Even as this leg of my trip comes to an end, I know God is opening my ears and heart to a deeper level of healing.
Part of me is afraid to return to Tanzania- with its loud, colorful, unapologetic unpredictability. Part of me is afraid to admit that East Africa is not compatible with my disposition or condition.
But part of me also knows, the me that left is not the same me that will return.
Things are still hard there, but with a new lens of deeper purpose and meaning, I’m praying it will pull me, us through.
Things I love most about the UK-
1. The quiet
2. The beauty
I could live in this quiet and beauty forever.
I cannot be more grateful- to know how in all my days here, we’ve had beautiful blue skies.
I love the colors of Fall!
Today was the only blustery day we’ve had, and most of the rain came when I was on the train.
I’ve felt so held,
so shielded by God.
Today, as an elderly man reached out to me on the streets of Oxford to ask if I’d heard the Good News, I stood, stunned.
After sharing a bit about myself, I asked if he was a team with the Korean son and father singing worship songs in the background.
He said, “No, actually- They’re on their own, but we are all together with the same heart, no?”
As he spoke and as I saw the Korean father shielding his son from the rain, I couldn’t stop my tears.
For the first time in a long while, I asked myself— since when has my life been a melody to reflect God in such a clear way?
Then I visited St Mary’s, the official church of Oxford University.
This is a chamber where you light a candle and say a prayer💛Guess what I prayed for?
On another note, I was saddened to hear how back home in Tanzania, the water cut faced by Cliff and the kids seems to be more challenging than expected- requiring a digging into the ground etc…
From the quiet, predictable, regulating place that the UK has been, to the loud, predictably unpredictable place Tanzania is… I feel my body and mind bracing already for hardship and uncertainty.
But I’m learning… how being with our loved ones can supersede some of our hardest struggles.
I often think about the dream I had some time ago, where our family was in an earthquake.
Everything shook but as we held hands and locked eyes, smiling, everything wobbled and settled eventually. Nobody was hurt. We got through because we were together.
Cliff has had such rough weekends with the kids sick last weekend and the water complication this weekend.
Time for me to come home.
Goodbye Oxford.
