Just a little over two months ago, I stood in the Changi International Airport, bags packed, passport and one-way ticket in hand. It took me three flights, fourteen hours between my first takeoff and third landing, with two timezone changes. I am now as far east as I can get in Southeast Asia, in the beautiful land of the cenderawasih.
I had come with a team from church last November on a week-long mission trip. I returned to Singapore with a love for the place and the people seeded in my heart, and then the Father made a way for me to return for the forseeable future as a missionary.
There is a different kind of fulfilment that one has when in the right place at the right time, and that is something I can say that I have here. It's a simpler life, but I have really been able to give of everything I have. There is space for worship and prayer, music and teaching, audio/technical work and language, hugs and children, conversation and cooking...everything that I had thought was a jumble of random skillsets seems to have come together in this one place. I am coming to understand that this is what 'breaking the alabaster jar' looks like for me.
While all of that is happening, there has been time for rest and balance in managing my day-to-day. I have been able to join more family calls over the past two months than I was able to in the past year. Am really thankful that technology has helped with the whole communication-and-staying-connected thing. But still. I miss being able to have a cup of coffee or a Macs sundae cone with my girls, being able to share a meal and htht for hours, being able to sit and pray together.
I miss my community a whole lot, but at the same time, I am thankful for the new community that is here. I've found a church to call home, one that has a heart for family growth and missions.
I never would have dreamed that I would be where I am today. The prayers of my parents, my mentors, my chosen family have all been instrumental in my growth and in my faith. We speak much of the plans that God has for us. Most of the time, when those plans are unboxed, we freak out. But that's okay :)
In my learning to trust God more and more, I am learning to yield to what He opens for me more and more. The stretching is uncomfortable, the testing and purifying painful, but at the end of the day, it opens into the beauty that He had in mind from the very beginning. If I truly hold Him in the highest regard over my life, and come to Him just because (not just when I need something), there is so much to learn and see and understand and marvel at.
That, my friends, is why I am constantly in awe and wonder at who He is and how He works.
