Coming back to Seattle has been a rather different experience than I'd expected. I left Seattle the beginning of December, with every hour of my day planned out with staff meetings, Classwork, or get togethers with friends. And now back in Seattle, especially with a couple car loads of people from Christian Summer Camp her, my schedule has been anything but mapped out. And since many of the relationships between people here have had 9 months to change, I'm learning what role to play in this community again.
Had I thought about this more ahead of time I think it would have not been surprising to me that these first few weeks when many of the folks out here are preparing to make the transition from summer schedules to school schedules, would be rather lonely in a sense. I feel it would be overwhelming for me to be in a transition like this when a friend of mine showed up again after nine months of absence.
But the good reminder in the craziness of relocation, was to keep an outward focus in the sense of servitude. So this has made it good to spend time preparing for the trip to Uganda in October.
Which continues to excite me. I'm excited to be a part of a trip to another country in order to build familial ties (if you will) in the body of Christ, but with the attitude but with the mentality of each person bringing equal parts, not with the mentality of an American "Developed vs. Developing" Colonialist mentality.
When I was in Spokane, WA visiting with my friend Spencer, I had the opportunity to meet an exchange student from Nairobi, Kenya now at Whitworth, and he shared with me about some of the things he'd been telling me about the differences between his two homes. For instance, he shared with me his gratefulness for the simplicity of the faith his friends at home had. He told me how wonderful it was to just simply have your faith unriddled by theological debates about things like creation vs. evolution, and so forth. The connections this builds with me for with the desert fathers' conversations about simplicity, really excites me to be learning about.
Please continue to be praying for my preparations for this trip. Both for finances and preparations on my end of the trip.
Bailey and Marcus are on their way East on I-90 and Gary is still here in Seattle with me. Keep posted for more updates.
