One thing that missionary kids get a lot of practice in doing is saying good-bye. It is not fun and happens far too often. We’ve said many a tearful good-bye at this very spot in the International terminal.

A couple of weeks ago we took the girls out of school in the middle of the day for a trip to the airport to say good-bye to one of our colleagues, Julie. We first met Julie a few years ago when she came to the Solomons on a summer missions trip. Now she’s helping the Kwaio people translate the New Testament in their own language. She’s been faithfully doing it out on her own, but last year God blessed her with a wonderful Christian man and they are getting married in June in Illinois. They will be back here to serve together about a year from now.

Emily and Sarah wanted very much to see Julie off at the airport. Julie is a part of the extra family Jesus promised to those who leave their land and family to follow him.

A couple of weeks ago, one of our translation families was getting ready to go out to their village for a 3-4 month stay. We hosted them for Sunday dinner the day they left. Later we discovered that one of the kids had left his ONLY pair flip-flops at our house.

After the family got to the village we got a radio message asking us to please send the flip-flops out to the village sometime. “No big hurry,” we were told. He only needs them in time for the trip back to town on the ship in August!

For missionary kids in the tropics, shoes are very often optional!