Goodbyes...

As a family that has been in the ministry together for 25 years, we’ve said a lot of goodbyes over the years.  They’ve never been easy.  When it’s you that’s leaving, often it’s a little easier simply because it’s tempered by the excitement of a new adventure, a new challenge, and a chance to start fresh and new.  It’s a weird combination of sadness, happiness, excitement and nervousness, all rolled up together.  When you are the one sending someone else off, saying goodbye is a little harder.  It’s not that you feel like you’re being left behind, it’s more the feeling of losing something that you’ve come to take for granted, something that was warm and comfortable and always there.  Now we must get ready to say goodbye to our Youth Minister, James Strickland, and his beautiful wife, Donna, and send them off on a new adventure.  They’ve become more than just friends...they’re family.  I’m at a loss for words when it comes to trying to find a way to say thank you for the friendship, support, love and Godly teaching they have given my family, especially my three boys.  The impact James has had on their lives has changed them for the better, forever.  There are no words to explain to you the blessing of having someone you can completely entrust your children to like James.  When Donna and I first became friends, I shared with her that each time we’d moved to a new church, I prayed that God would send me a “heart” friend, someone I could open up my heart to, and trust.  I have someone like this in nearly every state we’ve lived in, and they have remained my heart friends no matter the miles between us or the time that has passed.  This will be true of Donna and I as well.  I am so very thankful for her friendship, encouragement and trust.  James & Donna, as you set out on this new adventure in life we want you to know that we love you, we are blessed to call you friends, we think of you as family, and there is no distance between us that will ever change that!    

Blessings & Love,
Amy, Scott, Alex, Taylor & Jarod York

Friends by Michael W. Smith

Packing up the dreams God planted,
in the fertile soil of you.
I can’t believe the hopes He’s granted,
means a chapter in your life is through.
But we’ll keep you close, as always.
It won’t even seem you’ve gone.
Cause our hearts, in big and small ways,
will keep the love that keeps us strong.

And friends are friends forever, if the Lord’s the Lord of them.
And a friend will not say never, cause the welcome will not end.
Though it’s hard to let you go, in the Father’s hands we know,
that a lifetime’s not too long, to live as friends.