Home > Mission to Amsterdam > Archives > 2008 > August > 30 > Entry
End of a Journey
My time is Ukraine is now over..
It’s been so good and so full to the brim of beautiful friendships with deep roots and opportunities to study Scripture with people, debate philosophical issues, teach and preach.
My time has also been full of funny moments, laughing until I cried and bonding through sharing living spaces and life experiences.
It’s been a time of winding down and preparing to close this season of my life and open the next. The leaves are changing colors and I feel like this time had been full of good fruit, both in my life and the lives of others.
One of the lessons I am learning about service overseas is that I am just one person and can only do so much. So often I walk the streets of this town and there is so much more that can be done.
My roommate and I were walking home a few weeks ago at night and a little boy ran up behind her, spanked her and ran off. We chased the boy and found him and his friend on the next street. My roommate caught the boy when he dropped his cigarettes. After talking with them, we discovered that the boy was nine years old and his friend was 12. They were just roaming the streets at night and had no plans of returning home until morning. They were bumming cigarettes off passing adults. Who is there to tell them they are loved? What if I stayed and started this project or that camp?
But I know I am not that person right now.
I am also learning to trust that God is in control despite the obvious pain I see. I believe we humans messed up big time and that has an impact on the peace of the world. Peace is no longer a given. But it is there to be had. C.S. Lewis said pain is God’s microphone.
On the streets of L’viv, the blind women sing with a cup help outstretched to beg for money because they have little opportunity to make money elsewhere. Though their voices are small and scratchy, the memory of their faces and the sound of their song will never leave me.
Missionary simply means ‘sent one.’ Nothing special. I have learned so much in my time overseas. I was sent, but now I must go back to LeTourneau University in preparation for the next task.
Thank you so much for staying with me and for reading along as I grew and struggled, made mistakes and had triumphs. I hope that you were touched in some small way. I was honored by those of you who left comments on the blogs and who told me in person that you kept up with me in my journey. Thank you.
Thank you so much to the Longview News Journal, for allowing me to share my journey with so many people. You are an amazing group of people. I pray that each of you may be prosperous where you are planted.
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