Transition and transience...

Last week, I was busy from morning to evening with the WELT Leadership Team meetings. We were a large group, comprising YWAM leaders from different European nations, as well as the "Barnabas" group of older leaders who came to offer prayer and support. We had a full but good week together. Then, at the weekend, I went to a "garage sale." Some friends of ours are moving back to live in South Africa and were selling off all kinds of bits and pieces that they don't want to take with them. I bought a South African recipe book (by Ina Paarman, who's something of a South African institution when it comes to cooking and baking) so I now have the recipes for old favourites - like bobotie or rusks - right at my fingertips. I'll need to try out some new soup recipes over the coming winter.
My friends' departure and transition made me reflect on the transience of life here in southern Spain. People talk about it all the time: how common it is for expat friends to return to their home country or move on to somewhere else. I realised that the same can be true of life as a missionary. Thinking about the (non-Spanish) friends that I made during my first months here in Spain, I realise that almost all of these people have moved on now: three families have moved back to England, four people have moved to the US, and now these other friends are relocating to South Africa. What a paradox it is, and yet what security to know that we live in a constantly changing world, but we serve an unchanging God.