The Beginning of the End

As strange as it seems to say, this is the beginning of the end for my first year in Liverpool with eight people who have gradually become family. it's Saturday and on Monday morning 6 of my teammates are heading off to London for St. Petersburg Summer Project Briefing. Sarah, Sara, and I will leave the following morning to head back to the Grand Ol' U.S. of A. So tonight I think we're going to hang out as a team, have some dinner, that kind of thing and then tomorrow night I think we're going to start in on the official goodbyes.

It's just strange. I don't think I'm insensitive, but saying goodbye usually feels like a "see you later" thing to me. I guess because I don't plan on this being the last time that I ever see my team. They're more than some folks that I labored alongside for a year--they are--indefinable.

I guess the hardest part of saying goodbye is saying goodbye to a time in your life and maybe even letting yourself, for the first time, recognize the fear that comes with leaving something familiar to venture into something unknown. Whether it's an unknown team in a familiar city or a new career with faceless co-workers--you want to hold onto what you know and love for as long as you're able because you're sure that you know and love it.

I don't know how sending my team off on Monday will feel. I have no idea if there will be tears or if it'll be a long hug with visible appreciation in my eyes. I do know that I will look back at my first year of stint as an amazing time in my life--a time where I, Brittney Lenhoff, was given the absolute privilege of watching God move in and work through eight of the most incredible humans that I've ever met. Eight people who love Jesus and who, despite their shortcomings and their sin and their own hang-ups, faithfully did things that stretched and even frustrated them because they only want to make God known.

I don't know what goodbye will be like, but I do know that I will miss you, Brad, Ashley, Christy, Sara, and Aaron...terribly. Thank you for laboring with me in LP. Thank you for being my family. Thank you for following Jesus.