Dear Family and Friends,
Today we are very sad here in Sierra Leone. My friends, Keith and Laura Padgett, have decided to return to the United States. By the time you get this letter, they will have gone.
The Lighthouse* boys and girls are taking their departure very hard. They are accustomed to change, disappointment, and abandonment. They didn’t see this coming though.
Today the teenagers demonstrated a lot of maturity by initiating a group conversation about the Padgett’s departure. They spoke candidly about the hurt and shock they feel. Overwhelmed by the news a couple of days ago, some have not been able to sleep or study. They expressed feeling vulnerable, “Maybe you all (meaning us as WMF staff) will just pick up and quickly leave like this, any time you want.” They expressed anger, “You said you were going to be here for two years, not one!” “Please explain to us why you are leaving, you at least owe us that.
So we did. As best we could. Primarily, the Padgetts cited that they feel it is God’s will to move on at this point. Other factors include Laura’s ill health and disagreements with Word Made Flesh leadership. We affirmed that we all still care for one another, and have peaceably agreed to disagree.
The boys were phenomenal, listening to one another, and to us. They asked thoughtful questions and challenged us to “iron things out”. They were leading us, towards transparency, towards community, towards grace!
Perhaps the most poignant part of the day was all of us, staff and teens, openly expressing and sharing our grief together. There is a beautifully simple phrase in the Krio language that expresses deep empathy, “A fil am wit yu, bo.” (Translation: tenderly “I feel with you.”)
We concluded our time by remembering that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). So, we expectantly have our eyes open for the good in this, even as all of our hearts are breaking.
I read a cool quote recently in a Madeleine L’engle novel that kind of relates, especially since some wrong decisions were the catalyst for this departure.
“I believe in a pattern for the universe, a pattern that affirms meaning, and perhaps especially when things seem meaningless. Everything we do has a part in the weaving of the pattern, even our wrong decisions. But I believe that the beauty of the pattern will not be irrevocably distorted. That is a hope we learn to live with” (Troubling a Star, page 156).
May this hope permeate you with peace, and move you to courageous deeds.
Love,
Cami Sigler
*Lighthouse is a group of 17 teens who are involved in a discipleship and leadership program in Freetown. They either attend school or trades training through a Sierra Leonean partnership of various ministries, churches, and organizations. Many of the youth were orphaned, abandoned, or separated from their family during the 10-year-long civil war in Sierra Leone.