Saying Good-bye to Students

There are only 2 weeks left in our
school. Graduation is Friday night, May 29! I have spent 4 mornings a week with these lovely people for 9 months.
















They came to us from all walks of life, all income levels, all spiritual levels, all possible home situations. This year we have preachers kids along side people raised by satanists. Some have college educations already, some were fresh out of high school & had never been away from home.

Our class includes singles, marrieds, childless & parents. They came with wounds, questions & barriers. Others came with strong, healthy self-confidence & beautiful backgrounds.







Each year as I read the applications, I stare at the eyes in the pictures they send. I try to read between the lines of our questions we ask on the generic form. In my mind I am asking "Who are you? What are you ready for?" I wonder if we will "click" or will this one be a mystery all year.







These ones who make it here & give themselves to a "time out" with God; these students who I am getting ready to say "Good-bye" to, have a place in my heart forever. I have held them while they cried, walked them through deep questions about how God sees them.





I have stood in the place of their past enemies & apologized for the wrongs done to them. We have laughed hysterically together! We have dance little jigs together! We have argued. I have been too harsh & too soft. But mostly I have seen what they could be & challenged them to step up to it.





How in the world do I say good-bye to these pieces of my heart? Every year this is a difficult time for me. But this year I am not suffering as before. I have


noticed a trend. We are not really dropping our relationships. It is not ending. I am still in contact with almost every student we have had. True, it isn't the daily hugs & kisses anymore, but the connection is still very strong & very real.


Especially now with Facebook & Myspace. I get Instant Messages from formers almost every evening while I'm on here! We have built a bond that will last, a bond that slips immediately past small talk & into real talk every time! My Hubs tells them he has to meet their potential mates in the future! Ha! He is half serious too! He gets extremely protective as you can imagine!

So, me & my little chicks have a few more days together. Some are going home for the summer & will return for Second Year, others are gone for good they say. But every year we have returning "drop-ins" of former students,

who say they need a little refresher to help them back home. They soak in the atmosphere, meet the newbies & tell stories of their time in the school. Then they take a deep breath & head out into the world again! They have learned how to take their atmosphere with them & change the atmosphere they are walking into. Those are our success stories. Dependence on us is not the goal.



 So in a few more days many of our students will pack their apartments up & drive or fly away. But I am not getting weepy, at least not yet!
We have invested in one another & that creates a cord, a connection that you'd really have to work on to break.
These people are leaving here with transformed lives & that just amazes me again & again!

Time for the next batch!!