The Bridges We Keep
Yesterday we had one of those lovely reunions that reminds you just how quickly the years pass by…
More than two years ago now, Jaya Gilbert was serving as a missionary with us in the Belgium Netherlands Mission. Originally from New Zealand, she is now in Edinburgh performing at the Fringe in Stay, a production by BYU–Hawaii Polynesian Theatre.
So, with a few hours together, Monic and I became tour guides again. 
We showed Jaya a few favourite places around Edinburgh and Fife, stopped by the Forth bridges for photographs and eventually made our way to Culross, where we enjoyed a wonderful meal together at the Red Lion.
Afterwards we headed through Alloa where she has strong family history connections, before stopping at the Wallace Monument.
Reflecting back this morning on the picture of us standing beside the Forth Railway bridge, I found myself thinking about bridges of a different kind.
Bridges
Missionary service seems to build them almost without us noticing.
Bridges between countries and cultures.
Between generations and backgrounds.
Between people whose lives, under normal circumstances, may never have crossed at all.
Then the mission ends.
Transfers stop. Name badges come off. Everyone heads home and life moves quickly onwards.
Yet many of those bridges remain.
Sometimes months or even years pass without seeing one another, and then suddenly you are together again — and somehow the years in between seem to melt away.
Yesterday was one of those days.
It reminded me that one of the greatest blessings of those three years in Belgium and the Netherlands wasn’t simply where we served, but who came into our lives because we served there together.
More than two years later, it was a joy to have Jaya with us again and to be reminded just how deeply these wonderful missionaries have become woven into our lives, as we laughed and reminisced throughout the day.
Perhaps that is one of the quiet miracles of service.
We set out hoping to make a difference in the lives of others, only to discover that they have become part of ours.
Who has come into your life through service — and stayed there long after the service itself was over?
