Mission: Malaysia

Hello everyone! We haven't forgotten about you, we've just been participating in more parties, good-bye ceremonies, social gatherings, and crying festivals in the past few days that I ever knew was possible. The readers are coming out for their final reading sessions and are hanging out to get in their last good-byes, not to mention showering us with outlandish gifts. (Loraine's readers have brought her enough jewelry to last a lifetime and she's just going to wear it all home in an effort to set off every metal detector between here and Nashville.) Right now I feel like we're running a big Asian CSC--even at this moment we have readers hanging out to study, watch movies, and eat pizza.=) Now we need to work on kicking everybody out at 11 pm.=)

One interesting fact is that Eric has been making his readers cry. Seriously, one of Eric's readers came out of his last reading session today bawling and hugging all over Eric (not even kidding.) This made Loraine and I cry and it was kind-of turning into a huge kleenex festival. Then Brad came out and told us we were all a bunch of pansies. At first I was wondering what on earth Eric had done to the poor guy to make him cry so hard, but then Brad astutely pointed out that he would cry too if he were about to be separted from Eric for who-knows-how-long. Fine point, Brad, fine point.

To be serious, I am so touched by how deeply these kids have become a part of our lives in the last 6 weeks. We've laughed with them, ate with them, traveled with them, danced with them, studied with them, shared Jesus with them, and now we cry with them and say good-bye for now. There's a time for everything. Last night at our farewell party we gathered our readers around with the church members and sang "A Common Love." It was so touching to look around and see people from all over the world singing and to know that indeed these we have a common strength and a common hope. And I believe, that to the glory of God, many of these students will have a common future with us as they begin to take hold of the truths that have been imparted to them these past weeks.

We thank God for everyone he has sent to us here in Malaysia. May He continue to bless them!

posted by crittermer @ 8:06 PM