Final Post

We've decided this last post will be the "What Have We All Learned/Gained/Gleaned/Experienced This Year". WARNING: This post could be literarily uncomfortable for some. It may have no rhyme or reason, no segways to create flow between points, at times thoughtful and other times, just silly, somewhat point-form with prose inbetwixt (see, I even just invented a word!), more text, less pictures. So for those of you who are prone to Literary Whiplash and/or Grammar Proofreading Addictions, take a pill before you read on. Or get your editorial staff to fix it all first, but I cannot guarantee things will not be lost in translation. :)

~ Somewhere, Somehow We "Westerners" Got It In Our Heads That We Know How To Do Things Better.~ Now, I know a lot more history of certain areas of the world than I did before this year began - for sure! However, I am not naturally a lover of history like my father-in-law, or an encyclopedia of Detailed Useless Information like our favourite Irish pastor! :) So I don't know how or why it came to be that we think so highly of ourselves. I have never been a fan of that North American stereotype, but you have to fight that temptation at all times, to think we are better than anyone, anywhere. I am all FOR learning from each other, good and bad, SHARING ideas, cultures, histories, recipes and dance moves. But let's resist (as Westerners) the urge to think ours are superior to the rest of the world's.

~ We Have Too Much Stuff ~ Less stuff is easier to pack, easier to unpack. Less stuff is easier to clean, to organize, to manage. Less stuff means less insurance, less stress about losing/breaking the stuff. Less stuff means you don't need such a big house to put all the stuff into, and therefore again, less cleaning. Or you can use the space in whatever house you have for more people, less stuff. Less stuff, less debt. Less stuff, more time. Less stuff, more God. <My husband is so gonna cringe at the purging mood I am in...if he thought I was in a purge mood before we left on this Year Away, he ain't seen nothin' yet!>



~ People ~ You may or may not have noticed that our blog did not often, if ever, have pictures of the people we met and loved along the way. I have admitted that I am a rookie blogger, and not an educated one in the least. So, I don't know, and didn't want to take the time to think about or research, what my philosophy is on the whole World Wide Web Exposure-Vulnerability-Hazards. Some may have reservations and fears, or be offended that we did or didn't mention/picture them. So we just decided not to post others' pictures or too many of their details or life stories. (And, therefore, protecting all those who are running from the law, immigration, the mob, aliens, or are in the witness protection program...juuust jokin'!) We, in NO way, meant to undermine the absolutely amazing experiences we had with PEOPLE this year. We had the honour and privilege of meeting TONS of interesting, helpful, hard-working, godly, life-giving, hilarious and caring people along the way; sharing their homes, their lives, their cultures, their beliefs, their friendships, where-to-get-the-best-tapas and which tourist attractions are a rip-off. We love you all and welcome you to allow us to return the favour anytime you want to come and visit Canada!

~ God Takes Care of You ~ big lesson to be learned. And not sure why I, for one, can't seem to learn it after a life-time of proof. We (Emery said I could include him in this one) suffer from the problem of thinking that we can take care of ourselves, are independent, strong, God-given brains and self-confidence and all that. But we were reminded over and over again this year that it's God's job, not ours, to take care of us. He cares about even the littlest details, as reminded by some new dear friends - if we aren't praying about the small things like finding a parking spot in a busy city, what are we praying about? In other words, if we aren't trusting God for small things, how can we trust Him for the big things? We embarked on this year, thinking we had it all figured out, planned, lists made and checked off. Boy, was that a dumb idea. God's plans were different AND better, "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine" (The Bible-Ephesians 3:20). We experienced God taking care of big and small details as we worked, travelled, lived.

• families with kids for our kids to connect with
• "instantly comfortable friends" (another phrase I just invented) to hang out with, learn from
• housing, transportation, communication (internet, phones, etc.)
• travelling mercies (seriously, NOT ONE single hitch, wrinkle, lost bag, mix-up, cause-for-panic!)
• caring church families and pastor couples to worship with in both countries we lived in
• safety
• health (barely a runny nose)
• and many, many, many, infinitely many more things

~ We Have Some Pretty Fantastic Kids ~ Parenting is hard...at home, abroad, while working, while on vacation, when the kids are younger, older. But we, as parents, are commanded by God to "Train a child in the way he should go" (The Bible-Proverbs 22:6), to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, strength and impress that upon our children, to talk about God when we sit at home, when we walk along the road, when we lie down, when we get up and everything in between (The Bible-Deuteronomy 6:4-9). We cannot put into words how great it was to spend so.much.time.together as a family this year. Funny how this opportunity removed some of the daily life distractions and busyness of home and yet added other factors of the unknown, unfamiliarity of being abroad, being far from family and friends. Yet our family of five remained constant, our job as parents remained the same, simple, our purpose in life unified ~ to glorify God, wherever, whenever, however. We hope and pray that it was an eternal investment. Yup, our kids sometimes milked the compliments they were given by strangers, waitors, friends who told them they were such well-behaved, well-adjusted, good kids. They would sometimes use it against their mother when she reminded them for the 1,746th time to say Please and Thank you and not to belch in public. Okay, to be painfully honest here, before we left, I seriously thought I may go not just a little nuts this year...being with my kids (and husband, frankly) all day, every day. That I might miss sending them all off to school at 8:00 am and having the house and day to myself to do the rest of my job(s). But God miraculously kept any and all of those fears of insanity at bay.

~ Our Goals For This Year All Reached:

• cross-cultural experience
• Christian service opportunity
• non-Education "job"; work for free
• do it all as a family

AAAAAAAND, this is it...THE END of Our Year Away Blog. It's been a slice! Thanks to all of you who blessed us by caring enough, or just being curious enough, to read all of our ramblings.

More than one person has already mentioned that we look better, younger than when we left, "have a glow about us", 'more peaceful'? Well, not sure what to say about that...it's likely one of two things. Either:

1. <prepare for a free shameless plug for my cousin Candace again> I've been using Pure Anada's anti-aging moisturizer every day for the past year, or

2. it's true what they say: a change is as good as a rest. 

Our Year Away opened our eyes 

to what God is doing in other parts of the world,

and cultivated deeper our relationship with Him.

Stories

Preface

When we FIRST got home on July 23rd, I wanted to quickly type up a post before some of my thoughts and feelings got lost in all the chaos of returning, unpacking and readjusting.

WELL, I did type some stuff up, but it got put aside, picked up again, typed some more and before long, it was so not a picture-heavy post, but VERY VERY long and rambling and no one would EVER sit long enough at their computer or phone or iPad to read all that.

SO, it HAS to get divided up into multiple posts and you guys are stuck with us for a bit longer yet. It was going to be titled FINAL POST... not anymore. I/We feel so full of things we want to tell everybody, you're just going to have to deal with it or walk away. Whatever you choose is all good!

OKAY... the first paragraph is my actual first paragraph the day after we came home. Then are some real and true stories from our dear friends at Kiltonga Christian Centre in Northern Ireland. <the italics are mine, just to translate a few wee things into Canadian English;) >

...

Alas, this will be the final post in Our Year Away...because We Are No Longer Away...We Are Home...Home ~ that word, Home, has another whole very introspective, philosophical, random and yet concrete, describable and yet indescribable vibe to it. BUT we won't actually go there right now. Can you already tell it is 5:00 am and I am suffering from just a wee bit of jet lag?

We can't wait to share some stories with you, as most of our posts, especially lately, have been picture-heavy. And there are some incredible stories that you must hear to help you understand how we are forever changed by our experiences this year.

First, some absolutely amazing displays of God in some very-real-life-simple-every-day-happenings-that-are so-NOT-to-be-taken-lightly-because-our-God-is-IN-every-thing-in-every-day...IF and WHEN we look for Him and listen to Him and obey Him. (Yeesh, this jet lag may really play havoc with my ability to communicate in any kind of understandable way...sorry!)

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to G.A., who I recruited to write these stories down for me, so you can hear them firsthand, and so that I cannot be accused of embellishing or getting the details all wrong (that has happened to me once...maybe twice...can't quite recall, it may have been three times ~ okay, I'm admitting here and now that I'm over 40 and the memory just ain't what it used to be ~ there! I said it!).

She did an awesome job with these...here she is:

The three bananas

When we ask for donations of food it is always for non perishable food.

The reason being we don’t always know when we are going to send out a food parcel.

On arriving at the Centre one morning I arrived to find someone had left several bags of food which included bread , fruit and other perishable goods (the fruit was 3 bananas).

I have to admit my response wasn’t the best.  I more or less thought the goods would be wasted as we didn’t have any requests for that day. How wrong I  was.

Unknown to me, an elderly lady had woken that morning and had asked God what he would have her do that day. She felt that she should walk to the shopping centre, and as she went round the store she should put in the trolley (shopping cart) what she felt God wanted her to purchase. This included fresh food stuff. She then walked up from the town to our Centre with the goods in her trolley, anonymously dropped them off and walked home – her job done.

I guess I must have arrived about half an hour after she had dropped the food off.

Within about 15 minutes of my arrival the phone rang....yes you’ve guessed it, a request for a food parcel. I don’t often get to deliver parcels to individual's homes, but this day I did – God wanted to teach me a little more about His ways.

When I arrived at the home to deliver the bags of shopping, the mother was so thankful . She said today she felt that everything was coming in on top of her and she didn’t feel she could cope. She had 2 teenage children that were always  wanting something to eat and she had nothing to give them. With all the fresh food (milk , eggs and bread) she would be able to give them something immediately.

What about the 3 bananas? God knew all about that woman’s situation, the pressure/oppression she was under, before  we knew about her. He had provided for her family through the obedience of an elderly lady and through the outreach of our Centre. He knew that there were 3 in that family – hence...3 bananas.

Remember the individual is important to God.

The pink suite of furniture

A lot of furniture and other items of household goods are donated to the Storehouse.

Some items are still fashionable but others are handed in because the owners have updated their home decor and no longer want the furniture.

On one occasion a pink 3-piece – 2 chairs and a sofa were donated. To be honest I didn’t think it would be suitable for anyone . We deal mostly with single men needing to be rehoused or young families – pink isn’t a colour that’s too popular with either of these types.

It was in good condition but a velvet frilly kind that would not have a wide audience.

It’s amazing how many times when we are living by faith that God shows us and reminds us that He knows the end from the beginning.

Meanwhile we received a phone call from a lady in Belfast who deals with vulnerable women. Still don’t know how she heard about the Storehouse but she got our phone number and asked if we could deliver a food parcel to a lady in a very bad situation, emotionally, physically. When we called to deliver the parcel we were to prepare ourselves and not be too shocked by her appearance.

I delivered the food parcel to an upstairs flat (apartment) The lady could hardly put one foot past the other. You wouldn’t have kept an animal in the conditions she was living.

Long story short, the lady was able to be rehoused. The Storehouse cleaned and furnished completely her ground floor, one-bedroom bungalow. She came with a couple of bags of personal items to a house that had everything from toaster, kettle, oven – everything you would need to have a fresh start – bed fully made up with new bedding, bed-side lamp, fresh towels, pictures and flowers, etc. All she said she wanted - if it was possible - was a pink settee (sofa)!

Do you know I have never to this day seen another suite of furniture like that one – it was very dainty and small, and of course pink. Her one-bedroom bungalow had a small living area that a normal suite of furniture would have swamped. The pink suite fitted perfectly.

A Lesson in Living by Faith

From time to time we would receive requests to help someone put money on their electric meter or help them to heat their home with oil.

The building we run Kiltonga Christian Centre from was a former leisure centre. A place that was designed a good lot of years ago, it isn’t energy efficient in any way and cost the local council a fortune to run – its overheads were huge. As a consequence, the oil we fill our heating tanks with doesn’t last very long at all – especially in the winter.

When the request for help came to us we were at a stage where we didn’t have the money to fill our own oil tank at the Centre. However, as our Director said, we couldn’t afford to not help this individual- this would be another step of faith. We sent the oil down to the individual who had a young family and no way to heat their home. By the end of that same day, the money came in to the Centre to pay for the oil. 

God, you are amazing – a God of plenty.

Remember how important we are to God and how he can use each of us when we are obedient to Him

I suppose the work of the Storehouse really started with one small family - a mother, husband and child who had arrived in Northern Ireland from another country. She tried her best to look after her young child whilst her husband spent, drank, etc. all the money he earned. Many times she had to drink cold water as she couldn’t afford to turn on her kettle, she didn’t have the money for electricity. All she wanted was to be able to heat a little water so her daughter could get washed in warm water before she went to school.

We tried to help her with food, etc. One Sunday church service, we highlighted the needs within our community. A gentleman came to us after the service and said he would like to give a sum of money which we were to pass on to the lady who we said was having difficulty even finding the money to boil her kettle.

Later that week I met the lady for coffee. As we chatted, I said that I had a sum of money for her. She said that actually this week things were going okay with her and she didn’t need the money. I explained that it was for her and if she didn’t need it this week, she should save it for a day when she might. She reluctantly took the money.

I didn’t meet up with her again for another couple of weeks. When we next chatted, she told me how she had left me that last day to go and do some shopping for food. She had everything on the conveyor belt and when she went to pay for her goods the shop assistant told her her bank card wasn’t working – they tried it again. How embarrassing. Then she remembered the money we had given her. Do you know that it was exactly the amount she needed? She found out later her husband had run up overdrafts at the bank and had cancelled his cards.

God knows the end from the beginning.