Day 130 – End of Chapter

Today was our last day of debrief… Talk about going out with a bang.

I started off the morning with a two mile run through the dry Kentucky air. After that, we headed out to this park on the bank of the Ohio River where the weather was amazing and conversation was deep. After a couple of hours, we headed to downtown Owensboro (that’s where the one stop light is) and had lunch at a little Greek restaurant. I had the absolute best reuben sandwich I have ever had in my life! : )

Next we headed up to the Burton’s house where Melissa was staying… Talk about a spread! The house was more like a mansion, but the back yard was the real gem for me: Basketball courts, tennis courts, swimming pool, club house, hiking trails, etc! (pictured above.) This is what I call luxury. Thus, I worked out on the basketball court for about 45 minutes and then hit the diving board for a while. After that, Ross and I invented a basketball game in the pool while the ladies drank lemonade and talked. Since the water was a cool 87 degrees, it was tough for me to get out. But we had dinner plans at the golf course so we had to get going.

Dinner was great! We got to see the Weddings who were our host parents before we went on the trip and I also got spend more time with Keith, Holly, and Max. That baby is such a good baby! Once we finished dinner, we headed over to the Allen’s for our last session of debrief where we shed our tears and said our goodbyes…

As difficult as this summer was and as much “static” or “friction” that we had within the team, I truly do hold a special place in my heart for this group and their desire to live out God’s will for their lives. In the whole world, only these people know what the past two months was like and how greatly it affected each one of us. We saw each other in our strengths and in our weaknesses and we allowed each other to work through these things. I pray that the hope and passion that each of us left this trip with will carry on for a long time to come, until the next time we can journey together again.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Ross (my brother and roommate for the past eight weeks):
“The thing about trust (faith) is: You don’t KNOW how it’s going to turn out.”

God is good, God is love, God has a greater plan.

Until next time,
Omar