Vagabond: having no settled home.
This is what I’ve felt like a lot of my time in Africa… The first month was a lot of packing and unpacking. Most mornings because of our location, we often had to pack up all of our things and be fully packed, then at night we could unpack to sleep again. Then the second month we lived in a very tight space where we didn’t really have a room to ourselves as men, our “sleeping room” was also the living room, the TV/movie room, the hang out room, the dining room, the devotional room, the feedback room, and the overall catch-all when we had other guests over to the house as well. So we were always in a constant state of trying to keep our bags mostly packed or put together so the “catch-all” room didn’t look trashed all the time. Now, this month, we have finally been able to get to a place where we can spread our things out a little bit and really unpack, both physically and emotionally. Finally we are connecting with the people and building relationships and now realizing we are leaving this beautiful country and these beautiful people in a week. I am a vagabond. It is a sobering reality of the World Race that I am currently working on coming to grips with. I like having a place for everything and everything in it’s place (a wise woman told me this phrase multiple times—thanks mom!) I like being able to “set up shop” and feel at home; but one thing I am continually learning through physical processes such as packing and repacking my backpack or through emotional and spiritual processes realizing that this earth is not my home.
This continent has opened my eyes and taught me many things, about itself and about myself. Here are some of the things that have really hit home for me while in Africa:
He’s got a lot of work to do in me that I didn’t even know there was to be done.
HIS majesty is spectacularly displayed through the beauty of creation: people AND nature.
I LOVE to worship my creator. The continent of Africa has only served to deepen that love.
EVERYONE has a story.
God can use EVERYONE and he’s willing to use ANYONE.
We are copiously wealthy in America, but the African people are more often than not, richer than we Americans. They worship and love the LORD with fervor and zeal that is often left undetected in many, if not most American churches. This is the kind of richness we need to be striving for.
I may be a vagabond, but I know where my true settled home is, and I will live out of my thankfulness for THAT home, and let that spill over into this one.
