Stepping Out of the Boat

My (Claire) parents offered to have a little farewell party for us, which was very kind of them. We had a cook-out sort of thing with lots of yummy food. About thirty or so people ended up coming for dinner and to wish us well. Here to the right are some of our married -couple friends: Ivan and Mackenzie Lupov on the left (they're newly weds) and Mark and Andrea Hera on the right. As it often is with large gatherings of people, we didn't feel like we got to talk to everyone quite as much as we would have liked.



In this picture, my dad was asking everyone who came to say "farewell" to us to have a prayer time before everyone started to go their separate ways. It was quite humbling and touching to hear the prayers, and to know that everyone there would be praying for us while we are away.

We had a wonderful time at the little party, but it was really sad to say good bye - we decided to say "see you later" instead.