Life Will Go On

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Blake and I have been back in the states for about 5 months now. First of all, I have LOVED being back with family and especially getting “re-acquainted” with my beautiful sister-in-law and my cute niece and nephew.  So far I have found things to keep me as busy as I want to be, like helping my mother-in-law with concert sales, and some bookkeeping.  I have had lots of lunch and coffee dates, and just being has been quite nice.

It has been really strange coming back to the states, and trying to figure out where we “fit” back into life.  Since we were away from Colorado for 2 years, obviously life has gone on without us.  Now, we are trying to transition back into this “life”, that we no longer really understand, because God has worked on us, and changed us, and grown us, in a different way than he has changed and grown most of our friends, and Blake and I feel like we were left behind.

I am not saying that we haven’t had a lot of good supporters, and a good support system, because we absolutely have!  We are so grateful for everyone who has been praying for us and helping us along the way, the bottom line is simply, that maintaining long distance relationships is very difficult to do!  We are missing out on the times people get together and play games, and start to have “inside jokes”.  They are forming and deepening their relationships, just by being in church together, or by having dinner together, and you get the idea.

Blake and I have had the opportunity to form many close relationships with people in Africa, not just with the local people, but also with other expatriates that have been in Rwanda or Congo with us.  With these relationships, we have seen friends meet, get engaged and eventually married, while they have been over seas.  We have obviously formed these bonds, just as we have with friends in the states. 

I was really excited to come back to Rwanda for 3 weeks, knowing that while life has gone on without us in Colorado, during that time, Rwanda became our home.  So, I arrived in Rwanda, only to realize, a lot of our friends have left, and the ones that are still here, have also gone on with life without us!  So again, I felt like I was left behind.  What a strange feeling!  I obviously have never been through something like this before, since this is our first furlough and I haven’t quite learned what other feelings may be brought to the surface as we continue to transition, from one place to the next.

We were originally only going to be in the states for a handful of months, but since we made the decision to resign from our position with the Church of the Nazarene, and accept a position instead with Wycliffe Associates, our time in the states is becoming longer than we planned.  God’s timing will be the right timing, but since we do know were are here until well after September 1^st, I guess its time to really decide how much we transition back to “life” before we are left behind, even while living in Colorado!