Saying goodbye...again

It is the "saying goodbye" time of year again. This time we're not leaving (phew!), but others are. It is a conversation I've been having a lot recently - staying put in missionary life doesn't immune you from goodbyes. I wrote about it a little while ago here. 

Today I made some "farewell" pages for books for two couples who are finishing their time of service, one headed for retirement and the other handing over a leadership role after the maximum 10 year term allowed by our mission. In doing so, I trawled through some photos. Here is a photo taken in 2005 soon after we first arrived in Tokyo and CAJ. It is special to me, because it is an example of the "adopted uncle" type relationship that our boys enjoy in the absence of blood relatives. Here, our middle son sits on the shoulders of one of the missionaries we'll be farewelling in a couple of weeks.

18 months ago I wrote a post about missionaries and loneliness. As I look back at it, I realise the one thing I left out was the constant farewells - even when we're on the field. That does something to you. One thing it does is make you go deep quickly in conversations and relationships (see a post about that here). We don't waste much time talking about the weather (though that does rate a mention, especially on a day like today when it is something like 16 degrees on the first official day of summer!?!).

So, we say goodbye to more friends. A quick count gives me at least 10 people who I know who'll be going back to their home countries in the next couple of months, probably more. Some of those will be back after a year, others will not. I once got slightly annoyed with a friend in Australia who was getting upset because her missionaries friends were leaving for home assignment. I felt like saying (or maybe I did), "That's what you get when you make friends with missionaries." It's a strange lifestyle. You get used to it a bit, but it still hurts to say goodbye so often.