“How do you pick up the
threads of your old life? How do you go on? With a new heart you begin to
understand there is no going back.”
-Frodo Baggins, ‘Lord
of the Rings’
This is it. The race is over. 11 months have come and gone
and so has the old Amy. I have been thinking a lot about going home, what is it
going to be like, how will I adjust. I wonder if anyone will be able to see the
transformation that has occurred within me. I am the same Amy as I was before
but with a completely new understanding of who I am in God and of who God is. I
have met a God on this trip that I did not know before and I am madly in love
with Him. He has wrecked me, kicked me in the butt, and shown me more love than
I knew was possible.
Last month my Moldova team and I watched the Lord of the
Rings series (yes we are aware we are dorks). When we heard Frodo say this at
the end of the movie after he returned to the Shire we cracked up laughing
because we now relate to a hobbit. I know exactly how Frodo felt. You return to
your old life, but you are not the same, I am not the same. The normal that I
knew before will no longer be my normal because I don’t fit in. God has turned
me into a passionate woman I was not before this journey. The exciting part is
I find a new ‘normal’ now. I get to find out how this new Amy translates into
the American culture and that excites the heck out of me. I have a heart for
America, for my generation. I have a desire to share what God has done to me
with as many people as possible when I get home.
I am at final debrief and finish up in a few days. It is
hard to say goodbye to what has become home. But God is now calling me back to
America to share the stories that he has given me.
This is not the end, just the beginning of a life long
journey….
