July feels like a significant month on the calendar, at least for me personally. It's like a vista point, a place to look over the past and see what God has done.
2013 -
The month before I left for Senegal was filled with preparatory shopping, time with cousins, good-byes, sweet times with friends, and more than a little frenzy over the big life-change looming ahead.
I flew out to see Esther for what I thought would be the last time in four years. (As it turned out, I'd be there again only two years later. And just six months after that, I'd be moving there myself. Life is crazy, I tell ya.)
Memories and first impressions of the place I'd one day call home -
Arriving during an enthusiastic thunderstorm
Hundreds of fireflies on the way home from the airport
Crazy high humidity
A trip to a local nursery
Meeting a now-coworker who, upon discovering I'd attended neither of our Bible schools, joked that I'd been "grafted in"
Esther painting a dorm at the school, me sitting on the couch in said dorm because I hadn't brought paint-appropriate clothing on the trip (I still feel lazy at the memory)
Watching Larkrise to Candleford together - and her giving me her set to bring to Senegal
The wonders of ranch seasoning on popcorn
2015 -
I arrived in the U.S. on the 1st, landing in bustling, borderline-abrasive JFK.
I celebrated the 4th with my family and soaked up time with my darling nephew, Kai, who was born the previous year.
On the 14th - a mere two weeks after getting back - I set out on a multi-state trip, driving through California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas with my friend Abigail and another girl. We camped (my first time ever!), saw the Grand Canyon, visited a ghost town, and had several other exceptionally fun experiences. I then flew on to Colorado, Michigan, and Maryland to visit friends and family.
Every place I went on that trip, there were new people to meet, and they all kept asking the same question: "So, what are you going to do now that you're back from Africa?" I didn't have an answer, and the uncertainty of my future overwhelmed and terrified me.
During my time with Esther, I learned two new songs (Grace So Glorious and My Story), songs that became a fitting refrain for that season of my life. I can't hear them without remembering that time and all God's tenderness and grace toward me in it.
2018 -
Esther and I are next-door neighbors (!!!). I still love the fireflies as much as I did on that first visit. We haven't had many storms yet this year, but I'm hopeful we'll get a few. Summer is decidedly my most favorite season here...for so many reasons.
There's a settledness to life right now. A contentedness, a confidence in God. The honeymoon newness of ministry here has worn off and His work in my life seems to be quiet and deep - as if what He's teaching me is still somewhere below the surface, something I know is happening but can't quite articulate, at least not yet. He is working, though, that I know.
Is there something new on the horizon, changes He's been preparing me for? Is this season just about faithfulness in what I've already been given?
I don't know. But He does, and that's enough for me.
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