Everyone knows that goodbyes are hard. Like even if you aren’t an emotional person, it hurts inside when you know you aren’t going to see a friend or family member for a long time…like nine months, for example!
I’ve said my goodbyes. I said goodbye to my dad a week before I even left for Launch, and my mom the day of, and it was as difficult as I expected. (Side note, launch is crazy and amazing and stressful and the best thing ever. All rolled into one.) What I didn’t expect was how hard it was going to be to watch my friends hug their parents goodbye.
The last couple sessions we’ve had have included a lot of our parents. But I’m one of the few of us who’s parents couldn’t make it for one reason or another. (Mom and dad, I totally get it. I’ll see you at PVT 😉 ) It was kind of awkward at first, and sad too, but everyones parents have been amazing. Families have included me into their prayer sessions, brought me to lunch, and prayed for me individually. It was amazing and all of you parents reading this, I feel so loved and accepted. So while it’s been slightly miserable not having my parents here, it’s made me realize something that I probably should have realized earlier.
My squad is only the tip of the iceberg.
If I look on my fundraising page I have 33 people/families who donated directly through my account. I have 12 more people who adopted jars. I have probably close to 200 people praying for me every day. Thats a lot. (Quick math, that’s 245 people at the minimum.) So that sounds like a lot, right? It definitely is. And then if you multiply that by 46 (43 of us, 2 squad leaders, 1 squad mentor) thats an even more impressive number! (11,270 minimum.) All these thousands of people praying for us and trusting us to be Jesus to the nations, acknowledging the yes in our spirits, and challenging us to go out in unity and as an army.
It’s made me feel incredibly humbled and thankful. Like seriously, all you parents letting your kids travel with me, all you supporters who have seen our hearts for missions and invested in us, all you churches who have raised us to go out and make disciples, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
Also I kinda feel like I’m repeating my last post, but I think that thankfulness is a pretty good subject to be stuck on.
Tomorrow we fly out, and the next time you hear from me will be from Costa Rica! Yay us! Talk to you soon!
Love, Hannah
P.S this is probably going to be posted late…so hello from future me.
