Finale

Well, I've been back about three weeks now, and it still bugs me that this blog doesn't have any closure. So here it is.

First of all, thank you to everyone who prayed for us this last year in N.I. We really appreciate it and couldn't have made it without your support! Thanks for all the letters, postcards, packages, and comments, and for being so encouraging!

Our last few days in Ballymena were really good. We had a lot of fun with people from church, including an awesome Kidzone end-of-the-year party at Monkey Business (think Chucky Cheese) with about 25 kids from church, or 26 if you include me... I got a little carried away. Turns out that over 100 different kids came to Kidzone last year from the estate, with about 20-30 on average. It is such a big ministry for such a small church, which is why it is so good that Elizabeth is going back and can help with it.

We spent most of Saturday and Sunday saying goodbye to everyone, which was sad, but good. Everyone had really nice things to say to us, telling us how big of an impact we had had on them or on the kids we've been around for the last year, which was so encouraging. Sometimes it takes someone else telling you something before you can see it yourself. We even ran into one young woman who knew all about us from her 7-year-old niece named Kennedy. Kennedy became a Christian last year and used to be one of our neighboors. This lady said that she might come to church because she could see how much of a difference it was making in her niece's life!

We also spent a lot of time saying goodbye to some of the people from the estate we've been around the most: Calvin and Marty, Luke and his brother Paul, Michael, Katie, and of course Colin. We actually said goobye to Colin twice because he said the first one wasn't good enough. He told us how appreciative he was of us being there during one of the hardest years of his life, and that he didn't know what he was going to do without us. It was hard to say goodbye to someone like him, but we know God will take care of him, we are hoping that one of the guys from church can start spending time with him, and Elizabeth will be around too.

So after all of our teary goodbyes and late night packing, we slept for about 10 minutes and then went to the airport. We are all currently somewhere in the southeast; Dwight is in North Carolina, Elizabeth is in Georgia or sometimes Birmingham, Erin is at the beach or Bham or Moultrie depending on what day it is, and i'm in the computer lab at Samford looking for jobs. The Fellowship is broken.

Fortunately, there is a sequel. Elizabeth is going back to the City of the Seven Towers in July and staying for another year (have i mentioned that?), which is awesome. And we'll all be back next summer for the wedding. Just kidding:) The blogging continues at elizabethannhill.blogspot.com ,starting in August.

So overall, it was a really good year. The biggest thing for me was seeing how God moves in His timing, bringing us over there for a season to help a hurting church and be around hurting people. And He isn't finished yet.

Until the King Returns,
John