“Don’t be dismayed at goodbyes, a farewell is necessary
before you can meet again, and meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is
certain for those who are friends.”
Over the past few weeks I have gotten to spend time with
many of my friends and family, which has been so wonderful. As I prepare to
leave on Thursday for 11 months of constant travel and change, it’s been nice
to be with familiar faces. It was especially great to spend ten days up in
Wheaton visiting all my amazing friends and my brother, Philip. I know that
everyone says this, but I think I really might have the best friends in
existence. Those ten days with the people I have lived with and done my life
with for the past four years only reminded me how much I miss them, and it was
hard to say goodbye, knowing I won’t see them for a year.
Right now most of our class is still living in the Chicago
area but by the time I get home they will most likely have spread to the far
corners of the earth. They could have fiances, spouses, new jobs, new friends and
new lives. Part of me worries that by choosing to leave all the people I love
for such a long time I will lose them. I wonder if they will still feel the
same sense of connection to me when I get home that I feel to them. Their lives
in the U.S. will have continued without me and my return will not be as big of
a deal to them as it will be to me.
Getting to spend that time reconnecting with the friends
I’ve been so far from since graduating was such a wonderful reminder of the strength
of true friendship. So many of them are supporting me, praying for me, reading
this blog, and choosing to be part of my life and ministry even when I’m on the
other side of the globe. Having my friends behind me literally means the world
to me. These are the people I have spent every waking moment of the past four
years with. They are the ones who have seen me through hard times and great
times and who have been largely responsible for shaping me into the person I am
today. The common saying, “Show me your friends and I will show you who you
are” is an encouragement to me. I have wonderful friends who would do anything
for one another, and I hope that that saying is true and that I am a reflection
of them.
The last night of my visit to Wheaton I went to a party with
a group of people that is dear to my heart. Junior year I had the privilege to
serve as a resident assistant, and I was so blessed to work with fifteen other
amazing people on my staff. Those people became my family and held me together
when I reached the end of myself. We are possibly the most random and
dissimilar people that you could assemble from the pool of Wheaton College
students, but there is something so special about the bond that we share. We have
an unspoken policy of realness, vulnerability, and trust that underscores all
of our relationships. Any assortment of people from this group could come
together and it would be just like no time had elapsed. The trust, the love,
and the bonds will always be there.
That party was a great time of reunion and fun, but it also
ended up being a huge blessing for my future. At the end of the party, my
lovely friend Anna Baker suggested that they pray for me and my journey. If you
know me, you know I’m not a crier, but this group has the unique ability to
elicit tears from even me. One by one, all seven of the others who were there
prayed for me, my World Race, the people I will meet along the way, our safety,
our ministry, and my relationships with my team members. There was something
perfectly fitting and right about this group praying for the bonds that will
form within my new team. This is a group of people who did not have anything in
common and who were put together for better or worse to spend the year serving
our fellow students. God blessed our relationships beyond what we could have
imagined, and now they have passed this blessing of real community onto my new
family. So Team Kaleo, if you’re reading this, know that we have been blessed
and sent off with the prayers of people who have already received the blessing
of community in abundance. And to the members of UCH, if you’re reading this,
thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you have been, are, and will
continue to be in my life: a blessing. Love y’all so mUCH!! As Anna says, “It’s
not goodbye, it’s see you next time!”
“No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the
friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other’s worth.”
