Will You Miss Me?

When we lived in Ecuador, we had a number of college students come work summers with us. Over the years, we had many stay in our home. One particular year, as I was taking a young man out for his “last supper” with us, he turned to me and asked, “Will you miss me?”

I was so caught off guard by the question, I didn't have time to make up a good lie, so I said, “Well, probably not.”

I tried to rapidly explain that it really said more about me than it did about him.

A life in missions is full of goodbyes. Good friends are constantly leaving us. They change fields or leave ministry completely. I have a bad habit of pulling away, walling myself off from the pain of loss that I know I will experience when someone I care about moves on.

The constant stream of people weaving in and out of your life isn't something they tell you about in orientation. And if they told you, I’m not sure you could really understand. I've read missionary kids experience more loss before graduation, than most people experience in a lifetime. I don’t doubt that’s true. 

Email, Facebook and Skype all make staying connected easier, but it usually disintegrates into superficial communication with no real relationship.

As God has allowed us to reconnect with friends we have been separated from I've discovered something beautiful.  

Even though it’s been years since we've been together, when we see each other again, we can go pretty deep, pretty quickly.

There is just something about having the shared experience of cross-cultural life, raising kids and working together in ministry that binds us. It allows us to do away with idle chitchat and start talking about things that matter.

Successes and loss, excitement and pain come quickly into the conversation, like we had spoken about these things yesterday, not years ago.

There is not much better in life than that type of friend. And we have been blessed with many.