Loneliness

I (Liz) have been feeling really lonely these past couple of days. Even though I am living with four other people, and there is a lot of work to be done, still that feeling of loneliness has been creeping up on me. Isn’t it strange how that can happen? Surrounded by people and lonely just the same.

Of course part of it is just missing home. I miss talking to family every week, going out to coffee with friends, summer bonfires, game nights and such. And part of it is that we don’t have a network of friends here yet. I am being reminded of what it is like to be somewhere new and have to start over finding community and a place to connect. It is difficult, and I hope I can always remember this feeling when I meet new people who are looking for a place to belong.

But another part is not speaking the language fully. There are so many things I want to communicate, to ask, to hear from people, and to share - and I just can’t yet. It is so challenging and frustrating at times.

I am realizing this is how Jesus must have felt. He left his home in perfect unity with the Father to come be with us in this messed-up world. He had so much he wanted to share, to give, and to have us understand. He was proclaiming the Good News of salvation, of restored relationship with God. He came to tell us that God loves us and that we can have freedom, love, joy, hope! But so many couldn’t understand him - and many still don’t. It was like he was speaking another language. And when he was on the cross, dying so that we could have life and all his disciples had deserted him, He must have felt so alone.

So this morning I decided to just sit with God in my loneliness and talk to him about it. I asked a few questions: Why does God allow us to be lonely? What should I do when I am feeling this way? And how can I grow in the midst of it?

God reminded me that we live in a broken world. Though our relationship with Him is restored through Jesus, this world is still not as it should be. We will still have heartache, pain and sorrow. To which, I thought, “Oh great Lord, that really helps, so I just have to wait for eternity huh?”

Then God reminded me of something else...Jesus said, “take heart, for I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) God showed me once again that He is always here. He will never leave me. (Heb 13:5) Even when I feel lonely, the truth is I am not alone.

So instead of dwelling on my feelings of loneliness, I choose to remember the truth of God’s Word and dwell on that instead.

I feel better already...

One month and counting

Well, I can't believe it's been a whole month. Everyone told me that the time would fly by, and maybe it will slow down once the summer's over, but for now it feels like we've been here a couple weeks and it's already been four.

God is really giving me a good life/culture perspective. It may be easy to understand how I could take for granted certain amenities like Six Flags, Baskin Robbins mint chocolate chip ice-cream and clean water, but I'm realizing other things I've taken for granted that were unexpected: things like infrastructure, resource availability and opportunity.

I've heard of America being referred to as, "The land of opportunity" but how was I to know what opportunity was without seeing the lack of it? In Arusha you can find almost anything, for a price, but the people I've met would thrive in the States if they had that kind of resources and opportunity at their finger-tips that most of us do. Instead, many people here set out to find whatever work they can just to make ends meet daily. I pray my time here changes my heart, my attitude and appreciation and helps to create some of the same opportunity here that I've seen stateside.

On a different note, our project this weekend has been to rehab the office, so we'll upload some before-after pictures once we're finished. One of our tasks will be to take on some of the administrative roles so that the Russell's and Borden's can focus more on ministry. It may not be as glamorous as hands-on ministry but it fills such a practical need that I feel very useful and engaged. I'm excited to use all of my process-efficiency training for God's cause and pray God gets nothing but the glory.

As my father told me before we left, "You can never go wrong giving your life away." Peace, and we miss you all...

Inside Out

Some of you have asked what it's like inside our house - so we decided to show you. Or rather, Liz decided to show you. The host and the director, she's quite talented as you can see for yourself:



Also, if you haven't gotten an email with our first Newsletter, you can download it here: June 2010 Newsletter