Tonight

Tonight a precious family I adore will land in Delhi, India. They will push through the airport with four weary children and begin another chapter of life. My family has walked life with the Weavers for ten years. In those ten years we have done much laughing and much weeping. Sima is my best friend. She is one of the strongest people I know, with one of the gentlest voices you have ever heard. Sima has been with me during my darkest hours and during many moments of unspeakable joy! I have watched her four little children grow from tiny babies to be amazing, sensitive, godly children!

Before either of us had children we met in the inner city of Memphis with the same heart's desire, to see God transform a neighborhood and have the joy of watching Him do it. We shared life with one another for some years while becoming closely knit as families. Then came the day where we had to say goodbye. The Weaver family was led by God to India. I cried harder than I had ever imagined possible that day and the week following. She was my sister, she was my best friend, they had all become a part of our family! How could God take them? But His plans were greater. Joe and Sima served in one of the hardest places on earth for three years. They served at a small hospital in a village. The stories they shared are amazing, God did so much through them and they also saw and experienced immeasurable sorrow and pain. Sima and I talked weekly, or as much as we could due to the unpredictable phone lines. Then came an unexpected turn in my own family's life, we too were going to live in India! We ended up in a different part of India, serving in the Himalayan foot hills of North India, while Joe and Sima were south of us. God made it possible for our families to see one another twice a year, and we savored every minute together! We even had the joy of meeting the fourth little Weaver after her premature birth! Our dear friends served in a remote area for three years among the poorest of the poor in India. They then felt the Lord leading them for a time back to Memphis. It was another year of phone struggles as Sima would call me in India over and over again in hopes our phone would work. I would, in turn spend many hours up on the roof trying to get a signal so I could hear her voice. Oh how many stories we have shared. Those phone call were treasures in what was such a desert time!

So tonight, as I said before, they are returning to India. But this time, they will take the train from Delhi to the very hill station town my family spent almost three years in. My heart is aching. How little time we have had in the same place. How can I not ask why we are not there together, missing eachother by one year? But, I cling to the knowledge that God knows best. HE KNOWS. I am thankful to have them meet our friends there, to know where to tell them to go to find something, and to be able to see their new chapter in my mind's eye. I know those mountains will take their breath away. I know Aneil will serve them a wonderful bun omelet. I know the Weavers will walk the very trails our family did. I know they will chase some of the same monkeys we did...:) Above all, I know God is there too. North India, you are getting two amazing doctors and four precious children. No worries, I have my phone mintues ready and my dialing finger poised!

Another family, you know who you are...One also VERY dear to us will be following the Weavers to the very town we came from too...Oh North India, you have NO IDEA how jealous I am of you! I will now go repent for my covetness.