Goodbye To Our Dear Friend, Amit

Soon after we moved here to Grand Cayman, we went to a little restaurant up the road from us by the name of Tim~Buc~Tuu!!  I loved it before we went in as it was painted in bright flourescent purple, green and orange!!  And yes, I mean bright.  When we went inside and sat down, we met the owner who was so bubbly and super friendly.  From that very first meeting, we struck up a wonderful friendship with our dear friend Amit.  On my first birthday here, he made me a dinner to die for ~ well almost :o)  He went out and bought steaks and shrimp and made a scrumptious meal.  And he also made dessert ~ strawberry cheesecake on which he put candles and sang to me!  He knew that we Pastor the Church here and we invited him several times to our services, but he declined.  Dennis continued to talk to him about God.  You see, he didn't believe in God as he is from India and was Hindu.  After a month or so of visiting his restaurant and just talking with him over delicious dinners, he finally came to Church one Sunday evening and sat on the back pew.  We had a special speaker that night and when Dennis was finished on the platform he went to the back pew to sit with Amit!  He continued coming to Church and eventually he started sitting up front on the third pew with me.  He was so interested in religion and God.  He had soooooooooo many questions to ask Dennis.  I'll never forget that Sunday morning after Dennis finished preaching and I was playing a song of invitation that Amit stepped out and went to the altar where he asked God's forgiveness!!  It sort of gives me chills now when I think back to that morning.  Dennis gave him one of his own personal Bible's and Amit has read it from Genesis to Revelation and the New Testament over several times.  He knows an awful lot about the Bible in the short time he's come to Church!!  He's one amazing guy.  Almost every week he's been in every one of our services and Dennis and he have met usually at least one morning a week just to talk.  Amit has been full of questions which is normal.  He has really, really grown in his faith.  Dennis says he's like a son, but I say he's like my brother :o)  After striking up such a close and awesome relationship/friendship with Amit things have changed in his life and he's leaving the Island.  Dennis just told me that his plane leaves George Town Airport tomorrow morning at 6:00 am and he doesn't want us to come as it will be too painful on all of us!  Our hearts are saddened that he's leaving but we hope to see him again sometime before too long.  He won't be coming back here to Cayman though.  When he leaves here tomorrow he's flying up to Miami where he's spending a few days with a friend and then will fly on up to Cincinnati, Ohio.  He is going up to check out God's Bible School and College where he is planning to enroll for second semester.  After being there for a few days, he'll fly home to India and spend some much needed time with his dear Mother and Father, whom we had the privilege of meeting earlier this year and hopefully to get some much needed rest.  Then sometime at the beginning of January, he'll come back to start school.  As the time for his leaving was drawing closer, I told Dennis that I wanted to have a farewell/going away party for Amit.  He has become such good friends with so many from our Church.  So, I made the invitations and this past Sunday evening there were around 25 of us here in our house celebrating our dear friend Amit!!  I've put a lot of pictures on here not just for you, but me, too.  My family who have been down here and met him will enjoy seeing him again, I'm sure!

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I made a little sign to put on his chair that said "Reserved for the Guest of Honor!" 

We had sooooooooo much food!!  My dining room table was completely jammed and we had to get our smaller table and put the overflow on it.  Here Amit and Mr. Profitt (one of our teachers) were filling up their plates.

Everyone lining up hoping there will be some left for them :o)

Amit with Miss Maizie who is our cook here at the school.  He had helped her in the kitchen many times!

I'm not sure what to call these three guys ~

The three stooges

The three muskateers

The three amigos or

Triple Trouble :o)

This is Laten and Marjorie (this is especially for my family who ask so often about Laten).  He has some pretty major physical issues going on again and has to go to Miami to the doctor in another week or so.  Something is wrong with his blood.  We're very concerned.  This poor man has been through so much in the last year.  There were several times he almost didn't pull through!

Amit ~ who was the center of attention

Another view of our guests

and another view

I love his smile

Miss Maizie

Jim & Darla

He is one of our high school teachers and she is our music teacher

Is he using sign language?  Not sure what he was talking about here.

My dear sweet friend Treaty.  What a lady she is!!

Dear Amit,

Though you are leaving us and there will be many miles between us, you'll still be in our hearts.  Hopefully we'll be able to get together when we come to the States.  Keep your chin up and keep the faith.  We love you and words can't describe how much we'll miss you.  I don't think I'll be able to look at Tim~Buc~Tuu anymore when we pass it or even go in there anymore!!  It just won't be the same. 

You'll forever be in our hearts.

Love you,

Miss Dorcas (and Pastor, too!!)

A picture I found of Tim-Buc-Tuu