For one last time today, I’m going away with my friends… with my special sisters and brothers in Christ who are my St. Davids Christian Writers Association friends.
Here’s how the day will go: I’ll sleep till around 7 a.m. at the beautiful Pittsburgh International Airport Hyatt Regency, then, armed with coffee or a soda, get picked up by my pal Linda Au, the SDCWA president. The two of us will catch up on our writing projects and life in general (never mind that we e-mail a few times a week) in our ninety-minute or so drive to Grove City for the St. Davids board meeting. When we arrive, we’ll meet Lora Zill, the conference director, for more coffee, then meet with the rest of the board. About twenty of us will hug and laugh and pray, and ask God for his guidance as we prepare for this summer’s conference. And, somewhere along the way, the board will talk about my successor as assistant conference director, since I’m resigning to spend more time on my writing ministry.
Some of us will go to dinner. Then, around eight-thirty, Linda will deposit me back at the Hyatt. There will be some hugs, and I’ll probably shed a tear or two; change is hard, even when it’s change God wants. I’ll go to bed shortly after I get to the Hyatt, as I have a predawn flight back to DC. But I won’t fall asleep right away. I’ll think of each of my friends on the board and how they’ve touched my life and informed my faith journey.
It won’t be the first time I’ve ended a day with people I love by thinking about Dory Previn’s Oscar-nominated lyrics to “Come Saturday Morning”: “And then, we’ll move on/but we will remember, long after Saturday’s gone.” But I can’t think of a time or a group of people I’ll remember more fondly, long after Saturday’s gone.
Thanks, God and St. Davids friends, for everything.
What a lovely piece. It isn’t farewell for us as friends, I know. But I will still miss you terribly at St. Davids. Thanks for everything you’ve given to us. May God honor your commitment to Him.