This last Wednesday we celebrated the farewell party for our cute “Balou” and his lovely mother. Co-workers Sebastian, Alena and Georgia joined us, including our community dog Shevie.
It was a lovely farewell party and the best present given to Lalo’s mom was the long awaited Shevet T-shirt. She loved receiving it.
We watched a beautiful video together and shared some inside jokes. Lalo’s mom expressed her great thankfulness to all of us working at Shevet, including all the people that were not with us at the moment. She was so thankful for everything, and expressed her appreciation for all the help given. It was a lovely farewell party.
On Friday night, Co-worker Berith and I had the privilege of bringing both her and Lalo to Ben Gurion airport for their flight home after almost four months with us here in in Israel.
In the car, she told us she couldn’t sleep well since she is so excited about surprising her three other children waiting back in Kurdistan. She has not told them she is coming back. What a lovely surprise. If you look at the joyful face of Lalo, you can tell how happy and ready he is to see his family again.
“All of you were with me in my difficult times. Thank you so much for everything and thank you that you are with me now in my happy time.” These were the words that Lalo’s mother said to me, with tears coming down her face as we hugged each other deeply and for a long time before we had to leave her. We weren’t allowed to go inside the airport with her.
It was lovely to hear these words for me personally because it meant we reached one of our main goals for this mother and her child. We wanted to make the difficult time here a little bit easier for them both. It was special and a privilege to meet her and spend so much time together with both of them. We really love them and have them in our hearts. We are thankful for what God has done in their lives. It is a great opportunity to be a living and active witness for others of His great work. This happens again and again. May God protect little Lalo and his family now in Kurdistan and give them a lovely time with their family. Please join us in prayer for that. Little Lalo will need both follow-up in Kurdistan and to continue with some of his medicines the doctors have recommended.