Paul Simon sang in Central Park a song entitled "50 ways to Leave Your Lover". In the chorus the words run like this "Just slip out the back, Jack, make a new plan Stan, don't need to be coy, Roy; just listen to me. Just hop on the bus, Gus, don't need to discuss much, just drop off the key, Lee, and get yourself free." Paul Simon is talking about lack of commitment. I would say, if there are “50 ways to leave your lover”, then there are 75 reasons not to leave your loved ones. 75 give or take, is the number of people who are left here in the Tyngsboro church according to Randy's colour directory, after you lose your preacher, his wife and 33 other people we have lost in very recent times.

We would not leave because we do not enjoy shaking that very small and very capable hand of Kathy Leach, getting a shy smile out of the Lynch girls, enjoying a hearty laugh with Janet Acco, and telling Kathy Dugas that she "runs like a girl". 75 reasons not to leave includes getting cuddles and giggles from all those babies, and hearing Darielle say "the `Choich' is the PEOPLE!!" It is saying a hearty "AMEN" to the heartfelt prayers of Alex. It is feeling comfort just in the name of Comfort! It is the feeling that I have a "Miss Sandy" a Tracy K., a Deniese and a "lovely Miss Lovely"; it is Danielle saying "come to Bible study at 8:07 p.m.''. It is sisters galore; very wise elders to trust, big brothers, and kids like Jeremy who have become my sons and daughters.

We would not leave because of the hard work, or the discouragements or even the friends that have become "closer than a brother'' and then lost to the lure of the world - as painful as that is. But it is the words of Bobby Graham saying '`the command to take care of aged parents pre-dates the command to be baptized." It is the sight of a teeny, old lady, the pillar of the church, who has given 55 years of her life serving God in an inhospitable environment, far away from her warm Georgia birthplace, who spends her days dragging her dead leg around like a ball-and-chain. It is seeing her do this with quite a lot of humour and dodging her canes if you should "treat her like an invalid". And it is a double-dog dare of: no one ever comes to Duluth", that would intrigue my husband who still has a bit of the wanderlust in him. Will we come back? If the good Lord wills, YES! (Especially since you are keeping one of our daughters.) I am a great believer that God has uncanny ways of bringing us back and forth into one another's lives. It's almost as though He were giving us hope for the future and encouragement to keep on keeping on.

Long ago, on the faraway beaches of Ephesus, Tyre and Caesarea. Paul the apostle says very emotional farewells to the people he baptized: his friends and fellow workers. We can picture them "weeping aloud and repeatedly kissing him, grieving especially over the word which he had spoken that they should see his face no more" in Acts 20 and 21. Later as Paul wrote to the Christians in I Cor. 12: 12-27 and Romans 12 he gives lengthy descriptions of the body of Christ, which is, as Darielle says; "the PEOPLE". Paul's words are for us today as truly as they were for the Christians 2000 years ago. Paul says "do not be conformed to this world... but be transformed. We who are many are one body in Christ. ..Let love be without hypocrisy, abhor that which is evil, cling to that what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love, give preference to one another in honor... practicing hospitality. Be of the same mind toward one another, do not be haughty in mind but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation" In fact, Romans 12 is a whole desideratum of the Lord's heart and Paul's and as we echo them, of our hearts as well. To our dear friends whom we left in Pittsfield, ME 30 years ago, and to our friends in Dublin, Ireland where we left our hearts, and to our friends and family here in Tyngsborough; we say: Farewell, for the moment.

Patti