Wonderful...and the not so wonderful

Two very wonderful things happened to me yesterday.
1: Angela and I finally purchased our tickets to Turkey. Two, round-trip tickets to Istanbul's Ataturk airport with stops in Detroit and Amsterdam. We got them for very cheap (around $700.00) and on the way home we might have enough time to venture outside the Amsterdam airport and see a bit of the city! We also heard from Joanna who may be able to take the entire two weeks we will be there off so she can show as around and travel the country with us. Needless to say, I'm incredibly excited!

2: Well, I have known for some time that the responsible thing to do with my month off in December would be to try to make some money. However, the thought of going back to my old job was really causing me to be quite irresponsible. So I've been praying that there would be some way that I could make money while I am home without going back to the Blue Gate. Yesterday I was sitting around when I got a phone call from a number I didn't recognize. It was the manager of a coffee shop that I had applied to early last summer but that I had never heard from. She said that they were looking for some good part-time help and was wanting to know if I would be interested. I informed her that I currently live in Ohio but that I would be home in December and available to work if they need someone really short term. I was, of course, expecting her to say that they couldn't use me for that short a time period, but instead she answered with, "I think you're an answer to prayer!" So I have a meeting with her this weekend and I am pretty much excited. God is good.

In other news: all the teams have left us, except for Indonesia, and today we leave them. On Tuesday all the teams flew out and we were left here to cope with the winter months alone. It was terribly sad to see them all go, but I'm also excited for them and the adventures they shall have. I am also excited for the winter months here, it's looking like we should be fairly busy. The Indonesia team had visa troubles so they are starting their outreach here in Columbus before leaving in a week. Since it's technically outreach and their outreach is here right now, I'm getting kicked out of the house and will be wandering the streets aimlessly until tomorrow morning when I return home. How exciting.

Moving on...

I recently got into using Picasa to store my photos and therefore have been working a lot with the photos on my computer, sorting and making albums and whatnot. Since most of my pictures are from Spain, I have been thinking about Spain a lot recently. I realized that in some ways I am still going through re-entry stuff....or at least I think that's what it is. I realized that I can recall many things from Spain with astonishing clarity, while I cannot remember some of the larger details for the life of me. For example, as I read through my journal entries from my time in Spain, or look through photos, I can remember minute details from any given day. I can read one fairly insignificant sentence in my journal and suddenly remember every detail about the day that I wrote it: how I was feeling, what I was wearing, where we had gone that day, who I had talked to; some of the most insignificant things really. However, I cannot, for the life of me, remember the name of the street that intersects the street that I lived on half a block down. It kills me that I cannot remember because it was a street that I used daily, we talked about it all the time. I know that it starts with an "m," but that's about it. The fact that I can't remember the name doesn't bother me as much as the realization that, as time goes on, I'm going to start forgetting more and more. There will come a day when I won't be able to remember what the city looked like from our roof top, or what the name of the grocery store was that we shopped at everyday, or what anyone looks like. All somewhat insignificant things, but it's the life I lived for 6 months, somehow it seems important to me.

I've also been realizing what an effect REACH has had on my life. Significant changes occurred in my life in 9 months. My mindset underwent changes, my personality underwent changes; basically who I am underwent changes in some way, shape or form, nothing of me was left completely untouched. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing, it's actually a very good thing; it just complicates life in many ways. I'm realizing that it's a lot harder to live when I'm more worried about what God wants from me than with what I want to do. I think it would be a lot easier to live thinking only of myself and my wants. I'm not saying it would be more fulfilling, just easier. I'm realizing that I don't know how to relate to people who I was really close to a year ago because they don't understand where I've been. I find myself avoiding people because it's easier than explaining why I'm different. Nine months of my life were lived in a way that few understand. Only 4 people in the world can really understand me when I talk about the six months I spent in Spain.

Sorry, this is kind of heavy and I'm depressing myself a bit, so I think I'm going to end this here.

Hmmm

It has been way too long since I have had a blog. I sort of miss it, although I'm pretty sure that not many have missed reading my ramblings. Anyway, I have a week and a month off, so I figured that with all the extra spare time that I now have I should have plenty of time to think and write...or sleep a lot.

The highlight of my very recent life was a nice trip to Chicago. My uncle, who has resided there for over 10 years now, is moving to Costa Rica to get married and therefore my parents, younger brother, and I made one last trip out to see him. We ate at a wonderful Mediterranean restaurant and then had breakfast at a Swedish restaurant and I got a few wonderful books out of the deal. The most notable additions to my growing library include: Turkish Reflections by Mary Lee Settle, The Classic Slave Narratives, Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton, There Are No Children Here by Alez Kotlowitz, Iberia by James Michener, and a rather impressive Rand McNally International Atlas. I was quite pleased.