Worlds Apart?

Africa.

How do you reconcile two places that are on opposite ends of the world? How do you hold on to memories without forgetting? How do you let Africa impact your life when you're living in Canada?

We've been home for almost two weeks now and are already finding ourselves back into the "normal routines" of home life; routines we haven't had for 4 months. There are groceries to buy, repairs to do on the house, work to start again...and it's amazing how easy it is to slip back into these routines. It's easy to forget the places where there are only markets to buy food, or gardens to grow it; where repairs on houses means putting more straw on the top of your roof to stop the leak in your mud house; or where you're lucky if you have a job to do that will help you to provide for yourself or your family.

The lessons we have learned in Africa are lessons I think we will continue to learn throughout our lives. Although the fear is forgetting, Africa has made an impression on us that will be lasting, it has changed us. In many ways it will be impossible to forget.

We have seen the smiles of joy from children living in slums. We have seen the broken lives of orphans in Burundi. We have seen poverty, riches, and corruption. We have seen evil manifested in the demon possessed, in alcohol, in anger, and in poverty. We have seen many helping hands and kind hearts. We have seen spiritual revival in Uganda and Zambia. We have seen darkness and hardness in Mauritania. We have seen desert, and streams; hope and despair; poverty and riches; christian and muslim; black and white. We have seen people fighting for survival, for hope, for love, for a future.

Are we really so different here in North America? In some ways we are worlds apart and in other ways we are much the same. We are on different continents, but the same earth, we have different resources, but the same needs. The same sun rises and falls here as in Africa, the same rains come from the same clouds. The same God created us as them. The same Saviour came to save.

Africa, we won't forget you.

Home at last!

our last meal in africa...we didn't know what the "house special burger" was going to be.

He're I am, sitting in my living room, on a laptop with a fast internet connection. In fact, in the time it took me to write the second sentance that stupid picture of me loaded. Already it's apparent that we live in a very different world.

I'm not planning to write much right now, we're still strying to catch our breath a bit. But we just wanted to let you all know that we made it home safely. Everything went well, other than a 2.5 hr delay at Ohare, but I guess that's what you get the day after 500 flights are cancelled. Luckily we didn't fly home one day sooner.

We'll make sure we give some sort of reflection on here, so watch for that. It's sad that B&E's African Adeventures have come to an end...but we plan to have plenty of "real life" adventures on tap.

Talk to you all soon.

Homeward Bound!

Wow....I think that's all I can say. It's so hard to believe that our trip is over. After today we'll be back in the Northern Hemisphere; away from everything Africa. Am I excited to come home? Yes. Is Brian excited to come home? Yes!!!!!

Although I'm excited, I have to admit, now that the realities of leaving are sinking in, I'm quite a bit disappointed. I think Africa has really become a part of us over the last 4 months. This trip has changed us. I'm just a bit scared that by leaving here we will be leaving those "changes" behind. Africa and North America are 2 really different worlds. I think it's going to be interesting in our next few weeks, bringing those worlds together. We've got a lot of processing to do.

Anyway, we're really excited to see you all when we come home!

Wow!