When you come to the mission field you know you are coming to pour yourself out and to love but sometimes you don’t realize that loving, truly loving, can hurt. Many people are hurting this week as we say goodbye to a friend. Many people poured into his life and he too poured into many more. This friend suffered a lot in his short life but yet we don’t lose hope. His life may be stolen from earth but it was claimed for Jesus and so we know he lives and in a little while we will see him again. He is no longer suffering and is busy playing football with Jesus and the angels.
It’s hard to turn around and love the next one when you don’t know how long you will have them to love but it’s what we are called to do. Whether to love for a day, ten years or more it’s what we are called to do. We can make a difference when we choose to love. Life and death are very real here. We have lost three friends connected to the ministry in the last month. It makes us realize that we only have a short time to live so we should make sure we are really living.