Friends are friends forever...

"Packing up the dreams God planted
In the fertile soil of you
Cant believe the hopes he's granted
Means a chapter in your life is through
But we'll keep you close as always
It won't even seem you've gone
cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong"

These are the lyrics to a song by Michael W Smith from the album "Project" that was released in 1983. The song is a quarter of a century old now and has been played to death. Some of my "too cool for school" friend mock it when it comes on the radio. And while I can see how they may consider it a bit cheesy, I do still appreciate the lyrics, especially this week as one of my best friends and her husband move to England to follow the call of God on their lives.

Rebecca (Howland) Robinson and I have been friends since the summer of 1981. We were both new to the neighborhood that summer. One random afternoon I went on a walk with the mission of meeting the other kids in the neighborhood. The first person I met was a little girl that lived in a basement apartment. She was probably only 4 (I was a very grown up girl of 10!) and she just started talking to me and wouldn't stop! I was saved from her constant chatter when an older girl (8 yrs old) who lived upstairs in her house came home. This girl had two pigtails high on the sides of her head, a huge grin, and was wearing a Wonder Woman bathing suit! She bounded out of the car straight over to me and we began talking, leaving the poor little girl staring up at us. She introduced herself as Rebecca and thus began a friendship that would hang on through the highs and lows of puberty, first loves and first heartbreaks, family members dying, and all the other things that life throws at us. And while I have 2 sisters, Rebecca is the person that feels most like the sister I was meant to have.

Rebecca and her husband (Earl) left on Tuesday to move to England. They will be helping lead a church in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England. It is an exciting next step in their lives. Both the church they work with and they themselves will be changed in remarkable ways through this experience. I am sincerely filled with joy at the opportunity that this is for them. The hard part is that she is gone...indefinitely. Rebecca and I have been apart for periods of our lives during school and stuff, but this is the first time that there isn't a "return date" set for us to live close to one another again. And we don't know if that will ever happen again.

I am thankful that we live in the times of email, facebook, blogs, skype, and super-cheap online calling cards so that we will be able to keep in touch. And like the the song says, "our hearts in big and small ways will keep the love that keeps us strong."

Rebecca and I on the morning she left for England