2 weeks ago today, we landed back in Winnipeg, on the cold, Canadian soil.
What can I say about transition/re-entry? It's a number of things. Awkward, strange and different to start. Some things are familiar, comforting and wonderful. Other things are frustratingly the same, discouraging and not what you want to face. We've had a little of all of the above and yet the Lord has led us really well in the past 2 weeks since arriving home.
We spent week 1 resting, getting to know our home again and seeing some of our immediate family. It was actually a big adjustment to rest. We've been used to being so busy each day and having a full and effective schedule that it felt unproductive and ineffective to rest at the beginning. But, after 2 weeks of 10 hour nights because I can't get my body out of bed in the morning because I'm tired, I realize that perhaps we needed that rest! I've had lots of energy in the day and haven't needed any naps, so the long nights have really helped the transition and combating jet lag!
Week 2 was spent along the same lines...resting, enjoying home life and seeing friends mostly and a little more family. We've been taking it really slow and it's been so wise. It was hard at first, like I mentioned, but it was definitely the Lord's wisdom that we adjusted that way! He knows the best way and I'm thankful we let Him lead us in wisdom.
Here's a list of my thoughts on different day to day things since coming home:
- Our toilet paper is so much softer!
- Our water tastes so much better than South Africa or Hawaii! Our Brita helps =)
- Everything here is super-sized! Even the containers of toiletries like shampoo and face wash.
- Our apartment is so clean and comfortable! I don't feel things biting me anymore and insects aren't crawling over my arms and such anymore! No more geckos, mosquitoes, ants or cockroaches. That part is really nice!
- It's so cold here! I can't warm up even though this is spring weather and we missed the dead of winter. I have to take multiple baths a day!
- We went grocery shopping for the first time. We sure haven't had to do that in a long time! We had a nice "welcome back" from our pharmacy peeps =)
- I'm SO happy to have a tub again!
- I'm SO happy to wear my wedding rings again!
- Our bed is sooooooooooo comfy! After sleeping in 9 other beds in the past 6 months, ours beats all of them and there are no sand fleas in my bed!!! Woo! Hoo!
- It is so quiet here. The windows aren't open 24/7. There aren't birds singing early in the morning. There aren't children waking us up early in the morning. The geckos aren't talking before bed.
- It's so nice to only share a bathroom with 2 men whom I'm either married to or related to! Woo! Hoo!
God is good! He's leading us well and we'll see what this next week holds!
Monday, March 28, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
Travel, Debrief and Graduation...and add a Tsunami and Earthquake!
Well, this week has been our last week of our DTS experience. What a growing, stretching, challenging, fun and exciting 6 months it has been!
We left South Africa last Saturday and traveled a LONG time to get back to Kona, Hawaii for debrief and graduation. Thankfully, I had the window seat for 3 out of 4 flights! I was SOOO thankful for that! I was especially desperate for the window seat for the 17.5 hour flight from Johanessberg to Atlanta! God gave me so much grace for that flight and I did so well! I could have been on there longer by the end =)
Except for a some napping on the plane, we were awake for 52 hours in total between getting out of bed and going to bed! We had a wonderful welcome from some of our Call2All family when we landed in Kona on Sunday night and stayed up late catching up with our friends, the Hales.
Debrief week was actually really full and there wasn't much time for jet lag. Monday was a rest day but we filled it with enjoying campus, saying hello to many people, supper with our friends (the Coles from IHOP who are doing a DTS here), enjoying the prayer room (and seeing some IHOP faces in there!) and ending a great day with a message and ministry night in the prayer room by Allan Hood! What a treat! Allan was out here to speak at the Call2All Church Pioneering School this week! What an awesome time!
Our class debriefed Tuesday and Wednesday and we shared our presentations with one another of the different locations we went to (South Africa, Brazil and the Philippines). We got this awesome booklet to process our DTS experience and take home with us. I enjoyed filling it out! I also spontaneously led the class worship on Wednesday which was fun!
Sadly, we missed out on the Spirit being poured out in the prayer room on Tuesday night because jet lag hit me that day =( I was so tired and though I set my alarm for 5:35pm to make it to supper and to hear Allan Hood speak, when I woke at 7:45pm, my alarm was still set but hadn't gone off! Bummer!
We've been enjoying the prayer room, the campus and catching up with friends who were on other teams around the globe! It's been a fun and full week!
We had graduation on Thursday and Mark Anderson (president of Call2All) was our guest speaker. That was really nice that he could come and see our class. What was extra special was that he sat at the same table as Shane and I and I could pick his brain with probing questions for an hour and a half =)
To end graduation day, as we were hanging out with friends in our building, the tsunami sirens we hear on the first Monday of the month at noon went off. It was surreal at 10pm! It was a mad scramble for the first few minutes and we quickly checked CNN to find out about the earthquake in Japan. We grabbed the children from bed and headed over to campus as directly by our school leader. Generally, the students stay on campus, which is a safe spot and out of the evacuation area. Because campus is full and we are in just for debrief for a few days, they put us in housing off campus. Our place, with the other couples and families, is in a safe zone, but we don't have food and such. The singles are in a hotel that is in the evacuation area. So, to make sure everyone is accounted for, everyone had to evacuate to campus.
We all spent the night there and I slept amazingly well for the circumstances. We slept on the floor of the Ohana Court on the cement pad as a class. It was an interesting way to spend our last night together on graduation day =) They had CNN and all the updates playing on a big screen throughout the night. We also found out that we had an earthquake! What a night of natural disaster issues! It was like a scene out of a movie =)
We made it back to our place around 8am, even though the warning was still in effect. The students in the hotel had to stay on campus. The road that we always walk on, do our weekly evangelism down and where the hotel is was full of water and some of the businesses were trashed! Good thing they evacuated! I don't know how high the water got but it's amazing to me that it passed the sea wall and the road! We checked out some of the aftermath this afternoon and can see how high the water got! God is so good and He is our Protector.
Thanks for your prayers, care and concern! We are safe and sound and had an exciting night =)
Tomorrow we leave for Winnipeg and start the next season of our journey! Wow! Crazy!
We left South Africa last Saturday and traveled a LONG time to get back to Kona, Hawaii for debrief and graduation. Thankfully, I had the window seat for 3 out of 4 flights! I was SOOO thankful for that! I was especially desperate for the window seat for the 17.5 hour flight from Johanessberg to Atlanta! God gave me so much grace for that flight and I did so well! I could have been on there longer by the end =)
Except for a some napping on the plane, we were awake for 52 hours in total between getting out of bed and going to bed! We had a wonderful welcome from some of our Call2All family when we landed in Kona on Sunday night and stayed up late catching up with our friends, the Hales.
Debrief week was actually really full and there wasn't much time for jet lag. Monday was a rest day but we filled it with enjoying campus, saying hello to many people, supper with our friends (the Coles from IHOP who are doing a DTS here), enjoying the prayer room (and seeing some IHOP faces in there!) and ending a great day with a message and ministry night in the prayer room by Allan Hood! What a treat! Allan was out here to speak at the Call2All Church Pioneering School this week! What an awesome time!
Our class debriefed Tuesday and Wednesday and we shared our presentations with one another of the different locations we went to (South Africa, Brazil and the Philippines). We got this awesome booklet to process our DTS experience and take home with us. I enjoyed filling it out! I also spontaneously led the class worship on Wednesday which was fun!
Sadly, we missed out on the Spirit being poured out in the prayer room on Tuesday night because jet lag hit me that day =( I was so tired and though I set my alarm for 5:35pm to make it to supper and to hear Allan Hood speak, when I woke at 7:45pm, my alarm was still set but hadn't gone off! Bummer!
We've been enjoying the prayer room, the campus and catching up with friends who were on other teams around the globe! It's been a fun and full week!
We had graduation on Thursday and Mark Anderson (president of Call2All) was our guest speaker. That was really nice that he could come and see our class. What was extra special was that he sat at the same table as Shane and I and I could pick his brain with probing questions for an hour and a half =)
To end graduation day, as we were hanging out with friends in our building, the tsunami sirens we hear on the first Monday of the month at noon went off. It was surreal at 10pm! It was a mad scramble for the first few minutes and we quickly checked CNN to find out about the earthquake in Japan. We grabbed the children from bed and headed over to campus as directly by our school leader. Generally, the students stay on campus, which is a safe spot and out of the evacuation area. Because campus is full and we are in just for debrief for a few days, they put us in housing off campus. Our place, with the other couples and families, is in a safe zone, but we don't have food and such. The singles are in a hotel that is in the evacuation area. So, to make sure everyone is accounted for, everyone had to evacuate to campus.
We all spent the night there and I slept amazingly well for the circumstances. We slept on the floor of the Ohana Court on the cement pad as a class. It was an interesting way to spend our last night together on graduation day =) They had CNN and all the updates playing on a big screen throughout the night. We also found out that we had an earthquake! What a night of natural disaster issues! It was like a scene out of a movie =)
We made it back to our place around 8am, even though the warning was still in effect. The students in the hotel had to stay on campus. The road that we always walk on, do our weekly evangelism down and where the hotel is was full of water and some of the businesses were trashed! Good thing they evacuated! I don't know how high the water got but it's amazing to me that it passed the sea wall and the road! We checked out some of the aftermath this afternoon and can see how high the water got! God is so good and He is our Protector.
Thanks for your prayers, care and concern! We are safe and sound and had an exciting night =)
Tomorrow we leave for Winnipeg and start the next season of our journey! Wow! Crazy!
Friday, March 04, 2011
South Africa Outreach - Week 10 Summary
Well, here ends our South Africa outreach. We left Kona 10 weeks and a few days ago and now we’re heading back to the other side of the world…literally! I am going to take the longest flight of my life…from Joberg to Atlanta is 17.5 hours (an additional 2 hours from on the way here)! I’m praying for a window seat or a whole row to myself to stretch out for such a long flight =)
Week 10’s focus was on debrief. Whew. All I can say is debriefing was exhausting! We had three and a half full days of debrief, including a questionnaire, discussions, remembering all the details of ministry we did, affirming one another and working on a presentation to show to our classmates and staff once we’re back in Kona. My emotions were all over the place this week as I remembered the good and the hard parts of this outreach. I really have had to press in to the Lord, wanting to finish well. What an experience!
We have a wonderful praise report when it comes to Shane’s head! By Monday or Tuesday of this week, all the head pain, blurry vision and dizziness was GONE!!!! Completely gone! We know from past head injuries that this is supernaturally quick in the area of healing for Shane’s head! Shane dealt with post-concussion symptoms for 6 months last time and now it was less than 2 weeks of symptoms! God is so good!
People from 9 different countries were praying for Shane and we are so thankful and touched. The countries included Canada, USA, Brazil, South Africa, the Philippines, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia and Finland! How awesome is that?!
Other random details from week 10:
- The pastor from the church we worked with here had our team over to his house for a wonderful evening of LOTS of South African food and great fellowship! I asked him if he bonds the same way with every team that works with them and we were so honored to find out that we were the first team of many to be invited to his house for a thank-you dinner. Wow! God really set that one up! What an honor and a blessing!
- Our team had a surprise visit from our ministry coordinator at our first location. That was really nice of Fola to come and say good-bye!
- We had an evening discussing our book reviews from our last required reading for DTS. Again, I really enjoyed Going Public With The Gospel! Now, I’m hoping to finish The Bait of Satan; Living Free From the Deadly Trap of Offense today so that I can read Why Not Women? on the airplane!
- We surprised the team with one last team outing on Wednesday evening for supper! All we told them was to be ready at 6pm and look normal-nice =) We took them to Ocean Basket for seafood, right on the shore of the ocean! We saw the sunset from our table on the patio of the dock. It was a fun and special team time to end with!
Well, that’s a wrap of 10 weeks of outreach in South Africa. Tomorrow we fly back to Kona and spend 6 days debriefing before heading home to Winnipeg. It’s going to be a crazy 80 degree difference in temperature between South Africa and Winnipeg! Wow!
I have mixed feelings about going home. I’m ready to leave South Africa, but not quite ready to go home yet. That’s why Kona is a great stepping stone in between! I’m definitely ready to go to Kona and see the other teams and debrief and relax together for a few days.
Good-bye South Africa! You and your people are so beautiful! I will miss you!
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