Sunday, May 31, 2015

Hellos and Goodbye

My heart is filled to the brim with thankfulness for some precious hellos and a loving goodbye on this sunny Sunday.

Caleb and Haley celebrated their first wedding anniversary up at Malenovice, in the midst of JV summer intern training. I stopped by today with a bag of treats for them, along with hugs and kisses, to wish them a happy anniversary. Hard to believe it's already been a year since their beautiful wedding in Colorado. How glad we are that they are so happily married!


This afternoon I headed over to Poland where the European Leadership Forum is taking place. Dave is there leading and teaching the youth leader training track, along with a number of our JV staff. But I didn't go to visit him!

Three years ago I met Kelly when she and her husband were here in Czech and came to our house for dinner. You would have thought we were grade school friends being reunited after many years apart,  like we'd always been friends! The same thing happened two years ago when she came to Poland for ELF and we spent an afternoon talking up a storm.

And so it was again today! Only our third time to see each other in person, we spent hours in precious, non-stop conversation. How does that happen? It can only be a heart and soul connection by the Lord. What a good gift from Him.

"So happy to be with you today Kelly!"

As if that wasn't enough goodness for one day, the evening ended back in Frýdlant, picking up a dear friend and heading out for dinner in our Beskydy mountains.


In 1995, at one of our early English camps, Katka trusted Christ. And became part of our family. I can't even begin to recount how much life we have shared through all these years. She is a dear sister in Christ, but also like a daughter to me.

Now, after serving eleven years with us in the JV office in Frýdlant, she is moving to Latvia to join our JV team there.


Soaking in the view looking out over the mountains, we reminisced and recounted God's faithfulness over the years. He's been so very good to both of us.


While this is not goodbye in the sense that I won't see her again, we did want to put a book-end to the past twenty years God has allowed us to share. How sweet they have been with this precious one!

She's entering a whole new chapter of life now and I bless her as she goes forward into what God has in store for her. And I'll miss her in my daily life, just as I do my own kids.

But the richness of life is in our hellos and goodbyes, which were all so very meaningful today.

1 comment:

  1. You had a very full day!!! Thanks for making time for our visit. Loved every minute.

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