So it's a Thursday evening and I find myself sitting alone in my room with a tub of Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Browny ice cream that I bought on sale. Such fare is unusual for someone in YWAM, playfully nicknamed "Youth Without Any Money". With our departure to Nepal and India so quickly approaching, I can't help but feel that I should cherish this moment, for I know that ones like it will be few and far between once I'm on the field.
I've been picking up on these precious instances in time recently. Another one was found just the other day. I was sitting at Kairos, enjoying a strawberry kiwi Italian cream soda for the first time with friends from all around the base. Work duty had been cut short because of a freak power outage and once it had come on again, no one quite knew what to do with themselves, so they congregated there with the evening sun pouring gold from over the mountain tops through the windows. It was the lazy half hour between work duty and supper where no one quite knows what do. Usually we just go to our rooms, but on this rare occasion, we found ourselves, talking, laughing, waiting. I didn't realize how special the moment was until I left to put something in my room and the atmosphere of tranquility seemed to be left behind in the presence of new friends and coffee smells.
These things really make me realize how precious this time I have in DTS is, whether it's alone with God and my Ben and Jerry's or with the unique collection of friends I've made, all bound together by the desire to pursue God. Picking out these margins in time means that I've truly become comfortable where I am physically. So, I think it's just about time for God to shake up that reality and stretch me. I've already been stretched emotionally and spiritually, constantly receiving revelations about myself until new identity is revealed, but now it's time to put that to work.
That isn't to say that I won't find peace in the throng of Katmandu or Dhramsala, it will just be a different kind, a devine peace that passes all understanding. That will be a kind that I remember far more than my time with Ben and Jerry's or Kairos with friends because it will be a time the creator the universe brings me to higher ground, to stare into His face and know that no matter how upside down the culture I am in seems, He will always be the same.
Thanks for reading,
God bless!
Kathleen
