A Day of Goodbyes

Today was the end of the trip for the group known as the Mississippi Group. At one time everyone on this last summer Torch trip was from Mississippi. Now only about half of the people that come on this trip are from Mississippi. The MS group is sometimes now referred to the Many States group as folks come from Illinois, North Carolina, Florida, Texas, and Tennessee.

In the last two weeks this group built 13 houses, built a bridge, finished school buildings, fed about 700 families, clothed countless and witnessed 35 baptisms.

It is not really the end of the summer as a few people are still here and plan to work hard for one more week. But it was sad to see this group leave this morning. It has been sad to see each group leave, but there was another one coming right behind it. Today, no one else arrived. Also, many relationships were formed in the last two weeks, both within the group and with Hondurans. Saying goodbye to someone you may not see again for a year is always hard. As the buses arrived at the airport (the airport in Tegucigalpa) many of the sweet people from Los Pinos arrived at the same time. They managed to get to the airport to tell so many of their new friends goodbye. What a touching gesture.

Little children with their big brown eyes were hugging their friends from the United States. And they were crying as they said their goodbyes. Everyone cried. Even the big ol' tough boys.

I was not saying goodbye to the Hondurans, but to my friends and family. Yes, there were tears in my eyes, too. I must be perfectly honest. I was sad to see this group leave, but I was also crying tears of joy because we did not have to drive to San Pedro Sula today or yesterday. The airport in Tegucigalpa fully reopened yesterday.

We had people leaving on three different planes and the children that came to say goodbye waited until the very last person was through security and out of sight before they began to leave, still crying big tears; their eyes reddened. They hugged Marc and I as we stood there.

I guess it would be easy to dwell on the sadness of this day, but there is still work to do. beginning early in the morning.

Terri