Emotional Farewell

This morning we had the last of the goodbye events for our Minister, Phil. I was in the choir and the band, there was a great deal of singing. After the farewell party last night, i half expected a low turnout. However, there were people everywhere and everyone got quite emotional.

I never thought that i'd get very upset. Phil is awesome, but he's always scared me a little, has those annoying quirks that everyone has and i've not had heaps to do with him. So, i was rather suprised to find myself tearing up towards the end. When he took of his sash-thing (the one that the ministers of our church wear) and handed it to RevJ, it was really sad. To think that he's leaving something that's been a part of him for so long - i can only imagine how that would feel, there would be such a hole in his life. Singing the last song was a struggle; the two girls on my left were crying, a few in front of me were too, but i held back emotion (as i'm so good at doing these days) and made it through the song.

Phil's been at the church ever since i started attending, when i was about 10. I never went with my family, so the adults there took me under their wings. My two best friends at the time were always with me, we were inseperable, and we were all without our families, so people in our church really came to know us. I've always thought of RevJ as a father-figure, because he looks after me and i am probably more comfortable with him than i am with my own father. But, when i look back, i can see that Phil cared just as much about me and always had my interests at heart. When i got older, especially now, when i'm the only one of the three of my friends who's still heavily involved in the church, i can remember things like Phil talking to me about my baptism, about uni, stopping me to tell me that he knew i was upset about things and was there to talk to...

Phil will still be around for ages yet, it's not like i'll never see him again. But things have changed, as they're wont to do, and this has all just made me realise how much i appreciate him.