A long time back I talked about some of the changes coming in my life this year. This one was expected to happen in January, but it didn’t actually come about until yesterday.

This week marked two years since I started leading in G2. Unfortunately, it also was my last week in G2. For the past several months I have been pulling double duty and leading both a high school small group and leading in G2. It was going great for a while, but got to a point where I was no longer in a Sunday service for myself since I was always serving (and as a leader I’m supposed to be in a service). In December, it started coming to the point where I had to decide. Great. How do you choose between two pieces of your heart?

Anyways, here we are 3 months later and I’ve stepped down from leading in G2, but I’m getting more involved with the high school class. I’m not going to lie, yesterday was hard. I had to say a goodbye to all of my G2 girls and the other G2 leaders, all the while telling them that I would still be around. I know I’m only moving two floors up to the upper room to work with the high schoolers, but those two floors feel like a massive gulf separating me from my beloved G2ers. Dang I miss them already.

This whole weekend I was asking myself whether or not I really made much of an impact during my 2 years leading in G2. I got my answer Sunday after service when one of the girls handed me a letter: Dear Mandie, It will be very hard to come on Sunday and not being able to see your smile at G2. You’ve been here since I was in fifth grade and you always made me feel happy, but I know that God has a plan for you, and I know that you will do great things, because you are one of God’s amazing creation for life. I will miss you very much and it is hard to see you leave but I know that you are a stong woman of God, and you are my rolemodel. I wish you all your dreams will come true, and your hopes to come. Love, Hannah.

I cried when I got that.

Lately I’ve started to understand something a bit better. It’s hard to explain, but what it boils down to is this: never limit your ability to influence people. Sometimes you won’t see the influence you had or the impact you made until after the fact.