Goodbye for Now

Any of you who have known me for any time or who have read this blog know that I spent some time in Haiti teaching missionary kids before I met and married Don and raised a family here in Florida.  Even though I was in Haiti for a relatively short time (three and a half years) I came to love Haiti, its people, and the missionaries that I worked with.

I especially loved the kids, and now we do not have a teacher/pupil relationship, but one of good friends.  After I left Haiti in 1973 and got married and lived here in Bradenton, Don and I entertained many of those families in our home when they happened to be traveling through Florida and had a personal connection with many of them over the years. 

Several of the missionary couples who have retired moved here to Bradenton to live in the Bradenton Missionary Village which was built by Anthony Rossi, the founder of Tropicana Products.  And so over the years I have enjoyed visiting these families and seeing their "kids" when they have come to visit.

This weekend we are meeting together to say goodbye to one of the missionaries, Don Adams.  He and his wife Evelyn lived and worked in Haiti and later Suriname for 38 years before retiring and coming to Bradenton.  While here, he ministered in the jail and in nursing homes.  He was faithful to his family, his friends, and to his Heavenly Father, ministering faithfully until he could no longer do it physically.

We will say goodbye, knowing that we will meet again when God takes us home, or when He returns to take us with him.  As so many have written, it is sad for those left on earth, but wonderful for the one being promoted to glory.