It's May! I know you already know that but for me it is mind boggling.....where has the time gone? We are entering our fifth month here in Cape Town. There are days I feel like we just got here and some times it feels as if we have been here 5 years. I feel so disconnected from everyday American life. Sure we catch word of the big things like the marathon bombings and the recent ladies missing for a decade but anything else...well, we just do not know about. Sometimes I feel like I am in a time warp. Tate and I recently signed up for a video membership. Yes, like Blockbuster back in the day. It just seems weird. I've not rented a movie from an actual brick and mortar store in ages.
Before moving here we attending some training out in Colorado. We learned many things that we have used since being here. We spent one day on goodbyes and hellos, learning that in a missionary life it would be a constant rotating door of these. I , of course, instantly thought about my family and friends but did not even ponder the people we would begin to build relationships with here in S. Africa.
Today we said goodbye to our sweet friend Clifford. Tate wrote about him in an earlier blog but the day finally came, as we knew it would. Clifford graduate in March from the agri-academy at Living Way and planned to start a pig farm in his hometown in Zimbabwe. I think I just lived in denial that he would not really leave. His wife and daughter and majority of his family are there, so why wouldn't he leave. I love Clifford. I love his heart and what he has added to our family since we moved here. I will miss him so much and seeing his face at Living Way but I know God has big things planned for Clifford back in Zim. I do know this, though it hurts, it means we have loved well. If I didn't care...it wouldn't hurt.
My prayer is God will continue to put people like Clifford in our lives. People we can pour into who in turn actually give more to us than we can give to them.
Clifford's faith never failed even when things looked bleak for him.....when he did not have enough money for food....when his wife faced breast cancer....Clifford was faithful. I have learned so much from him and he is about to touch his entire community.
Brooke
Today we said goodbye to our sweet friend Clifford. Tate wrote about him in an earlier blog but the day finally came, as we knew it would. Clifford graduate in March from the agri-academy at Living Way and planned to start a pig farm in his hometown in Zimbabwe. I think I just lived in denial that he would not really leave. His wife and daughter and majority of his family are there, so why wouldn't he leave. I love Clifford. I love his heart and what he has added to our family since we moved here. I will miss him so much and seeing his face at Living Way but I know God has big things planned for Clifford back in Zim. I do know this, though it hurts, it means we have loved well. If I didn't care...it wouldn't hurt.
My prayer is God will continue to put people like Clifford in our lives. People we can pour into who in turn actually give more to us than we can give to them.
Clifford's faith never failed even when things looked bleak for him.....when he did not have enough money for food....when his wife faced breast cancer....Clifford was faithful. I have learned so much from him and he is about to touch his entire community.
Brooke
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