Loss & Grief

Entering into a life of full-time overseas mission has to be the toughest challenge in life. One can do all the training at specialised colleges, read all the books and listen to those who have served in overseas mission, but until you've done it, you simply cannot understand just how tough the life is! That's not to say normal life isn't tough, we know it can be.

One aspect of life in mission which we were totally unprepared for was the continual sense of loss and grief, as people come into our lives for a time, and then depart again. Sometimes it's us coming in to the lives of others and then departing again. Sometimes it's about being ripped out of a situation or even a nation unexpectedly. Sometimes it's one's own kids doing the departing to start their lives thousands of miles away, knowing you'll only see them sporadically and you're highly unlikely to ever live together as a family again.  That's really hard!

Sometimes we've chosen the difficult route of being in a life for a time knowing that there was a cut off point after which we would have no further input or contact. This is also very hard.

But this is what we chose when we became Temporary Safe Care Parents, and opened our life and hearts to Jack and others in the future...

Today, we said farewell to Jack, and it's been really hard. We had fallen in love with him, his smile, his personality and just his general gorgeousness. Jack is a beautiful human being born out of awful circumstances, and yet he's royally blessed.  As he moves on into a long term foster placement (hopefully with a view to adoption), we feel blessed to have met and spent time with his new family, and knowing he is going to be deeply loved and cared for helps ease our pain.

Before we went in to overseas mission in 1998, no one warned us about the ongoing sense of loss & grief that we would carry and have to face, but as hard as it is, it's a privilege to do it in the name of God, knowing that through it all, we're just two youngsters at heart who chose to serve Jesus with all the passion we could muster.