Heading "Home"

 Sierra and I rarely disagree.  However, on our first trip to Ethiopia together in 2013, we had a spat.  She was 13.  We had just arrived in country, and she had declared that she was NOT going home.  She said, "There is work to be done here.  I am not going home.  This is where I belong."

At first I tried to be sensitive and reason with her, but she refused to listen to reason.  She "was staying!"  Before long, I snapped at her that, "She was most certainly NOT staying.  She was 13, and since we had a family at home, HOME is where she would return in just a few days."  (That was definitely not the best parenting technique.  But hey! We were both overly emotional, jet lagged, and processing a HUGE day of ministry. Neither of us were at our best.)

She stomped off to the room she was sharing with my mom, feeling angry and misunderstood.

Though she was only 13, I DO believe she was seeing into her own future.  She knew, even then, that God had forever broken her heart.  She knew He wanted her to serve.  She felt His call so heavily.

I get it.  I believe it.  I totally support it.

BUT it was not her time yet.

Heading back to Ethiopia three years later, Sierra is equally passionate.  And also more mature.

She feels His call so intensely.  She has her future planned.  She knows which classes she will take from now until graduation.  Her focus is medical.  She is going full steam ahead.  After high school she plans to get a degree in medicine of some sort.  And as soon as the Lord opens a door, she will take that degree and serve in a developing country.  Between now and then, she is hungry for experience.  She is watching for opportunities to go and serve.

Three years later, she understands so much more.  She is so much more ready, and yet, she has a long wait ahead of her.  She knows that.  She knows that she may be called to serve in a developing country when she is very young.  She also knows that He may ask her to wait much, much longer.  She is eager.  She is also open.

Sierra is not afraid of the call.  She is afraid of the wait.

She is afraid of the returning.  Heading to high school with a heart for Jesus is hard.  Heading to high school with a heart broken for the poorest of the poor is almost unheard of.  It is lonely.  When you are brimming with stories and mission and no one really feels it, your heart aches in a deep and profound way.

So - in addition to praying for her while she prepares for this trip and enjoys this trip - what my precious Berra-girl would ask is that you pray for her returning.  That the Lord would be with her in the wait.  That He would send encouragement, friends, mentors, and dish out a measure of hope and patience that only He is capable of sending.

When I rediscovered this photo yesterday, the first words that came into my heart were "the cross before me, the world behind me."  Once you have experienced the "real world" there is no turning back.  I am so thankful that all of my family has been forever changed by Ethiopia, or more precisely by God, in beautiful ways.  Though we may not all be called to live and serve there the lessons learned will make/have made us better people.  You can take us out of Ethiopia - but you can not take Ethiopia out of us.

In just seven days, we are going "home!"