Saying Bye is Hard to Do

The last day of a Mission Trip is such an emotional experience. Today the devotion was on encouragement, then we gave  verbal "roses" to each other. As humans it is so hard for us to take compliments. Then when this time was over, their preacher and his wife spoke about their gratitude for us coming to work. I know that we build for the glory of God; but when these churches tell us how much it means to them for us to come, it just makes us work that much harder the last afternoon so we can even accomplish more for them.

About three o'clock we get the signal that it is time to stop and bring all the tools in for inventory. After the counting and loading, this is the real tear jerker. We stand amazed at what God accomplished through us - physically for their church and socially for our church.  New levels of friendships are formed when you work and sweat with people side-by-side. 

Also I cannot praise enough our youth. This year's group was just remarkable. Even though they were young, they were so eager to learn and so willing to do anything. As always, we cannot do it without the youth.