All we ever do is say Good~Bye

All we ever do is say good~bye is our John Mayer theme song tonight. For a week we have been dreading tonights farewell. Paul, Dulcie, Jaycee, Hannah, Alyssa,and Levi are leaving Jamaica tomorrow and we are not happy. When we arrived in Jamaica August 2008, we found ourselves sleeping in the Bushhorn kids beds for a couple weeks until our shipment caught up with us to settle into our own house. The Bushhorn's were having visa troubles so they were off the island. When we arrived at the children's home where they were the directors everybody kept asking, Renee are you and Hannah Bushhorn sisters?! We hadn't met this wonderful family yet so by the time they returned we were more than ready to meet Renee's twin!

We have had more than tons of fun with the Bushhorns. For our first year here almost to the day, we had a prayer meeting at our house every Saturday night. The Yoders and the Bushhorns and the Selers. We prayed through on many occassion our frustrations, our trials, our joys, everybody elses frustrations, trials and joys as well! Then came a very difficult day when the Yoders having fulfilled their MAPS term left to go home, and then the Bushhorns moved to Kingston to direct another children's home. We were the only missionaries in the middle of the island for awhile!

Sleepovers, get togethers, beach time, clown ministry and lots of laughs kept our families together and now they will be in ministry somewhere else.

This week Renee wrote in her journal a moving piece and even tonight as she read it to the Bushhorns to say goodbye, I was moved by her words.

From Renee's journal, January 18, 2010:

"Being an MK, saying good~bye kind of becomes part of you. Some MK's treat good~bye like "FORGET". As soon as you say good~bye to someone, they are forgotten-out of sight, out of mind.
Other MK's treat good~bye as a "see you later" I mean, they invented Face Book for a reason!
I don't know about you, but I want to say "see you later". If you become like the first group of MK's, eventually you are just going to stop making friends in the first place, just so you won't have to say good~bye.
So here's my question, Are you going to say "forgotten" or "see you later"?"


As difficult as tonight was for Renee, Den and me, we realize that God does have a plan, a purpose for all of our steps. We are so grateful for the time we have spent with our wonderful friends, the Bushhorns. We are placing their steps in to the Master Designer's hands. We know that HE does all things well. Although we are still not happy!