Last time Team Street Church Poznan.

Yesterday, on November 11, Polish National Independence Day (Narodowe Święto Niepodległości) and Saint Martin’s Day (Dzień Świętego Marcina), we celebrated a farewell with the whole team of the Street Church in Poznan. Yes, we hope to go one more time, but since we are living ‘day by day,’ we’re not sure if we’ll manage it with all the hectic preparations for the move.

The farewell was wonderfully Polish: super hospitable, a substantial meal followed by another round with cakes, all very relaxed and feeling like family far from ‘home.

The complicated thing about this kind of farewell is that we’re leaving while things are going well.

When you find a new job, it’s usually because the old one no longer suited you or met your needs. Then the farewell isn’t so complicated, because you were ready to move on.

In this case, it’s different. Things are going well, we’re enjoying it, it feels like home, and the results of the work these volunteers do for their communities are excellent… Saying goodbye to something that’s going well, that you love, is complicated. But, we don’t want to be like Jonah—we don’t like fish—so we go. With heavy hearts… and we end with:

Ephesians 2:19
“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household.”

Galatians 6:10
“So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.”

Hebrews 2:11
“For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.”