We are back East again. This is my second trip here since leaving the states, and by the end of the month I will have spent more time here than anywhere else since first taking off. Kinda funny, isn’t it?
We arrived late Saturday evening, after missing one connection, and getting stuck in the capital’s airport for four hours. Honestly, not as bad as it could have been.
Now we’ve launched right back into a 9-6 work mode. Which is a nice change from the routine-lessness of moving, unpacking, getting settled, etc. Not that that was particularly stressful, it was just unpredictable. Let me tell you, work over here certainly doesn’t get done quite the way it gets done in the States. For example, our landlord always hired a “master” to install any of our appliances, so that they are under warranty; this makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is the master showing up at 7pm and working til 9.30 or 10pm. But that’s how they do it, so that’s how it’s done.
In other news…
Today marks my 3-month anniversary on the field. Hard to believe it’s already been that long, not that three months is very long at all. That’s 1/8 of my committed time to this work.
It’s been three months, but really, I’ve been preparing for this for almost two years. Did I know that where I am now is where I was going to be when I first submitted my application? No, not at all. I can’t say that I had any definite expectations about the work I would enter into when I began this process, but I’m pretty sure sitting in an office in this particular country was not part of my musings.
It’s been almost two years, but really, God has been preparing me for this work for way longer than that. “You knit me together in my mother’s womb…all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psl 139:13;16). He knew I’d be sitting in an office in this country before I was sitting in a high chair in my birth country. Go figure.
There is assurance in this, because it means God knows where I’ll be tomorrow, next month, and ten years from now. I’m just along for the ride.