Putting back on my GoGo Boots...

After some much needed time away, I am feeling refreshed! I needed a safe place to go clear my head of the past couple weeks and find the comfort and support of trusted friends to share with and journey onward alongside. God works in such beautiful ways. I think of my friends, the DiCocco's and how God has allowed us the past four years to journey together as we have both entertained the calling and God wooing our hearts to Afria. Getting to this point has been nothing short of it's ups and downs, but here we all are. God has brought us out here almost simultaneously, and although we have landed in different places and are serving alongside different organizations, we serve this larger place--South Africa--and its people together. So I spilled the beans and poured out everything that was in my heart. The good, the not so pretty things that happened, my sensitive emotional status, my personal struggles, and the questions of "where do I go from here?" And they listened, and encouraged, and walked with me as we have been doing this past four years.

Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. There is nothing that compares to community, when you truly find it.

So now I am recharged for this last leg of my short stint here. I am beginning to grow a little sorrowful that my time (for now) out here is almost over. I am ready to head back home but sad to leave this land too.

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Today I got to spend time back in one of the communities with the tiny little Xhosa children. Ooh...there is nothing like a whole bunch of tiny wee ones delightfully gazing at you and grabbing onto your arms and legs saying a whole bunch of words in a language you don't understand. They were particularly curious of one part of me...

When I was 10 years old, I developed this odd capillary that began growing out of my skin. The doctor said that rather than growing underneath the surface of my skin it wanted to grow outward. I went through one laser removal process when I was 15 and it didn't work. At the time, I thought it was quite painful so I opted out of treatment number 2.

It is a peculiar sight and although I often wish it wasn't there, it is part of me that I have chosen to accept...:)

I now see exactly why God put it there on my neck.

Never have I seen children so delighted to look, touch, and gaze at my tiny red capillary in amazement, asking what it is and staring with fixed curiousity. Their delightfulness has also brought me many smiles and I realize I'm glad I kept my tiny little red bump.