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Community United Methodist Church 4921 U.S. Highway 17-92 South Casselberry, Florida 32707 407-831-3777 Angel Food Ministries Adult Small Groups & Studies Calendar Children's Programs College Group Current Issue Advisory Drama Ministry Email Links Map Men Message From the Pastor Ministry Opportunities Missions Music Newsletter Nursery Office Staff Outreach Prayer Ministries Preschool Seniors Singles Single Moms Sunday School Welcome Women Worship Young Adults Youth	Some of my favorite memories as a child are of going down to Fort Lauderdale to visit my cousin Jody and her family. She is about my age, and we have always connected like old friends. Uncle Paul and Aunt Betty would tell old stories of Brazil and had beautiful art fashioned from butterfly wings. Our family played, laughed, sang, ate mangos right off the tree, went boating—Jody even tried to teach me to surf. I can still remember the pain in my chest as we were pulling away from one all-too-short visit. I wept hard and deeply as I kept my eyes locked gazing through the back window. I find a similar pain swelling in my chest as I contemplate leaving this family, going back to Fort Lauderdale to serve as the Associate Pastor at First UMC. I have been so blessed playing, laughing, singing, eating, and learning with you all and I have barely begun to realize the depths to which you are all a part of who I am. This leaving will be tough on me and Jessamyn. There is so much life ahead of us that it is difficult to understand it making sense outside of here and away from you. Once again we are leaving home, and it is hard. Still I know that it is good. I know in my heart right next to the grief there is joy. We are going to a new place, to whole new lives. The vast unknown is stretching out before us beckoning with new adventures and the promise of wonder and new frontiers. My enthusiasm is such I have this image of strapping myself to the hood as we go barreling down the Turnpike so I can face my future with steely determination, boldly crying out to Jessamyn, “Fetch me that horizon!” as she tries to retain control of the U-Haul. Leaving is weird like that—such profound pain and crazy exhilaration. We do a lot of leaving in our lives, and I do not know if it gets much easier. In writing about leaving home, Donald Miller declares, I want to keep my soul fertile for the changes, so things keep getting born in me, so things keep dying when it is time for things to die. I want to keep walking away from the person I was a moment ago, because a mind was made to figure things out, not to read the same page recurrently (Through Painted Deserts. Nashville: Nelson Books, 2005, x). As we all face this leaving, may it serve to keep our souls fertile. May we sense in the midst of the letting go something new being born. I am full of hope for CUMC as this church leaves this season and fetches new horizons. A lot of good has been born in us as we have shared this journey together, and I know that just as our little family goes to experience God’s goodness in new ways down in Fort Lauderdale, this family will be doing the same. And somewhere in the middle of all that, I know God will keep us together. Grace and Peace, Ryan Community United Methodist Church 4921 U.S. Highway 17-92 South Casselberry, Florida 32707 407-831-3777 Angel Food | Calendar | Children's Programs | College Group | Current Issue | Drama | Links Map | Men | Message From the Pastor | Ministry Opportunities | Missions | Music | Newsletter Nursery | Office Staff | Outreach | Prayer Ministries | Preschool | Seniors | Singles | Small Groups Sunday School | Welcome | Women | Worship | Young Adults | Youth Copyright © 2001 Community United Methodist Church. All Rights Reserved.