Last night we had a good-bye party for my friend Lindsey who is moving to China next week. It was hosted by my friend Lisa and she wanted to have a traditional Indonesian meal. We had 11 courses! of very different, interesting and tasty food. The spring rolls were unlike any I have ever tried, they had boiled egg and vegis on the inside. Lots of dishes have peanut sauce. The most interesting dish was the shrimp balls cooked on the end of lemon grass stalks, a culinary adventure for sure.
Besides the delicious food we had great fellowship. I looked around our small table and only Lindsey and I were Americans. Korea, Japan, Austria, Singapore, Indonesia and America were all represented around the table. I really consider it a huge blessing to have this experience of learning so much about different cultures and having friends from all over the world, it's so much fun.
I will greatly miss Lindsey. She was the leader of the first Bible study I attended early in our move. She was also a great support when we switched the boys from the American International School to the British, in fact she transferred her two children as well. It's been comforting seeing her friendly face at the new school this year. I don't like having to say good-bye to her but know God has special plans for her family in Shanghai and perhaps we can visit them there?
Living abroad has many advantages and disadvantages. One disadvantage is the frequent coming and going of ex-pats and the frequent good-byes you have to endure. There have been more good-byes than normal lately with the world-wide economic situation and lots of companies are relocating their families back to their home countries. Then most people have contracts of 3-4 years here so there is a constant flow of new people coming and old people leaving. At least the good-bye last night is just for a little while, knowing that one day we will all be reunited for eternity. I so wonder if everyone will speak their native language and we will just all understand each other or if we will have a universal heaven language?
1 comment:
The good-byes do get hard, don't they? It is the one thing I don't talk about much but that really hurts. Praying the Lord fills any hole left by losing this good friend, and I hope you are able to visit her one day. How fun that would be!
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