We will leave Christ School and the Bundibugyo Team in Febuary of 2010. This decision has not been made simply or easily.  Our hearts have broken more than once.  And they will break again before this is all over.  And it will never quite be all over.  Bundibugyo has taken us in and chewed us into something different, something stronger and better, something ready for a new challenge.  We’re not leaving ministry or a life given over to following Him.  We’re just leaving Bundibugyo, because He’s calling us on to whatever is next.

“Loss isn’t something we get over, it is something we get through. It doesn’t get easier, it gets harder because we love more deeply than before. It is worth it.”

– Sandi Bradford

As we publicly announce to our family, friends, and supporting churches that we are leaving our current field the responses flow in. Each one is precious and meaningful. Each one building and grounding. Thank you for responding. Thank you for loving us.

If you hear a lot of sorrow and grief in our words, if you sense loss in our hearts, don’t think we feel we have failed.  NOT AT ALL.  God has given us perfect success (though it didn’t all look the way we expected!)  Grief isn’t about regrets, it’s about the depth to which we’ve embraced our lives and experiences.  We’ve entered here deeply and well.   Leaving will be full of losses.  And this, my friends, is a sign of real gain.

“Proper mourning for the inevitable losses of our lives is an affirmation to their richness . . . .”

- Sandi Bradford

I’m taking grief one day at a time right now.  Today there were many tears.  A sweet friend came from America to enter the grief and transition with us, and her questions stirred the pot of my heart up.  Some days I am full of expectation and joy for the future, full of the successes of the last three and a half years.  Some days I yearn for all the things I wanted to do here that haven’t  yet come to pass.  On others I am reminded of how much more this experience has been than I could ever have imagined.  It’s all good.  Overall I appreciate and affirm that I, that WE ,have entered this life.  We have put our whole selves into this this country, this team, this community, this school.  Sometimes that has led to extraordinary pain.  Sometimes it has led to deep, deep pleasure.   I’m glad we dove in.  I’m ready to jump again.  Even though landing is going to hurt.

I would prefer a thousand mistakes in extravagance of love to any paralysis in wariness of fear.  – Gerald Mays