that had happened. As the months go on and I have more months under my belt, I can bring up that time when we all played body body in our house in Guatemala and we ended up playing for hours! Or when we went to a bonfire that we all didn't want to end.

Now, this may seem really selfish of me just wanting to remember the amazing community I have and have created, and how hard it is to say goodbye. As I'm full of tears of sadness as I leave I can look to what God has done this month and how He has allowed me to connect to all these great people. How I was poured into by everyone and got poured in myself. How He presented so many opportunities for me to get to know the students, teachers, interns and my team.

So, to all of the beautiful souls I met this month, I thank God for every opportunity that came my way to get to know you more. This isn't goodbye, I know I will see you soon.
Until then:

Philippians 1:7 "I hold you in my heart."
Forever & Always