Our last day of ministry came faster than we ever expected when we showed up last Friday and our hosts announced that the kids would no longer get to see us everyday. We spent time giving last hugs, last Adios’s, and last tickles. I knew this day was going to be hard but the worst part was when we got asked “so when are you coming back” and we had no answer for them. The kids cried, the moms cried, and of course we cried, but as all this was going on I thanked God for this super hard goodbye. I thanked him that this day was hard because they had loved us so well and because we got to build relationships with hundreds of kids and love them with all we had. I knew all the hard stuff was going to come, but there was something that happened on this day that I never expected.
As you know I coached a middle school aged girls soccer team for the 3 months we had in San Lorenzo. If I’m being honest it wasn’t always as glamorous as I made it sound when people asked how it was going. Some of the girls didn’t really listen to me. I got a lot of attitude. What I said was ignored most of the time because my Spanish wasn’t the best. All that being said, there were a lot of fun times too, like the times I wrote about, but I was usually pretty frustrated and felt like my bible studies weren’t teaching them anything and that they hated practice with me. BUT on our last day I realized all those lies I made up in my head weren’t true at all when two girls from my team walked up to me with our translator. They told me that I had impacted their lives in a new way and that I was special to them. They thanked me for all I did and for always sharing my heart with them because it taught them a lot. They told me they didn’t want me to leave but they were proud of me for the work I was doing around the world. They told me they loved me, that they would never forget about me, and that they were going to miss me a lot. Then, they prayed for me. These two girls never said more than a few words to me the entire 3 months and here they were praying for me and my mission work. I know I didn’t need those words but God let me reap the harvest and it was a true blessing to me. I won’t always get to see that my work matters, and that’s okay, and for a reason, but I am so thankful that he let me hear the hearts of those girls. It made me more sad to leave them on that day, but happy to know that I had done all could to show them Jesus.
Goodbyes are never fun, but I believe there is a special beauty in them. It was a time we cherished to really look at how the Lord moved and the people he gave us that we have the privilege of missing now. The most beautiful part of it all though is that we will get to see them again. Maybe not on earth. But we will get to see them again.
