One year I was appointed back to a district I had left around 10 years before. At the first district youth meeting we were telling our names, and one young girl said, "I know you, you used to be my Pastor." After finding out who she was, I assured her that she couldn't possibly remember me because she had been two when I arrived and four when I left. She went on to tell me some of the things she remembered, and she was spot on.
The point of these two stories is that we never know the good we are doing. All we can do is live our lives as faithfully as possible, and let the Spirit work in people's hearts as it will.
Loving God, you call us to faithfulness. In this time of Pastoral changes we often wonder if what we have done makes any difference. Thank you for those moments when our faithfulness is affirmed. We pray for clergy making changes and for congregations receiving those changes. We pray that now and then we will each receive an affirmation that what we do matters to someone, that we have touched at least one life with ours.