Making a difference

I moved to Florida from New York State about a year ago. My friends live in the Northeast. I haven't seen most of them in eight months or more. They are over a thousand miles away, but knowing they are there, that I can e-mail them or call them, is comforting.

Tomorrow my friend Kathleen from NYS and her teenage daughter Maddie leave with other church members on a two-week missionary trip to Kenya. I found a distance calculator on the web that can tell you how far it is from Orlando to anywhere in the world. Although the town they'll be going to isn't listed, I chose Nairobi to estimate. From Orlando, Florida to Nairobi, Kenya is about 7,900 miles. So far away.

But, you say, what difference does it make if they are 1,000 miles away, or 8,000 miles away? If they're 1,000 miles away, they might as WELL be 8,000 miles away, right?

Wrong. You see, that's what friendship is about. You feel their absence, you feel lonely without them, even far away - even long distance.

Please say a prayer for Kathleen and Maddie's safe journey and safe return and that God will use them to help others and make a difference in the lives of those they meet. For those of us who know K and M, I don't see how they can NOT make a difference. They are two extraordinary women :-) .