These would be our last hours in Africa.

Kim and Doug woke up with the early morning chanting to take Averee to the airport. You see our dear “jesus juker” had to leave early to make the journey to Zimbabwe to see her future husband for the first time in 18 months. (Averee, i hope you and Donald are having a blast!) A few of us went to the gym to try and release as much energy as we could before the dreaded 30+ hour trip home, while others spent most of the day finishing up last minute packing details and milling around the home with the hopes of delaying the inevitable.  After a coffee ceremony and a few hundred pictures with all of our great new friends at Amazing Grace Guest House, we were off to catch our chariot home!

Now I remember signing up for today thinking that i would have a lot of life changing stories full of introspect, deep meaning, and thought provoking answers to life’s big questions. But as the hours that i’ve been home now start to tick by, i find that i’m at a loss for words. Something that doesn’t happen too often. Some of it has to be the fatigue from all the travel, being away from the team, and dealing with the “shock” of being back in our culture. But mostly i think the lessons learned from a trip like this are learned gradually after we start to piece together a life that in some aspects was shaken up and torn down. A life that once defined itself by putting its value in one thing is now defined by something all together different. A shift form material worth to relational richness! This is probably the simplest way to put it. I’m afraid that if i try to put many more words to it right now i’ll just mess it up in garble anyways. And as for the “thought provoking answers”…have you ever found that the more you search for the answers, the more questions you’re left with? Yeah, well just TRY spending 16 days in Africa and coming out with more answers than questions. I think Isaac Newton made a law about it a long time ago, im not sure how it goes but i remember him saying it’s impossible.

Anyways, i’m sure that everyone on the team is facing a couple inevitable questions. So for those of you that wont have to chance to hear it from us personally let me do my best:

What did we do? We taught and we learned, we worked and we played, we broke a lot of bread and drank a little wine, we laughed and there were some tears, we served and were served, we touched some lives and hundreds touched ours!

What was it like? It was awesome…it was life altering!

God Bless Abyssinia,

Colin