My New Home

I had an interesting experience at our goodbye activity for the Illiana group Sunday night. Several of our church members were there and Shelley gave everyone the opportunity to say something to the group if they wanted to. Many of the church members said thank you to the group for helping, and many of members of the Illiana group talked about what a blessing the experience was. We did a similar activity when I came on my work team in August. It is always an emotional experience.

I decided early that I wasn't going to say anything. I had been listening to Katie (who is leaving Saturday) talk with some of the girls in the group about their families and how much they missed them, so I was already feeling emotional and I didn't want to cry in front of the whole group. So my plan was to not talk. But, as usual, God had other plans. Just as everyone was finishing their comments, I realized that I had not had the opportunity to share with the Illiana kids my story of how I ended up in the Dominican Republic. I did speak in chapel in November, but I'm sure that they don't all remember that. So I was feeling like I really should tell them and that I really should encourage them to allow God to lead them in their lives as well, just as I did in chapel.

At that moment a mosquito flew in my face and I swatted it away, Shelley saw it and took it as me raising my hand to talk, so I went with it even though I hadn't really thought through what I was going to say. But as I had been sitting there listening to everyone, I was very aware of the difference between them and me. They were just wrapping up their trip and heading back to my hometown, where all of the people I miss are, and I am just starting my life here. I don't allow myself to actively think about and miss my family and friends the way that they had been earlier that evening because I am afraid it would consume me. I haven't even reached my halfway point yet. Having the Illiana group there was very good for me. It was very much like having a piece of home there. A bunch of Dutch kids from my high school and a chaperon that was actually my teacher and coach. It was difficult to know that they were leaving and I was staying.

And as I started sharing with them about how God had brought me here, and how he had led me back again, I did start crying, but then something interesting happened. I all-of-a-sudden was surrounded by and was very aware of my new Dominican family, all of the people that God has brought into my life since I arrived here. Sleeping in my lap was Eliseo, one of the children that I love as if they were my own nieces and nephews, and then Bartolow (the resident 'grandpa' of our church) came and put his hands on my shoulders and handed me his hanky, and then Eddy, my best Dominican friend, was there as well, and the whole time that I am speaking, I am looking and talking to my sister in Christ, Shelley, who is crying with me as I talk. In that moment, as I was feeling very sad about saying goodbye to my piece of home, God comforted me in a very real way with the people that are pieces of my new home.