May 3, 2011 | An Expat, Travel..ling Tuesdays
When we arrived in SA nearly two years ago, we stayed in a little short-term holiday apartment. There wasn’t much space, so we had to put the Bear wherever we could find a spot…
I suppose I’m reminiscing after sharing
the news. I look back and remember: he was non-walking, non-talking, slightly mischievous, and barely one year old when we arrived.
We started going for walks to explore the beautiful area where we live.
We soaked in the new (warmer) surroundings
and browsed the exciting new things we could purchase from our car window.
There were a few ups and downs as our things arrived from the UK and we settled in to our new place…
The scenery constantly blew me away. (And still does.)
Sometimes it feels like ten years ago, but other times it feels like last month.
If you take the time to travel back for a moment, and to consider all the changes that have taken place between any-then and right now, I imagine a few lessons will come to heart:
Life changes quickly.
You won’t pass this way again.
Soak in the moment before it passes you by.
This moment
and this moment
and even this moment
…they’re all gone.
I imagine if we could travel through time, we’d still realise you can only ever make the most of this moment — the one that you’ve got.
Lord, teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. {Psalm 90:12}
May your travels hold you firmly where you already are this Tuesday.
xCC
May 2, 2011 | An Expat, South Africa, Stories
Let me start this wee (or probably not so wee…) post by saying there are no less than thirty-seven of you folks that I wanted to share this news with individually, one on one, preferably over a cup of coffee or at least on a phone call where we each had a cup of coffee and maybe even a cookie. But then I started doing the math on how long it would take to make all thirty-seven of those phone calls to share the news, even if they only lasted for ten minutes, based on how many minutes I have free over the course of the day, considering there’s in some cases a six hour time difference, taking into account the fact that I can seldom speak for only ten minutes to anyone — and that sometimes includes telemarketers and UPS delivery persons. Let’s save that story for another day.
Now where was I?
After coming to the conclusion that I couldn’t break the news to everybody this year if I tried to individually contact all the folks I would’ve like to have shared said news with personally, I decided that you are an awfully gracious bunch of folks and you’d understand.
So don’t prove me wrong! I love you.
Now on to the news.
The name of this blog is probably going to be changing pretty soon. And that’s because my address is going to be changing pretty soon. And that’s because the continent we call home is going to be changing pretty soon. And that’s because HH’s job is going to be changing pretty soon (and mine, too).
And for those who feel brevity is the soul of wit, in a nutshell, that’s the news. But if you’d like more details, do read on, dear.
After lots of a-thinking and lots of a-praying, it is clear that the Lord is a-closing one door, and opening another. Our time with Samaritan’s Feet is coming to its conclusion, which we really have mixed emotions about. Although the evidence surrounding the conclusion we’ve come to could fill another blog post or eight, for now I think it’s sufficient to say we’ve begun to recognise the ways that we’ve been wired and gifted and the type of ministry that we’re best suited for is different from our present work. Plus, we need to pay our bills.
So what’s next?
Not long after we made the decision to give notice with Samaritan’s Feet and begin to hand off the work we’ve begun to new leadership, HH got a couple of job offers in the US of A…and none anywhere else. The first was in Seattle and we would’ve been working under an amazing pastoral couple, and we would’ve learned so much, and it would’ve been a wonderful setting to enjoy for a while…but Seattle feels about like Edinburgh in terms of its distance from North Carolina, and we’d like to at least be close to some family, if possible. (And travelling from there to SA would be a heckuva journey.)
While we were umming and ahhing {did you like that? I’m not sure transliterating onomatopoeia is my strong suit. But isn’t that a fun word to say? Try using it in a sentence today.} about the Seattle decision, another job offer was extended to us. Exactly thirty minutes away from my super-duper little hometown in Greenville, North Carolina.
Boo-yow.
The church I attended while at university there, Greenville Christian Fellowship, has a missions-sending agency they’re hoping to grow. It’s called Global Impact Resources, and it’s actually the agency that first sent me out when I moved to Scotland.
As the director of Global Impact, the Hubs (and I, to some extent) will be providing a pastoral covering for missionaries on the field, as well as overseeing the administration of their ministry support. Opening the honesty box, there have been some times, when being on the mission field has made me feel like I was on an island of my own. Care packages have made me cry because it didn’t even matter what was inside — it just mattered that someone cared enough to make the effort. With a small heap of experience in our back pockets, we feel equipped — and passionate about — being a blessing to other missionaries on the field. We’ll continue to raise support for part of our salary, and we’ll also be ministering in the local church part time.
Now on to the specifics:
We’re either leaving our place here in Gordon’s Bay at the end of June or the end of July. We were originally thinking July, but since the honesty box is open, I’ll explain that we’ve pretty much been going into debt to try to finish off what we started here. We’re planning to spend several weeks in wonderful Bloemfontein with HH’s folks before adventuring across the pond. If possible, we’d like to spend a week or so in the UK, visiting our previous mission field and all the wonderful people there we’ve been missing these past two years — we might even get to attend one very special wedding!
We’ll then be heading to North Carolina, staying with my folks in the Original Washington, while we look for a place to live in the wonderful Greenville. Dates and departures to be confirmed.
So, I’ve tried to cover all the bases, but my guess is you might have some questions! Would you like to ask them in the comments and I can come back and edit this post to add in the answers?
Oh, one last thing! How do we feel about all this?:
Bittersweet doesn’t begin to describe this transition for us. Although we were confident this wasn’t our last stop, this move has come much sooner than we expected. On the one hand, I’m stoked about little things like maybe having the same address for more than a year, and putting paint on walls. And I’m stoked about big things like being close to my family and a lot of the friends back home that I really miss. On the other hand, leaving South Africa, and more specifically HH’s folks, is really, really hard. We haven’t left yet and I’ve already cried about it. A lot. Yes, we are definitely planning to come back regularly — our boys are American and South African, and we want them to know both cultures and to know their grandparents (and their aunt up in Joburg, and their Uncky in London!) — but visiting regularly isn’t the same as being a day’s drive away.
It’s true that Mama Africa’s red dirt gets in your blood. I’m not the person I was when we stepped off the plane almost two years ago. And those sentiments deserve a handful of posts, too.
For now, the long and short of it is: Change, She is A-Coming. In every circumstance, To God Be the Glory.
xCC
Apr 30, 2011 | Baby Photos, Stories
There most certainly is a lot going on around here and thank you very much for asking. There’s some news on the docket that I’d like to share but I need to get my heart and my thoughts and my words together, and finding a moment for getting all three of those together at the same time can be a bit like herding cats right now…without the scratches, I suppose.
And of course we have friends around, and as always, they have come in God’s perfect timing and I am incredibly thankful and full of run-on sentences and good cheer and fresh reasons to bake something.
Until I can herd those cats into one barrel, or crate, or metaphorical litterbox, I thought I’d share a Be Still, My Heart moment with you from yesterday.
Are you ready?
Are you sure?
Look!
Hero Hubs edited it this afternoon and I almost fainted.
Twice.
Hope you’re having a great weekend. Talk at ya soon.
xCC
Apr 28, 2011 | An Expat
We are blessed with the presence of some dear friends way down here in SA this week…helping me overcome missing Agnes!
{This photo was at a bridal shower just before I got hitched!}
Brittany and I were friends at first sight…which was a good thing since I was moving into the house where she lived when we met! What a joy when you get together with an old friend and it feels like no time has passed at all. It’s so good to have her and her husband Chuck around for a wee while! They’re celebrating their one year anniversary while they’re here. How cool is that?
In other news, I have some delightful pictures of our TWO MONTH OLD coming your way soon! And I discovered today that the Bear can’t say freckle, so he says pretzel. And I think that, and some great pictures, are two things worth celebrating.
Woop, woop!
In the meantime, if you have anyone living within a thirty mile radius of you that has known you for more than a year or two, I’d like to suggest you take a moment to give thanks. It’s a privilege to enjoy the presence of an old friend — it’s taken six years as an expat for me to realise just how sweet it is!
It’s like they say in Dassiesfontein…
Hope your week is going great, and full of friends.
xCC
Apr 27, 2011 | The Good Word
There are things that come naturally to some of us, but not so much to others. You might find it really easy to open up your home and life to the people around you. Or you may find hospitality totally draining and prefer to leave it to the people who like it. From learning to creating to performing, music or painting or writing or cooking or listening or building — we have some beautiful gifts in this world. Hopefully it brings us joy to use those beautiful gifts to be a blessing and it brings others joy to receive from the overflowing cup of our giftings.
We know that we’re blessed to be a blessing. And I hope you’re convinced that God doesn’t have a second string or a “B Team”.
Sometimes, even the things that we’re very gifted at don’t come easy. While words very often feel like they come through my fingertips before my brain fully considers them, sometimes I stare at the screen, wanting to write, but not wanting to write. Knowing there is a gift that I ought to be stirring — perhaps through reading or writing or thinking or praying — but there’s also a wall there, and it holds me back and I feel unable to move forward.
But writer’s block isn’t just for writers.
Sometimes we stare at the wall for a while. We think about whether we can go around it, or go over it. We want to continue to create, to use our gifts, to bless, to enjoy, and we hope to find a way to move forward. But the wall doesn’t always move easily. And we sometimes get stuck on the wrong side of it.
The things that used to bring us joy begin to bring us dread. The thing we used to call our passion might start to be called a calling or even a duty or worse still an obligation. And this thing that was once so full of life feels like death hanging around our necks. It’s a soggy fish out of water, facing the frying pan with a frown on its face.
If the thought of pressing on, along the road with your gifting, makes you feel like a frowning fish right now, I’d like to make a few suggestions.
Change your route. Have you been travelling the same way, doing things the same way for a long time? Could you add or take something away from your day to day, considering the old saying that “Variety is the Spice of Life”?
Look for some new destinations. What are your goals? Are the things you have to do the biggest hindrance to doing what you want to do? Get creative, and think about how you can spend more time doing what you want to do every day (or even once or twice a week, for starters.)
Pull off at a rest stop. Perhaps it’s time for someone else to be a blessing, and time for you to let yourself rest (and maybe recover) and find the heart to be a blessing again.
Stop and ask for directions. Talk to someone else who creates. Even Edison had an off day. Perhaps Mozart was moody. You may be surprised that the people around you who never seem to miss a beat have walked through something similar.
Make sure you’ve got the right map. Pray some good, honest prayers. Talk to the Creator who gave you the gifts that you have, and let Him know how you feel about using them. Sometimes we’re our own worst enemies — we create false obligations for ourselves — and we hold ourselves back when it’s time to move forward. Do His plans feel like hope and a future? If not, maybe those are your plans.
Before you start hanging pictures (or spraypainting graffiti) on the roadblock that’s holding you back, take the opportunity to re-engage. Re-evaluate. Re-examine and re-think. You’ve got something to give, and when it ain’t easy, that’s often a sign it’s a good time to step back and take a good look at your map.
xCC
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