Saying goodbye is not always easy!

In August I said goodbye. Goodbye to friends. Goodbye to workers. Goodbye to tsunami survivors.

I had been in India since February. Lutheran World Relief had pulled me out of the mothballs.

When I retired from LWR eight years ago, I said goodbye to friends in India . Now I was back, working on tsunami recovery.

One old friend said when he saw me in Chennai (formerly Madras ), “I thought I would never see you again.” And one man, 76, hugged another, now 68.

So the 68-year old is now saying goodbye again.

The last few days were marked by farewells, one at a dinner where another goodbye was said between the 76 and 68-year olds.

The maids, who faithfully cleaned my apartment said goodbye. Mary Theresa, suddenly put her hands on the sides of my head, and began speaking softly in Tamil. I looked up, and saw that she had brought the shawl of her sari over her head, and spoke with her eyes closed. She was praying. It was a blessing.

Troty, who would carry on with my work with LWR's tsunami activities in India , also did not like the idea of saying goodbye. So we talked about many things, far off the topic of my impending trip to the airport. When it was time to leave, he asked me to pray with him. I put my hands on each of his shoulders. I prayed with thanks that LWR would have such a gifted person to carry on the work. I asked for him to be gifted with patience and with love, but mostly with love.

This work is not about pity, but about love…about sharing the love of Christ with those in need. It is not the Great Commission, but the Great Commandment: to love our neighbor.

I found neighbors, neighbors in need, up and down the coastline of India . They were fisherfolk, they were new widows, mothers who had lost their children, men who had lost their boats, and others who had lost their goats.

Those I will remember long after saying goodbye. I especially remember the old man whose photo I got, just as he waved goodbye. And as the 76-year old man told me when I arrived, I slightly changed his words to say of this villager, “I may never see you again.”

But the style of LWR's way of working says I will. That's because we work with committed partners who stay in a place long after I say a final goodbye. They will be there to walk alongside the community, to support and to encourage them along the way.

What do you say after you have said “Goodbye?” You say thanks that there are others remaining there, working with patience and with love.

And then saying goodbye becomes easier!

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*Thiemann is a former LWR Program Director for Asia and the Middle East.  He served for six months as LWR’s Tsunami Consultant in India.

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