In less than 2 and a half hours, we head to the airport and out of the country. After almost 2 weeks of being stretched and pulled and twisted and challenged and confronted and loved, our time is up here. But Tim, the missionary here, explained it differently. Our time isn't "up" but rather just a continuation. We have to look at missions trips as an episode of the movie of life and not just an event. And as we head home, he explained that there are 4 responses, each taking a different amount of time for each person.
1. Fun- You get back into normal life, getting to do things and eat food and live life in the ways that you missed.
2. Flee- Africa is missed and you try to get away from normal life. Sinking back to look at pictures and talk with the team a lot, we try to relive Africa.
3. Fight- This is where you actually get mad that you're not in Africa, angry that people aren't as friendly, upset that life isn't the same.
4. Not really named, this response is twofold. Either you take what you learned and put it away in your closet, forgetting all that God has told you, or you take it and incorporate it into life because life is going to keep going on, it's not going to stop.
That's what we're dealing with as we leave... I'm realizing now that I didn't write of the activities that we've done.
Wednesday- Drove to NYC and flew to Morocco
Thursday- Flew from Morocco to Gabon
Friday->Tuesday- Drove to Ndjole (4 hour drive, extremely bumpy) to work on digging, plumbing, and tiling with Pastor Phillipe; saw a baptism; got to know some of the locals; eating cultural food; a handful of people got sick
Wednesday- Went to Hope House to play with orphans
Thursday- Market; beach
Friday- Medical clinic; watched our translator son play soccer (he's the captain of a professional team...but this was just a summer league game)
Saturday- ACAC team split to go to the medical clinic and a work site; I went to work; demo on a roof and then re-roofed it with tin sheets
Sunday- Church (AMAZING!!!); lunch with the Straws; beach; pack; eat; leave...
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