Wednesday 30 January 2013

new year; new team; new adventures.


Merry Christmas (or Happy Christmas, if you’re British) and Happy New Year – it’s been a while.

We had a snow day last week:
4 inches means that the town shuts down!
The last time I sat here in Coffee #1 tapping an update into my laptop, the Christmas lights hadn’t yet gone up in Wellington and there was still the seemingly unending question of how long I’d actually be in the country.  Since then, immigration moved itself forward, resulting in a sudden flight back to the States where I spent the month of December walking through the visa application process with the team, meeting with people in the churches, and teaching and leading for this and that.  The suitcase stayed perpetually packed; I wasn’t sure of the return date until about the 20th, meaning that I needed to be ready to go at any point.  In the end, I rang in the New Year somewhere over the Atlantic, as the flight touched down at Heathrow on New Year’s morning.

The absence of updates hasn’t been due to negligence or busyness.  It’s that it’s been a pretty inarticulate (nearly) two months.  I’m thankful that God speaks about the coming “seasons” before they arrive; his intimations and prophetic direction become “light to my path” when walking through those “seasons” when they come.  In this case, God had spoken about challenge and testing coming as well as a rearranging of fundamental aspects of ‘who I am’, if you’ll allow me to say it in such a psychologically self-aware way. 

Sure enough, that “season” arrived in full force during the past two months.  I spent a lot of time dialoguing with God but knew trying to write much would have been like taking you off the footpaths here into some bramble-infested, muddy thicket- maybe an interesting exploration, but an unhelpful way to experience the countryside.  There’s no point in trying to summarize now except to say that I’m know there’s plenty in me that’s shifting and changing – I’m sure it will be voiced in due time.

I’m back now, observing Wellington from a drafty corner of the coffee shop, grasping my teacup with both hands in an attempt to soak up as much warmth as physically possible.  It’s been a “warm” few days, but these followed a week of the most snow that the Southwest has seen for a couple of years, and my toes, fingers, and nose still feel perpetually numb.  Still, winter seems to be starting to lift: sunrise is a little earlier than 7:30 now, and it’s not pitch black at 4:15 in the afternoon anymore.

John preparing to enjoy his first cream tea... 
Our final team member will join us this Saturday: Marie has finished her work contract and moves to Taunton this weekend.  The rest of the team- Tahmi, Jim, and John – have all been here for nearly a month now.  Doing essentially all of life with people is certainly a shift for me, but it’s a good one.  The past few weeks have allowed everyone to begin to find their feet, and there’s now a sense of momentum in forming connections and reaching out into the town- more on that later.  In the middle of that, though, there’s plenty of time for all sorts of things…for example,

- Eating at Gregg’s.  John generally orders at least one pasty per day.  Jim isn’t far behind on total number of orders.
- Learning the ‘Thriller’ dance.  Everyone learned it, actually, including the kids and Kim.  And yes, it was performed in public.
- Playing games.  Many varieties.  Every day, if Viv and Jev have anything to do with it.  Bananagrams is my new favorite. (I’ve won every time except once.) I do not like Kemps. (I’d rather not talk about how many times I’ve won that one.)
- Quoting ‘Nacho Libre’ and/or holding general conversations in an accent akin to that of Jack Black.  This only involves the other three, as I don’t even remember the film.
- Exploring...footpaths; Taunton town centre; pubs; landmarks, if we can get there.  We’ve gotten used to John vaulting over fences and doing backflips off walls along the way.  Simultaneously, Tahmi’s attention is usually on one of the thousands of “cute”, well-groomed dogs out for a walk with their owners while I focus my energies on getting to the current destination as fast as my legs will carry me- anything to avoid the cold rain.  And Jim unyieldingly keeps his own unhurried pace- although that could be due to the fact that he’s usually carrying a backpack full of items I’ve handed him.

Team 'bonding': guess how Claudia feels about wool socks
 that have been stuffed into wellies for a few days...
Really, it’s not all fun and games, and I’ll share about that in due course.  But in the middle of all that God is doing in me, I’m(almost always) glad to be surrounded by people to who love to enjoy life.  Laughter is medicine, as the proverb says, and resting in enjoying God, others, and this season seems to be as significant a part of what God is doing here as each focused, “purposeful” block of time.

1 comment:

  1. Whenever I read these blogs I get tempted to drop out of school and pack my bags for England...I did skip classes today though which is nice.

    Keep it up everyone! Don't quit, don't give up, don't give in-just keep pressing, just keep going! (definitely stole that from a misty edwards message). Persevere!

    You are all heros and you have our love and our prayers. We miss you here! The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

    Love Caleb

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