When I got asked this question before our departure to Oz a few months ago, I admit, I was baffled. But now that we've lived here about five months, I'm not as baffled.
MXLLS
Yes. Australians speak English.
Sort of.
Let's see if you can decipher/define these Australian-isms
I have recently had an epiphany of sorts. A most unexpected one. But it's funny how God speaks sometimes. I've realized just how close I am to being a Mandrake (or Mandragora).
If you're not a Harry Potter fan, the Mandrake is a plant with a root that looks like a human.
I don't see myself as that ugly. It's more about the properties of the Mandrake.
I knew it would be hard. But I never anticipated howhard it would be. It's not widely written about, talked about, or even heard of, really. Transitioning. Not from passport country to the mission field. Not from the mission field back to one's passport country.
But from one host country (or "field"), to another one. Entirely foreign. Entirely new. Entirely different. From a home nestled in a beautiful garden on the edge of a river in a village of Tanzania, to a home nestled in the suburbs on a thoroughfare in the city near the east coast of Australia.
The first time I heard this song I was sitting in a mini-bus, surrounded by (kinda loud, southern) Americans (you know who you are and I love you guys - but it was the first time in over a year, it was shocking!), riding through the streets of South Africa. It was surreal, to say the least. They were all singing along and I was completely lost. Being in Tanzania has meant I'm definitely not with the "up & coming" worship music trends. But the short-term missionary team I was with seemed to love the song because they played it every time we were in the van together. So it got stuck in my head, a lot. It's a catchy tune.
Here, just in case you haven't had the privilege of hearing it yourself, give it a listen:
I'm not normally a fan of Chris Tomlin's style, and the words didn't even grab me really.
But then I saw the face of God.
It wasn't even during that song. It was this one:
Wait. You mean you don't sit next to your beau unpacking with a huge smile on your face whilst in your chinos and white t-shirt?
Bahahahaha!
Sorry. I got carried away.
On Monday we get to move. Again.
On Monday we'll be moving into our 7th host home. Seven hosts in seven months of furlough. If anyone would have told me this before we planned this furlough I would have thrown the nearest thing within my reach at their head.
When Hurricane Matthew blew through the east coast, and even touched us a bit here inland, our son started asking lots of questions.
"Why did God send the horicane?" (he calls them hor-i-canes and I just. can't. correct him!)
"Why did all those people in Haiti die?"
"Will the horicane come here in Charlotte?"
Hurricanes aren't really something you hear about in Tanzania, so it was a very real and scary thing for him to see some of the footage being shown of what was happening. But it opened up such a great opportunity to teach our {not so} little 5 year old about the nature of God. One of those things being:
