Long story short:
I am coming home.
You may read this and think to yourself, “Caroline, you came home in March. This is old news.” And you wouldn’t be wrong. The new meaning I intend to relay in this blog is I am staying home, and I am genuinely excited for this next adventure.
Before I go into the short story long, I want to thank my supporters for their encouraging words, prayers, and financial gifts that made participating in the World Race possible for me. Adventures in Missions has offered much support since our return and many options for re-launching. My choice to come home and dig roots puts a freeze on my account and opens the option for my donors to contact [email protected] for a partial reimbursement. If you would like to do this, make sure you email Donor Relations by September 15.
Short story long:
Patience. Trust. Submission.
Patience, trust, and submission are the overarching themes to the lessons I have learned these past three and a half months. I am a doer. I like to have a to-do list. I like to be visibly productive. Staying quarantined for 14 days without lesson plans to work on or friends to interact with in person was a challenge. In the beginning, I made a list of chores that I could do upstairs to be helpful. I washed windows. I cleaned window sills of pollen. I vacuumed. I dusted blinds.
Then slowly I was reminded that it is okay to slow down. It is okay to be in a waiting period. It is okay to patiently wait for the next steps to be revealed in God’s timing, not mine.
Patience
Habakkuk 1:5 & 2:3
“Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told…For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end —it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.”
Isaiah 64:4
“No eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.”
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Along with patience, came trust. Trust that being present in the moment is productive. Trust that doors will open at the right time. Some days my prayers were simply, “I trust you. Help me in my unbelief.”
Growing in trust and opening my hands to plans that were not what I expected at all brought insurmountable peace. It really didn’t make sense. Even when the teaching job at Gravelly Hill became available I felt at peace waiting.
Trust
Proverbs 3:5-6
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”
Isaiah 55:8-9
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
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Somewhere along the way, I stopped clutching my hands tightly around the plans I had set in place and released those expectations. In the process of submission a door re-opened to return to Gravelly Hill as a math teacher. When I shared the news with my co-workers I received many “Welcome Home!” messages. My family, too, was enthusiastic.
I now have the opportunity to dive deeper into relationships with my community. A community that lovingly sent me off, they gave me the courage to take flight. A community that is receiving me with open arms, ready to sink deeper roots together.
I am not just returning to the same old same old. I am returning with a new fire in my bones to share His joy with those around me. I am returning with a better understanding of our call to live missionally; living missionally is everyday living with intentionality.
Submission
Psalm 37:5
“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and He will act.”
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So this is it. My final World Race blog.
