TRANSITIONS

Transitions.  Again.

Goodbye to Luke, he walked through the airport security alone, again, this is now beginning our fourth year of sending him to another country from the rest of the family for school.  At 18, he's already walked this path many times.  My confidence in him carries me through the airport scene, where we all stand huddled in Maasai blankets peering through the glass.  But when we get home and he's not there, it aches.  And when we hear that he was singled out for security checks, had his trunks pulled and opened on the tarmac in Istanbul with Turkish airline officials brandishing his Maasai swords and him explaining that they are "cultural artifacts", we're glad for his poise but sad that he was in that situation (images of a Turkish jail . . . ).  And when we get a facebook message from a friend and my mom, who drove him back to Yale from DC, we're so thankful for their care, but sad that we aren't the ones helping him settle into his new dorm, or anywhere available as he's told to brace for the hurricane and stay in his dorm today.

And hello to Jessica, Anna, and the Massos.  Dr. Jessica from our Bundibugyo team is here for a month at Kijabe to gain experience in OB, and Miss Anna is here to substitute teach at RVA.  The entire Masso family is here to settle Acacia in as a new RVA student.  As Anna pointed out, it was like a Bundi Saturday night, tacos at the Myhres with a dozen at the table.  We are blessed to be here in missionary central, a place where others from our teams can come for specific boosts.  This morning we all attended chapel together, filling a whole row of the folding chairs.  Mr. Crumley the chaplain brought us God's word from 1 Samuel, the story of Hannah, who gave her child up to the Lord.  Another paradox of faith, that those who lose will gain, that life comes from death.  The call to missions is fraught with so many goodbyes, such transition and loss.  What kind of God would ask that of us, he queried?  The God who went through the same thing Himself, the God who works all things for the good of those who are called, the God who will bring us all back together for eternity and wipe every tear.

We hold to these truths by faith, in the storm of transitions.