Home Sweet Home

I didn't know how I would feel coming home. So many questions. So many thoughts. So many emotions. 

A good friend wrote me an email and in it she included this... 

(read it. I know, I always skip over quotes too- but read it! It is good!) 

by Oswald Chambers

We have all experienced times of exaltation on the mountain, when we have seen things from God’s perspective and have wanted to stay there. But God will never allow us to stay there. The true test of our spiritual life is in exhibiting the power to descend from the mountain. If we only have the power to go up, something is wrong. It is a wonderful thing to be on the mountain with God, but a person only gets there so that he may later go down and lift up the demon-possessed people in the valley (see Mark 9:14-18). We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the other beautiful attractions in life— those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength. Yet our spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mountain. We feel that we could talk and live like perfect angels, if we could only stay on the mountaintop. Those times of exaltation are exceptional and they have their meaning in our life with God, but we must beware to prevent our spiritual selfishness from wanting to make them the only time.

We are inclined to think that everything that happens is to be turned into useful teaching. In actual fact, it is to be turned into something even better than teaching, namely, character. The mountaintop is not meant to teach us anything, it is meant to make us something. There is a terrible trap in always asking, “What’s the use of this experience?” We can never measure spiritual matters in that way. The moments on the mountaintop are rare moments, and they are meant for something in God’s purpose.

I thought this summed up my feelings toward leaving quite well. I am descending from the mountain. THIS is the true spiritual test. God is saying to me, What will you do with this gift of Haiti I provided you? What did you learn and how will you teach it? 

Moments on a mountaintop (Haiti) are rare and since I am not called to be a bystander on earth... now what? 

Some notable moments: 

1. I cried. Yup, one of those awkward goodbye speeches to the kids where I started crying. Probably the only time I cried in Haiti- so notable. 
2. Miami Airport was just fine. I thought walking on American soil would be emotional. In fact, I sometimes pictured the thought in my head and would get teary. But it was all quite normal. I was just more annoyed and focused on my 5.5 hour layover.
3. Steak and Spinach Salad. Yes, this was the first thing I did in the airport. Before calling, texting boyfriend or friends or family.(if you have followed from the start you would know this was my last supper) 
4. How quickly we forget. Jesus, please don't let me forget the plight of Haiti and its people. 
5. Hot shower was more than I could have imagined. enough said. it felt amazing. and then I took a bath. 
6. Flush the toilet. I have had to remind myself multiple times that I need to flush the toilet. Americans do that. 
7. Rice, Beans and Chicken. Avoiding those things like the plague. 
8. Haiti will always be part of me. Thank God. 

And coming home is so much easier when your mom puts your very own Christmas tree in your room. 

Thanks mom. 

Merry Christmas All. 

He came to give us LIFE. Christ is King.