The First Month or So

Finally getting to posting, so here's a post overload for y'all.

Yesterday was the one monthiversary (there’s a new word for you) since being back in Canada. However I did leave Africa on the 24th of January. Also since arriving in Canada I have spent 7 days in the United states, where I am currently on this Wed. the 10th of March. So adjustments, probably I should rewrite this entry several months from now. It is hard to say how adjusting to being back in the True Great North. Well doesn’t feel too north like since we had snow for three days and then it disappeared, and the other day I went jogging with just a spring jacket (yes along with pants and shoes and socks and such, very funny). Having the bathroom and shower in the same building, the kitchen in a separate room, a TV, reliable internet, a vacuum cleaner, carpet to vacuum, washer and dryer, microwave, toaster, a backyard, an electric stove, and other such conveniences are always nice to get used to again, but can be a catapult to getting lazy, for sure. Good thing we don’t have a dishwasher, just a sink, or else I might feel spoiled. Oh and we have a pet fish that we don’t eat, which is definitely unusual coming from Africa! Really though the hard part is maintaining focus on God and maintaining practical continuity and usefulness in life (there’s a mouth full). I can certainly much more easily choose to do things on my own here. Here things eventually fall apart with God, but in Africa, they can really immediately fall apart without God. This is a generalization, everyone is different and each situation, but without God wherever we are, it’s not a great idea. And by the “practical continuity” mumbo jumbo, I mean that I really no longer have a schedule, no longer have to prepare a meal every morning (although I try to help make lunch), no longer have to go the market on this day, no longer have this preparation to finish. I still have things to do, but just no context to put them. That’s why I am very glad to be able to continue writing for the project, gives some direction during this time of rest and adjustment with Canadian life. I just received an email recently that blessed my heart, from a former Student missionary friend who said that coming back from the mission field is not a step down in missions or in serving God. That definitely is a temptation to believe that really because I am no longer overseas, I am not serving God, in this blessed Western world, how could God use me, but oh the lies in that! God calls all Christians to be missionaries, as Dr. Lawrence would say, “If you’re not a missionary, you’re a mercenary.”