All Good Things Must Come to An End

"There is an end to everything, to good things as well." ~Chaucer 1374

I have never been particularly fond of endings to good things. My feeling is that if it is a good thing, wouldn't it be lovely if it could continue forever?

Our week on the work site has been filled with many good things: vision, teamwork, new learnings, the use of all sorts of talents (some of which we didn't even know we had), making new friends-in-mission, laughter, and great joy.

Today it ends. We're done. The work we have been given to do will be completed. Our names will go up on the local Shalom Zone wall as an indication of this. We will say our good-byes to the young family for whom we have been winterizing the trailer, head back to the Econolodge, pack our bags, and, perhaps, be on the road, depending upon the time, for home.

If we are able to head for home today, it means that we will miss saying "goodbye" to our new mission friends from Michigan who have welcomed us into their circle and shared two meals with us. The meal they cooked for us last evening was delicious. They were so gracious that it was as if they had invited us into their homes and treated us as if we were special guests.

Today it ends. Another chapter in the mission life of our church family will be completed. With two mission trips in 2010 under our belts, it seems probable that there will be many more. Both trips have tweaked our mission imaginations and called us to look beyond our ordinary, daily lives to places beyond! There are persons who have expressed interest in going on mission trips who have not yet been. Isn't that exciting? Even as this good mission experience ends, it seems that another will rise up. What fun to believe that God will continue to open up new beginnings for mission!

So "goodbye, Abida and family," "goodbye Michigan mission team," "goodbye Carolyn," (our site coordinator), "goodbye breakfast at Econolodge," "goodbye peanut butter and jelly lunches," (and dinner leftovers), "goodbye Lebanon, TN, home of Cracker Barrel," "goodbye."
There is an end to everything, to good things as well.

We go; but as we do, we will take each experience we have had, each person we have met, with us back to Wilmington. Maybe, just maybe, we will discover that even though things come to an end, they do not leave our hearts and minds. In some way, large or small, they become a permanent part of us. It seems that in God's world, endings take on new meaning.

Keep us in your prayers as we travel. See you soon.