Why are we here?

So now it's my turn to contribute a blog entry. There are at least a hundred things we've experienced in the last few weeks that could serve as material, but I think I'd like to start with trying to answer the question, "Why are we here?"

It's funny, because all through the stress of getting here, Jeff and I kept prepping ourselves for that question. We knew we'd face it in the moments Manila didn't feel like home. We had a variety of different answers stored up:

...to learn and experience another culture together for a whole year (in case you never received the memo, we want to do missions).
...to take classes in a non-western context.
...to have our first experience abroad be one in which we listen and learn rather than lead or direct (I personally like that one a lot. Oliver, don't you think that raises our Cultural Intelligence?).

But I've got to tell you... ever since we got here, my mission has been of one driving, single-minded purpose: ...to get acclimated.

Adjustment is the name of the game. I keep telling Jeff it will be better when we start to feel comfortable in our own room, for starters. and so we've been to the nearby shopping mall almost everyday buying cleaning supplies, a mirror, hangers, linens, kitchen stuff, you name it... And we've scrubbed and swept, arranged furniture, unpacked. I set my darling Richard on the end table to welcome visitors. Sure enough, in spite of heat and the critters and the one million unknowns, it is starting to look and feel somewhat like home.


So I was a little flustered the other day as I was preparing for a Bible placement exam I probably didn't really have to take. The study guide recommended re-familiarizing myself with the Hebrews 11 Super-Bible-Star FAITH CHAPTER (I hope you read those last two words with reverb because that's how I wrote them). Don't get me wrong, this is an undoubtedly wonderful chapter, but please, if you will, re-live the gut-punch with me.

"By faith Abraham... made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a a foreign country; he lived in tents... For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God... [Abraham and others] admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead they were longing for a better country -a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them."

Did you feel the collapsing of my all-consuming goal to "feel at home"? I wasn't so surprised after thinking about it a little more. Since when has getting comfortable ever been on the same plane with seeking the Kingdom of God? Well, it may be Christianity 101, but it is not easy. Here's to a new goal that requires a lifetime of "living by faith." Lord help me.

Katie