As I write this, I am sitting on a huge leather couch in a real house in Long Beach, California! I went to Target and Chick-fil-a today, and had my first glass of real sweet tea in 8 months! I’m actually surprised I am still awake and coherent enough to write this…I have had about 9 hours of sleep in the last 3 days, and we have been traveling since 3 am Friday morning in the Philippines! The goodbye was bittersweet, and I think it’s safe to say that the month in the Philippines will be one of our favorites of this whole trip. So, after a two hour layover in Tokyo (which I don’t remember a lot of because I was delusional from sleep deprivation!), and a long overnight flight with plenty of turbulence to make sure that any attempt at sleep would be thwarted, we arrived….in L.A.!
I must say, it is extremely weird being home in the States again after 8 months…in the fact that it’s not all that weird! We drove around today in a car that had a dvd player in it, we shopped in Target for things we haven’t been able to find on 3 different continents, and I got to take a bath in a real bathtub! Now, don’t get me wrong, I am so excited about all of this and don’t mind the two day pampering one bit…but it strikes me as odd that after 8 months away from anything close to this caliber of living, in only a few hours, we can slide back into it so easily! I mean, there are still the things that we do now that set us apart from the regular American, such as taking a picture under the “Welcome to Los Angeles” sign right after the large group of Chinese tourists took that same picture, staring at the condiments counter in Chick-fil-a like a kid in a candy store! Wait, we can take as many ketchup packets as we want? We don’t have to pay for refills? How come other people aren’t stocking up on plastic silverware? We can flush toilet paper? The water pressure is more than a drizzle? There are actually stoplights, and people really stop at them? We don’t have to ask one of our friends to watch our valuables when we leave the table to use the restroom? Huh…oh yeah, I remember this! So, needless to say, we have had to laugh at ourselves more than once for the things that we have become accustomed to out on the field. But at the same time, the feeling of comfort and luxury at your fingertips is all too familiar.
I think we all had mixed emotions when we heard that our layover in the States was 48 hours. Now, after not even the first 24, I think it’s a good thing for all of us on the June squad. It’s eye-opening in a way that will jump start us for the last three-month leg of the race. Yes, we are excited to be able to do things we haven’t been able to do these last 8 months, but I think it is very sobering to think of how natural it comes to us as Americans. All of it, the convenience, the security, the somewhat lavish lifestyle…but that is not what we signed up for when we signed on to do the World Race. We know we are heading into the more rustic part of the trip for these remaining three months in Central America. They will be filled with tenting, bucket showers, manual labor in the Central American heat, language barriers…all of it. The L.A. stopover has been nice and I am extremely grateful and am letting myself enjoy it, but I also realize that it is only temporary…we are called on to the people in Central America who need the Lord in all the same ways we do, but who live under very different circumstances. And I have a feeling that these 48 hours will bring a more intense focus on what we are on this trip to do…but more than that…what we are called to in general with our lives. To go where the hurts are and bring hope. That doesn’t mean that the Lord couldn’t or won’t call us to the States full time or that we couldn’t be used right here at home, because Americans need Him just as much as anyone else in the world, but for the next three months, we are students of the world.
I love being American and I think God has blessed our socks off in this country, but I am looking forward to roughing it again and being separate from all the distractions that present themselves at home. I know I can always come back to this. America will be here when it’s time to come home, but for now, bring on the bucket showers! Bring on the camping and the bonding around a fire while we cook our own food after a hard days’ work of construction. Bring on the open smiles and hospitality of the Latin American people, and bring on the relationships with those people whom I would have never met otherwise.
This will be my last blog for awhile, because we will not have internet where we will be staying on the coast in Nicaragua. We are going to do hurricane relief in a very needy and poverty-stricken part of the country. I am excited to get in there and see what the Lord has in mind. Plus, I really love physical labor! Also, I went to Nicaragua when I was 14, and that is where the Lord confirmed His call on my life to missions, so I have always had a soft spot in my heart for the people there. I know God has some awesome stuff up His sleeves for us, and I will come back in 3 to 4 weeks to tell you all about it! Until then…adios!
