Drumroll, please…It is finished!

Not the selling of our house, or the packing up of our house, or the fundraising.

THE WEDDING SCRAPBOOK!

Finally, it is finished. 3 years, 3 months and 24 days of marriage; 3 scrapbook binders; 2 photo albums; 5 rolls of double-sided tape; 3 gluesticks; lots of trash (including the extra invitations, programs, bits of cards, photos); and a sore back from sitting-on-the-floor-instead-of-at-a-table LATER…I have completed our wedding scrapbook and disposed of the trash that it generated.

My life is a tiny bit simpler and my office is a tiny bit more organized and straighter. And, my list of things to finish before February/we leave/sell our house/move out of our house/ is now minus one! I SHOULD be dancing around celebrating!

But what do I do afterward? Cry buckets.

Why, you ask? Well, see. There’s a crazy grief that comes with moving to a different country that sometimes manifests itself in unexpected ways. So, here we are.

When I walked outside of the nail salon alone, carrying my tennis shoes and wearing paper-thin flip-flops…when I felt the wet parking lot ground from the day’s rain and realized that I was basically walking barefoot, I momentarily wondered if I should put my shoes back on. Then, I remembered that I had already walked through dirtier water and survived. So, I shrugged it off and kept on walking.

But to go to South Asia, I need a GREAT faith. And not just to go to South Asia, but to BELIEVE and continue believing that God is not only capable of, but will accomplish great things. To believe that God is going to provide what we need financially and that His timing is perfect. To believe that He will provide a way for us to sell our house in an impossible real estate market, to believe that he will make Himself known to South Asians, to believe that He will take care of our parents while we’re away, to believe that He will keep us in Him, to continue to believe that it is He who has led us on this path and it will be He who provides for it.

I’m reading biographies about men and women who lived for decades in cultures that were not their own. People who remain joyful in the midst of hardship, and people who press into God more fully whenever they are tempted to doubt Him. And, these people prayed. I’m inspired to pursue God more deeply and more passionately, to long for and pray for a great faith.

I am also reminded of a friend-of-a-friend. We’ll call her Sara. Sara will pray about ANYTHING. And she is so known for her “ability” in prayer that people will ask her specifically to pray for things…a car that is needed for immigrants who live in poverty, financial provision for business or family that is struggling, the weather, the health of a dying person. People ask her to pray for things that seem impossible. Now, I must admit that I can be somewhat cynical about Sara’s prayers. She doesn’t go to the same kind of church that I do, which means she doesn’t speak quite the same religious jargon that I do. And it feels a little bit non-Protestant to put too much emphasis on someone else’s prayers for me.

But, I’ve realized that they ask her to pray NOT because she has a direct line to God (we ALL have a direct line to God through our redemption in Christ). They ask her to pray because she has a great faith.

Pray believing. God has ordained prayer as a means to accomplish His will. Nothing is impossible for God.

And, of course the desire for a great faith leads me to Hebrews 11. (And please do not hear that I aspire to be included in this list of faithful people here. The canon is closed, people. But I can be encouraged by them to pray for my own weak faith to be strengthened.) I read this again–a somewhat familiar passage–and I am led to pray for great faith. A great faith is not going to come from within me. It’s just not. But it does come from a great God.

And all of this, pushes me closer to South Asia in my heart and mind. It brings tears to my eyes as I think of the reunion that we will one day know in Christ and of the people of South Asia who need to understand the truth of the gospel. It makes the logistics that have been overwhelming me fade to the sidelines and forces the faces of people to my mind. And I think, “Yes, Lord!  Help me remember the people!”

A few months ago, I would have said returning home makes me feel “relaxed, ready to veg out, refreshed, always glad to be there.” Now, the answer’s not so simple. I am asking the question, am I even home? Where is home? If it’s where I grew up, then, that’s in Alabama. That doesn’t really feel like home anymore. It feels like a place I used to live, remember fondly and enjoy visiting mainly for the people.

If home is my house, can it really be home if I’m selling my furniture and packing things away in boxes? My once-cozy solace is upside down with boxes, moving and disappearing furniture, a stack of blankets that I’m not sure what to do with, and empty spaces.

If it’s where Harry is, I don’t really feel like we get much time together these days. We’re both working on our own details most of the time right now out of necessity. It’s just a season to pass through for a greater end, but it isn’t an easy one.

But, if home is where God has called me to be, then I guess I’m there. Preparing to sell the only house the married me has known and some furniture and other things–just stuff, but symbolic of a huge life change. Moving toward our South Asian calling in the only way we know how, trusting God to provide the details, finances, and emotional stability to live life abundantly along the way.  And we’re thankful for the opportunity to remember to long for a home that we don’t know yet, something we don’t quickly remember when we’re comfortable and settled.

1. Drink tap water. (OK, this one I really didn’t do–at least knowingly!)

2. Eat street food. (Does a root seasoned with lemon and sugar count?)

3. Use a squatty potty.

4. Use a public restroom that’s soaking wet in ever corner and crevice.

5. Eat at a restaurant that cuts onions on the ground floor of the parking garage.

6. Eat food in someone’s home…food that could have been prepared using the water that I’m not supposed to drink with hands that may or may not have been washed when all of the news headlines are about Swine flu.

7. Consider moving to a city with significantly worse pollution than my current city and no air conditioning.

8. Climb into an open-air vehicle to drive across town, in the midst of congested streets and highways, stopping less than 6 inches from other vehicles, with buskers and trinket salesmen squeezing between at every stoplight.

9. Eat really spicy food and enjoy it.

10. Take my shoes off and walk around a temple barefoot.

11. Take my shoes off at a temple and walk around barefoot in ankle-deep water while being pressed against hundreds of people desperate to spend three seconds in front of a statue.

And then you meet real people. Not just South Asians or stereotypes or faces in photos. REAL people who want to shake your hands and welcome you into a culture that is not your own. REAL people who need Jesus. And you decide that sometimes understanding a culture enough to encourage someone in the gospel is a lot more important than your own comfort sometimes.

We played the national passtime “chicken” with our car for about 4 hours to get there on roads–some dirt, some paved, some barely long enough for two vehicles–in a land without rest areas. A car would honk and refuse to move. A bus would be in the wrong lane or trying to pass another bus on a bridge big enough for one a half cars. But we made it.

We helped celebrate the opening of a sewing center for the women to use for sewing and incidentally for the sharing of the gospel. These people really know how to welcome someone. We were greeted as we stepped out of our cars with a crowd of people happy to see us. A brightly-colored tent was set up and it seemed like everyone had a smile and handshake for us. If that wasn’t enough, we were asked to sit on stage as guests of honor in chairs while everyone else sat on the floor. And if THAT wasn’t enough, we were given flower necklaces to put around our necks that reached to our thighs and shawls to wrap around us. It was humbling and even a little uncomfortable to be treated like this. Why us?

After the sewing center ceremony, we went to another village to lead a program that included skits, songs and speaking–all flavored with the gospel. It was dark; people were sitting on the ground; the speakers were hand-made; and we had to use interpreters. But looking at the faces of these people, you would have see nothing but happiness. At the end, we offered to pray for the people in a village that has a history of violence to Christians. Many came forward for prayers that they could not understand from people they did not know. But God knows.

On Sunday morning, we did a program for about 600 kids. It was amazing to see their faces light up as we sang, performed skits and shared the gospel through an interpreter. I offered smiles to the girls, praying that God would provide for them in a culture that doesn’t cherish girls and sometimes disposes of them. We did the hokey pokey. And at the end, they danced to traditional music and invited us to join them, as if to say, “We’ll show you the hokey pokey!”

I wish I could tell you the names of these villages or the people in them, but know that God has know them from the beginning. Please take a moment and pray that He will reveal Himself as the One, True God to these people who worship many gods and whose eyes have been blinded to the truth.

Two buses trying to get across a bridge that's too small!

The sewing center building, filled with people to celebrate its opening.

Harry and I being showered with flowers and shawls.

Harry talking and praying with some guys in one of the villages.

Harry being arrested (by a former police officer) in one of the skits.

One of our team members leading worship to the crowd of children.

We celebrated the opening of a sewing center in one of the villages nearby this weekend. So, for the occasion, we turned it up a notch and the women wore saris. I actually had to be assisted to get dressed and the blouse-piece was tailored just for me. It made me feel like I was getting married again or something. And, I actually felt quite pretty when all was said and done.

And the fun begins!

The kind lady assisting me and my friend Carole was the receptionist at the hotel. It seemed effortless to her, but I was amazed!

All those yards of fabric somehow become a dress!

The finished product

Pre-coffee Harry and I waiting for our breakfast.

It just so happens that it was Independence Day when we were there. So, at breakfast we were given the flags to wear.

Masala dosas and cucumber chutney are way out of my comfort zone. (Masala Dosas are yummy, by the way. Thanks for the tip, Rays!) But so is traveling to South Asia for two weeks. And walking around a Hindu temple without my shoes on. And wearing some traditional clothing of a country foreign to me.

I am in a country where the recurring question in my mind is, do I do this because I’m a Christian or because I’m Western or American? Do I judge this behavior that I observe because it’s wrong or because I’m just not used to seeing it? I think it’s an important question to ask because it isn’t my job to make anyone Western. I can’t even make anyone a Christian. Is it wrong for me to pay for something that supports a religion that I believe to be false when it may help me understand the culture a little more? Is it wrong for someone to urinate publicly on the sidewalk, or as the general public here believes, is it wrong for me to watch someone urinate on the sidewalk?  What things are necessary for safety and health and what things are just conveniences? It’s a question I might not have asked if I hadn’t come here.

We got to go to a local church this morning and it was really great. What an encouragement to the soul to worship with believers from another culture who sincerely love the Lord and share your desire to make Him known! We met believers from Cambridge, Chile, South Asia, and Africa. I kept thinking, “every tribe and tongue!” How beautiful!

Harry updated www.soulinprocess.com today, too.