Why is saying goodbye both hard and easy when you leave family members and little ones half way around the world? Nancy and I did that two days ago as we said our final goodbyes in the borderland of Ukraine to our daughter Rachel's family and four of our grandchildren. It was both hard and easy. Why?
It is obviously hard knowing you might not see them again for a long time with such great distances involved. It was a touching farewell since the little one, Susanna, had just gotten to know us. Note her waving goodbye here just after I had put up a sandbox in their back yard before we left.
Goodbyes are also easy if you know they are in God's will. It was over twenty years ago when the Lord first impressed me about our church doing major ministry in Ukraine. That resulted in God laying on Rachel's heart a call to devote her life to serve Christ here also. She sensed that call on the exact week, unknown to her, that her great grandparents arrived in America from Ukraine a century earlier. Coincidence? Don't think so.
So the story goes that when she finally arrived in Ukraine to begin her service, it was also on that first day she met her husband to be. God had a plan. When our children are serving Christ it makes no difference how far away they are....the goodbyes are a little bit easier. They are "good" byes. We wouldn't want them anywhere else but in God's will. I am sure when Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees it was not easy leaving friends behind (Gen. 12). But it was God's will and look at the blessings we have from it.
This Sunday Nancy and I will be giving a complete update on what God did during our time away. This was primarily a family time trip but the Lord gave us perhaps more ministry than we have ever had in that land. See you Sunday at 10:30...or watch on our Livestream if you can't make it. Don't forget to pray for your children and their children.
Let me know what you think with a comment below.