Last week. That is hard to believe. Last Sunday Services (✓). Last nursing services (✓). Last time volunteering in the senior citizen centre (✓). Last Bible studies (today- Thursday). Last night (Friday). Last day (Saturday.) I time of goodbyes, taking pictures, hugging and crying begins! And also packing! In my case packing and unpacking and packing again and repacking. Don´t worry, I´ll just keep doing this until Saturday morning.
Three months passed, full of different experiences, lots of travelling, meeting new people. Sometimes it was overwhelming and tiring, but mostly I loved doing that. And even though I am excited to come home, see my husband, go back to school and study, absorb new information (since I haven´t had as much time for that here). But I am also sad to leave. Leaving so many people that I came to care for. It is different for me back home, I don´t spend as much time in a church congregation as I did here, and I really enjoyed that! This congregation has been like my family for this time.
I really hope, that this congregation will grow in faith and love and will hold on to hope even during the hard times. That they will listen to God´s word, they will love God and one another, and they will do, what they hear or learn. That their faith will never become just a theory.
As my last post, I wanted to share one last thing. When I started packing for this internship, I stood between lots of choices, which I don´t particularly like. How much T-shirts do I really need? Do I need a jacket? Which shoes should I pack, isn´t five little too much? So you pack the essentials, the things you need. But then, what about the things you want- your favorite tea, some soups that will make you think of home (I mean, make no mistake, I am student, instant tomato soup is my regular dinner). Do I want to take a few printed pictures? What do I take to make my stay there feel … like home? What do I take to have some continuity between my life in Slovakia and my life here? What will remind me of the things I love and miss, and things I am going back to?
Today I realized one more thing that for me represents this continuity. One more thing- rather person, who ensures that in the foreign world I don´t feel alone. Christ.
Christ with me,
Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit, Christ when I stand,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
(this Irish prayer sang by Celtic women became my summer hymn).
It was Christ who was with me all the way. Who shared my summer with me, just as he did in Slovakia. It was God who was always there. And I know he´ll be there even when I´ll get back home. And that´s the best continuity I could get. He makes me feel home wherever I would be.
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