Saying Goodbye, Tyler Goes to College Featured

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Tyler surrendered in Jan 12 to be a foreign church planter
Regina, Tyler and I organized everything it seemed 10 times, ran errands, met Tyler's roommate and went all over getting those last minute to do's done. 7:00 P.M. came around and it was time to head to the Presidents ice cream social.  As we walked out of Tyler's dorm, Tyler spied all the new students on the lawn in groups and said "Mom, Dad - stay back until I figure out what is going on" - those were Tyler’s last words as he walked ahead of us into the sea of students. 
 Regina and I looked around and said - "Where are all the parents?"  Feeling very uncomfortable, we walked across the lawn, over to the ice cream tent - then we found the parents across the street from where the students were - all looking at the kids (of course J).  I looked at both groups, realized where we belonged and for the first time in my life from a student’s perspective felt - super uncool. 
I crossed the street with Regina - I looked at the parents and said - "Is it me or have we all just become the most uncool people in the world?"  They all laughed and we struck up a friendship with several of them.  
That is how we left Tyler - the parents eventually disbursed and Regina and I were some of the last to leave.  It was unusually natural but unnatural all at the same time.  It was easier for the other parents to leave because most of them live less than 3-4 hours down the road.  It was very difficult for us because we live literally thousands of miles away and knew all too well at that moment exactly how far that is.
We knew the time had come and the reality of what we do stared at us for some time as we watched Tyler with his newfound friends.  Emotions, love, time - many, many things ran through our heads as we struggled with walking back along that long, long sidewalk away from our son. I am not ashamed to say that it was waaaay harder than I thought it would ever be and the Lord taught us through it all to depend on Him even more. 
  
By design you do not see us write a lot about our children - but let me clearly declare that they have been a tremendous blessing over the years to our ministry.  Regina and I are humbled to have had Tyler on our team for so long.  We are now one team member short for the first time ever and are relying on the Lord to fill the gap. 
 
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Last modified on Wednesday, 07 December 2016 19:13

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