The Sacrifice to Send
- Aug 19
- 3 min read
Last year, after spending the summer in America with our family, I was getting ready to head to the airport to begin the long journey back to our home across the ocean when my dad poked his head inside the room and said,
Why don't you guys just stay here?
I knew he was joking, but there was an underlying truth behind his words:
It's never easy to send those you love far away.
I was beginning to understand that more and more, as the thing that had brought us to the U.S. that summer was launching our oldest daughter into adulthood. She was beginning university in our passport country on the opposite side of the globe from where we live, meaning that for the first time we were not the ones going, but the ones sending our precious daughter a world away.
As I felt the weight of what it was costing us to send our daughter to university, I realized how little thought I had given to the immense cost our loved ones had been paying the last decade of our lives abroad. The grief was heavy and unshakeable as we had to release our daughter and let her build a new life in a new place far away from us. And suddenly, I had a small glimpse into how hard it is to be a sender.
Contemplating the cost of sending led me to look for resources for those who send, and in doing so I came to the conclusion that while the courage and sacrifice of those who go are often celebrated, the sacrifice of those left behind rarely is. There are so few resources available that acknowledge and celebrate the role of senders, despite the fact that sending is absolutely vital to the Great Commission. We champion and cheer on the ones who go, but senders are often left to process their grief and sacrifice alone.
It was out of my experience becoming a sender that I decided to write "For Those Who Send: Prayers For Those With Loved Ones Serving Abroad" because it was the book that I needed but didn't exist. The first prayer I wrote was "For Parents Who Send" and it was written in the midst of the deep grief of sending my daughter to university in America while we remained in Asia without her. The second prayer I wrote was "For Children Who Send" because all of a sudden, my daughter who had always come with us overseas was now a sender—sending her parents and siblings to live a world away from her.
There are many prayers in these pages beyond the ones for the families of those who go—there are prayers for reading a newsletter, when you miss their presence, when they visit your church, holidays without them, sending a care package, giving sacrificially, saying goodbye, and much more. With 30 prayers for senders of all types, this book was written with the express purpose of celebrating ALL senders, validating the challenges and grief of sending, and affirming that fact that the role of sending is just as vital as the role of the ones who go.
It's been a year since I first left my daughter on her university campus and drove away, tears streaming down my face and an ache in my heart that I'd never experienced before. Yesterday, on the day that this book released, I did the same thing again and I can honestly say that it doesn't matter how many times you do it, sending doesn't get easier.
But at least now there is a book that acknowledges that and invites Jesus to meet senders in their grief through prayer. "For Those Who Send" is available on Amazon in ebook and paperback today!
Want to know more about the book? Check out these interviews and blog posts!
Global Trellis Podcast interview: https://globaltrellis.com/podcast?ppplayer=db77ba764cddec79ff990c0c67aee3a0&ppepisode=30d3dfe99d5fcfbe3762fc2143d3460a
Interview with Dr. Michelle Reyes: https://michelleamireyes.substack.com/p/prayers-for-those-with-loved-ones?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
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