lucky or blessed, rather lucky and blessed!

So, I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my friend Valerie into Nairobi. We're leaving tomorrow for a 7 day safari and then about 7 days on the coast in Mombasa, Kenya. Some may think I'm lucky - I consider it blessed. For the 10 months I've been in Africa, I've become more and more amazed by God's power. The landscape, the wildlife - everything is so amazing. When I have stressful or down times, I think in awe of the creation which is Earth and how blessed I am that God's made it so convenient for me to experience. Back in 2 weeks.

busyness at the expense of relationships

I opened my e-mail today and received a message from my Mom informing me that a family friend passed away. She was only 51 - this immediately saddened me as this lady was so warm-hearted and had such a good spirit. It made me more sad when I realised I hadn't seen her in nearly 10 years. After her kids went to college, she and her husband moved out of Atlanta and as the busyness of life won all of our time, we all lost touch.

What a shame. We really do work ourselves into the ground or pack in so many activities into such a short time that when we do have a moment of free time, we spend it "vegging" out. We don't usually spend it relationally. We spend it sitting in front of the TV or in my instance - participating in my guilty pleasure - reading gossip magazines. So these relationships that may even be fundamental to who we are go un-maintained. We get angry with God when we feel someone has been taken too soon but then we never really took advantage of the time we had with that person.

Thankfully, we now have e-mail so we can keep up communication that way but it still isn't a substitute for visiting one another or having a good 'ole heart-to-heart. As I write this entry, I think of my grandfather. He is one of two of my living grandparents, and I haven't seen him for years. This is only due to my lack of prioritisation. I have so much to gain from him and I haven't taken advantage of our relationship.

Most of our friends, who are friends, won't hold this against us. They understand that life is busy - that we all have limited time. We should all think about how we invest it -I know I seriously need to re-assess this. Writing this as my thoughts are with the Meacham family.

contentment or discontentment?

I recently attended a management team meeting in Limuru, Kenya for my South Sudan programme. It was very fruitful as we had a full management team this quarter and really got to do a lot of thinking and sharing about our programming. One of my colleagues who just joined my team from North Sudan and Indonesia led a devotion about contentment. It really made me think - why are we always so discontented? Why do we never feel at peace and always have this bit of anxiety. I'm completely guilty of this and I see it in so many of my friends as well. We always seem to be looking to the future - our next step in life, our next holiday, our next career opportunity - what we will do next week, tomorrow night, next year..It's enough to give anyone a panic attack so I'm not surprised by the alarming rates of depression and related illnesses coming out of modern, developed countries like the US and the UK.

I was reminded of what Paul wrote in Romans in 8:28 which says "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." So if I believe this, which I do as a Christian, then why am I so anxious about "what's next?" God is in control of every situation. Paul says if we love God, he will work for the good. So, he uses each situation, each placement, every detail for a purpose - it's part of His plan. This is really comforting to me when I start feeling discontent and am antsy for change.

I think our society really encourages this discontentment. We have so many options - with the resources we have, we can do almost anything so when we make a choice, we always wonder if another choice would be better. Also, we are so obsessed with "doing?" I"'m bored, what am I doing next? Where am I going?" and in this thinking, we forget to make the most of the opportunity of the present - taking advantage of the situation in which God has placed us.

finally...

Well, after over 10 months in Africa, I finally started a blog. I'm a very methodical person and for a time there, I thought that since I hadn't started my journey with a blog, it couldn't be complete if it missed a beginning - but I have to excuse my own procrastination and start from somewhere, I guess. So, this is the beginning - I don't necessarily think of this as a way to document my years abroad, but just as a place to organise my thoughts and share what I've leared or more relevantly what I have no clue about in this journey called life.