My friend is moving away

I have a dear friend who is moving away to India with her husband and 6 children. They live fairly close to us and are also homeschooling. My children have become friends with their youngest and love to play together. As we don’t have family in this country I feel like they have become cousins.

I am so excited for them as they go to India because it’s something that’s been on their hearts for years and I know that it’s going to be amazing as they go and live the lives God has for them, but at the same time I’m feeling so sad. They have been such good friends to us. So kind and generous and have helped us with our marriage and parenting and I feel kind of mad at God for taking them away. I want to be selfish and have a nice cosy life with my friends around the corner!

I know our kids are going to miss them so much too, and I’m already anticipating a big hole in our lives. I hope they can understand the bigger picture when it’s time to say goodbye and that knowing why they are leaving will help them adjust.

It is such a mixture of emotion because ever since my teens I kind of knew this kind of thing would happen. I have always felt passionate about the nations in the sense that I believe the Gospel is for every nation and over the past 15 years or more I have felt a growing compassion for the poor in other nations and also a dissatisfaction with first world suburbia. I remember growing up that I freaked out at the thought of settling down close to the family home and just having a house and a couple of kids. D and I started our own marriage and family by moving far away from both our families. (Not for the purpose of moving away from our families, which has been incredibly painful and hard, but because there was more for us in this big wide world than our local towns)  I knew that if I let this grow in my heart it would mean painful goodbyes and also, it has become natural that my closest friends also have a heart to go someday.

But it still sucks.

They are listing their home for sale today in anticipation of the big move and it’s really hitting home the reality that they are actually going. If I’m feeling emotional about it I daresay they feel like their hearts are tearing in two. I’m not looking forward to the day we do the same but at the same time part of me cannot wait! What a crazy conflict.

Secretly (and now in the most public of forums – on the internet hehehe) I hope that we will meet up with them again somewhere, somehow. I feel like it’s been a God given friendship and we are like minded in so many ways. We both have a heart for the motherless children and ….well who knows? I don’t know…I wish I did.

They have an amazing story actually of how it is all falling into place as they get ready to leave. You can read about it all on Jodi’s blog called Yatra to India. I recommend going back to the first posts as she shares how God has clearly spoken over the years. (Not in a ‘voices in my head‘ kinda way so don’t be freaked out.)

The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Ann Schaeffer and Annie Barrows

I recently finished reading this book, after seeing it reviewed online quite a bit. I liked the idea of it being entirely based on letters, and that it was a book lovers book being about a Literary Society. I also liked the title.

The story begins in London after the war and is about an writer, Juliet Ashton who is trying to come up with an idea for her next project. She is short on ideas, but around the same time starts to correspond quite by accident with some residents of the English channel Island of Guernsey. Their correspondence forms the plot of the book, and through it we learn about the little known German occupation of these British territories for 5 years during WW2. We learn about the struggles and horrors of the occupation but also the friendships and endurance of the Islanders during those years.

Eventually Juliet Ashton goes to Guernsey to meet these Islanders whose stories she becomes fascinated with as they are revealed through their letters. Her visit to Guernsey changes her life.

A surprisingly light story given the subject, there is plenty of humour, quirky characters, and even love. I really enjoyed this book.

Bono’s NAACP Speech

Bono’s NAACP* Speech

I saw this video on facebook the other day and I can’t get it out of my mind. I tried to comment on my friends page when I first saw it and typed about 17 responses but I’m always worried about coming across too strong, especially when it comes to things I’m passionate about.

It’s no secret here on my blog that I’m passionate about poverty and us in the west opening our eyes to how the rest of the world lives. I don’t think the comment space was big enough for my response to this video, and so I am going to go on about it here. Aren’t you lucky?

Also, I’m rather tired of not speaking my mind fully and here is a good place to practice. You see at least here this is my blog and I can say what I like!

Here are some of my initial unfiltered responses to this video:

1. I love this man!

2. Oh my gosh, he has a handle on our Christian faith better than most of the church.

3. Oh God help us! Change our hearts.

4. Aren’t you glad the religious church never got hold of this man?

5. This is a prophetic voice to our generation and so central to the Kingdom of  God and we really better not miss it! I get so frustrated with the church’s lack of concern for the poor.

6. I WANNA GO!

7. Let’s not just watch and applaud Bono’s inspirational, emotional, and crowd pleasing speech. I find it hard to understand that a person can be moved with compassion about a person’s suffering but then move on having done nothing about it.  Let’s stop and think (and/or pray) for a few minutes and then DO something about it. Even if it’s a small thing. It’s better than nothing. I wonder how many of those people who gave a standing ovation acutally went off and DID something about extreme poverty, the AIDS crisis in Africa, or helped save a child from dying of malaria? Hopefully many of them.

8. I absolutely love to see people who are themselves and doing what they are created to do.

9. Western Christianity has become far too theoretical and cerebral and far too little practical is done. Where are those who rage against injustice?

10. So what are we gonna DO about it?

*National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.

New Midwife!

I have a lovely new midwife. I met her yesterday and I am so relieved. She is quite happy to take a hands off approach to the birth if all is well. Sigh…an issue resolved. Looking forward to a lovely home birth of this little boy. I feel so lucky.