Familiar To Foreign

As humans, we adapt easily to our surroundings, especially after years of settlement. We become comfortable and uneasily pleased with the idea of anything foreign that steps in our path, at least in American culture. Recently I have been given the opportunity to step outside of the familiar and extend my life experiences halfway across the world, what an interesting adjustment it has been.

This was new to my body, I had never been overseas nor experienced another culture immersively, I went from familiar to foreign within a matter of days and it's not for the faint at heart. I love to travel and see new things but this is different. This is choosing to pick up my life, pack it in a suitcase, and move it into a completely different atmosphere that is filled with foreignly shocking adjustments. 

I think when we are most uncomfortable we are heightened to bigger fears and doubts that seem to cloud our minds, this is the cold hard truth of long-term missions, but God is sovereign over it all. The biggest blessing that has come out of this opportunity is that I've been observing and learning a lot about the life of a refugee. My experiences here are nothing as extreme as what they go through, but the lord has given me eyes to see the pain that can come from leaving your home and trying to make some place foreign your new one.

I am humbled to live in another country because I feel at times useless without the value of communication. I can't communicate the most simple things or understand how to build a solid relationship without the use of a common language. I usually stay quiet and observe the people, how they interact with one another, and how they conduct themselves, it’s different but in every way possible beautiful. 

The Lord has gifted me with a passion and calling for the English language and the cultures that are immersed into it, O how my heart mourns for their unsettlement. Through learning a new language myself and being immersed in a foreign place I'm thankful to understand the pain of going through this process and being given a passion to help shed God’s light amid uncertainty. 

Through trial and tribulation within the weeks, there is a passage that reminds me of the greater reward through the pain. 

“After this, I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.“Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple, and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb amid the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” ~Revelation 7:9-17~

This passage is our reminder that living life missionaly is not easy or even sometimes fun. Like everyone else, we go through the pain of sin and brokenness within ourselves and the world around us. But we are promised an unfathomable joy that is at the end of the road that we get closer to every day. So we must trust our father who takes care of us during these growing periods and learn to understand the world through his eyes, nothing is more rewarding.