We have open mic nights here at Zion café every Friday. This night usually consists of all of us girls singing terrible renditions of our favorite karaoke songs while our Thai friends sit and laugh. I actually really love it because I get to sing Disney princess songs. Shocking, I know.
Last Friday, the night was winding down and 2 of our girls, the lovely Sarah and Savannah, hopped up to sing “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Most of you probably know it, because it’s a great song, and if you don’t, you should. They got to the chorus that sings out over and over again:
Home, let me go home. Home is wherever I’m with you.
And as I watched them being ri-DONK-u-lous singing their song and as I looked at all the girls in the café, my eyes filled with tears. Because somewhere in the middle of all the awesome craziness that has been this mission trip, I have fallen in love with them.
They have become my home even though we are all halfway around the world from where we actually live. And as I think about the fact that as of tomorrow we only have a week left here in Chiang Mai, and that 2 days after that we’re going to be back on American soil saying our goodbyes, it makes my heart hurt.
They didn’t tell us how to do this at leadership training, the whole saying goodbye to our team thing.
I feel like a mom sending my children off to college.
Who’s going to give them money for the week? Who are they going to have one on ones with? What if they struggle? What if they need to cry? What if they forget what God has taught them here? What if they get sick or injured? What if they go somewhere by themselves???
And while I don’t have the answers to the specific questions, I know that God loves them ever so much more than I ever will. He is going to go back to America with each and every single one of them.
His presence in their lives will do more than mine ever could and that is enough for me.
So, I will just have to be content with praying for them from afar, texts, phone calls, Skype sessions, and of course Facebook stalking. Because years from now, when they’re out leading trips, going on the World Race, graduating, changing the world for Jesus, getting married, having babies, adopting babies…
They’ll always be the team that I had the honor of serving alongside in Thailand. I’ll always love them and they’ll always be a piece of my home.
