The weekend and reflections on transition

I can’t believe the weekend is almost over already! On Friday night, some ladies from church came over for a girls’ night. Everybody brought something and we had a potluck dinner. Then they gave me some decorating ideas for the house – how to rearrange some furniture, where to put some pictures, what colors to paint the walls. We had a really good time. Now that a few more people have been here, I think we can make it a more regular event. I was going to post a picture, but they didn’t come out at all – someone looks really bad in every one.

Today after church, we went to pick up a porch swing that we bought off Craig’s list. I am SO excited. I’ve been wanting a porch swing, but had no idea where on earth you get one. Well, it occurred to me yesterday to try Craig’s List, and there happened to be a hanging cedar porch swing that someone needed to get rid of this weekend! And for WAY less than buying one from a store (I also found out from google yesterday that you can buy them at big box stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot as well as order them from websites that are entirely devoted to porch swings. Who knew!?)


(photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/billchitz/1944442892/)

I think we’re getting into the swing of Dave working night shift. I’ve reordered my schedule a little bit so that I’m able to spend some time with him in the hour or two a day that he’s home and awake. It’s also made it easier to work on my thesis in the evening, after he leaves. We’ve started eating dinner at 5:30 so we can eat together. I still don’t like going to bed by myself, but I’m getting over the laying in bed hearing EVERY, SINGLE noise inside and outside the house. I trust God to take care of me and I know that nothing will ever happen to me outside of his power and control. He was working this weekend, but he has the rest of the weekends off in November – hurray!!! Then he works pretty much every day in December until Christmas, but we’ll take what we’ve got while we’ve got it, right? ☺

My thesis is almost done. I have a bit more of the draft chapters to rework and get to my advisor, then some serious editing and preparing my presentation. It will be SO good to have it all done. Then it will be time to try to find a way to go back to Kenya to do some follow-up work in the community, which is where I hope the real impact will be. In the last few days, I’ve actually enjoyed the process of reading, thinking and writing again, and I realize that I will miss being a student and engaging intellectually in an academic environment. But there are still lots of things to read about urban ministry/community development, and there are several people here with whom I know I can have in depth discussions about the work we do. It will be an interesting transition. I’m certainly ready for the thesis to be done, but I’m not sure that I’m ready to not be a student and have to figure out who I am again. I also unsure what my involvement will be with Africa once I’m done with my master’s program. I know that I’ll always be involved in my community in Kenya, but I’m not sure what that will look like in the near future. So, I will finish my master’s program (It’s about time, actually, after three and a half years!) and will be open to everything that God has next for me. I’ve never been good with transition and change, but I’m learning to give thanks for each season and I’m trying to learn to look ahead toward the next as an exciting adventure.