Saying Goodbye

It's hard to believe that 5 months have come and gone. We feel like it was just enough time for Puerto Rico to become home so it was incredibly sad to leave. Our last couple of weeks was spent wrapping up things by taking finals, having despididas (goodbye parties) and trying to soak up as much of our friends and fun things to do on the island as we could!

Here's just a small list of the many wonderful things we'll miss about Puerto Rico in no particular order:
1) Friends and doing things as a team
2) Beautiful weather, the bluest skies we've ever seen
3) Tropical sounds at night
4) Having our minds stretched and faith tested in seminary classes,
discussions, and life each day
5) Our king size bed
6) Iguanas running around everywhere
7) Spanish
8) Being 30 minutes from beautiful beaches or a lush rainforest
9) Getting to play basketball regularly
10) Pinchos and other fried foods you can buy along the road, can't forget beans and rice!

We could go on and on with this list. During our debriefing time we were asked to think of a word to sum up our time there. Here they are with a brief explanation:

Jason -
"Transformissional" - I was being transformed more and more into the person who God has created me to be and more of a reflection of who He is. For example, I have a deeper understanding of marriage and my role as a husband as well as how our marriage is to reflect the Gospel and how Christ loves the Church. I was sharpened and stretched by other believers (locals and teammates), through experiences on our trip to India and Thailand, and through what we learned in classes.
Before, in my evangelism I saw that it was more about "saving people" and getting them into heaven rather than giving God glory. God's mission for the world is for people love Him and live a life of worship and that is what I am committed to being a part of.

Lacey
"Unexpected" - We go into all situations with expectations and Puerto Rico was no different. Although at times I faced circumstances that I wouldn't have chosen I believe that everything, good and bad, played an important part in our growth. For example, I was expecting to minister mostly to children or some other community project. However, when we got there we were told we'd mostly be at the college campus. This was disappointing at first, but through our time there I was forced to face my own sin and selfishness and through confessing it to God and others and choosing to trust Him rather than try to control I found joy and actually was blessed with a great friend. There are countless examples of unexpected relationships or experiences but through them all I would have to say that God's plan far exceeded anything that I had thought up.