Land of Our Sojourn

I listened closely to his story, hoping my 7 months away from the language wouldn't inhibit my ability to understand. He spoke rapidly but in between the colloquial words I grasped that his family were not true believers. I had asked the group of seven young Bible students to briefly tell how they came to know Christ. The next young man started his story. Apparently just after being baptized his pastor asked him if he wanted to go to Bible school. Having been here many years, I have heard this story often. Everyone wants to get a college degree. But few can afford it. So, of course, given the opportunity one would say 'yes.' The question in my mind was did he truly encounter Jesus? I had hoped that through their stories I would get to understand their background better. The pastor had asked me to come and teach the group about how to share their faith. But it was becoming increasingly clear that this group may not even totally understand their faith themselves. It is one...

The night before our flight I lay in bed thinking. I was exhausted from the work of cleaning our house, packing our 10 large bags, and the constant questioning ‘am I forgetting anything?’ That night I couldn’t sleep and began worrying -which I have discovered is something that my body does when it has hit physical and emotional exhaustion. 'Why am I doing this? Why am I taking my small kids across the planet? Have you really called us to this? What good are we doing anyway?’ The questions scared me, but I knew I just needed to get some sleep. A few days later we finally flew to our home. We got through immigration, wheeled are many bags to a friend’s car and saw many smiling faces. People happy to see us again. We drove to our home commenting on the things that had changed and hadn’t changed since we were gone. And then we came to our home. We opened the door and I felt a rush of peace. I cannot explain why. The house is just a normal house. It had the same smells, the same h...