the world missions summit booth at general council is going great. it's been more than wonderful to be with vic and kathy... vic scored a couple great rooms on priceline at the hyatt place indianapolis. the only thing that can make this room better is a view of the mediterranean or the alps. it's also been fun to reconnect with my chialphastan team and other friends. katrina just got here and is going to stay with me a few days. she brought cheese-its. i just have to say that God is good - there are some logististical things about coming back home that i didn't know how to figure out, and as i've been resting this last week, God has brought everything in order pretty fast. I'm feeling very content hopeful.
i arrived yesterday afternoon. my dad picked me up in san francisco, and we stopped at sayida's brother's house in SF to give him some books from sayida. it was very cool to meet him. (sayida was our house helper in bishkek.)
reverse culture shock - a thing i've heard of but don't know yet... though, i'm awestruck about: - the friendliness and efficiency of the customer service to set up high speed on my laptop - the basketball sized onions at safeway. not to mention the huge apples, peaches, etc. - huge tv's - the toilet paper is huge and soft. it's like a roll of blankets. - my cat, Kevin, is humongous. he is tall and has a big head.
London was fun - there were 8 of us: Beth, Katrina, Chelle, Stacy, Kelli, Lizzy, Todd, and myself. We walked around the city and enjoyed excellent coffee.
I think that I'm doing good on jet lag - my sleep schedule was adjusted to California on the first night. It was so very incredibly hard to leave Bishkek (I still can't really believe it) but it feels good to be home. I talked with Jayme today and that was a nice reconnect.
today has been full of goodbyes, last minute packing and hanging out. when i was getting ready to come here, i was so excited about new adventures, about unexpected experiences, and about what the Lord would do here -- I never anticipated how hard it would be to leave.
chialphastan has been debriefing the past two days, and we finish tomorrow. we made a list of all the people we as a team have ministered to in one way or another... we came to 850 - not including the Christmas concerts (which would add about another 1000 - maybe a few more). That includes - One More Friend (U ministry), Orphanages, Hope Academy (MK/International School), MK retreat in Turkey, friends from around Bishkek ... wow what a year.
It has come up a few times in debrief that some wish it would have been two years.
The strangest thing will be when Chialphstan begins to leave on Thursday - we have become like family.
We had a great service at church today - Chialphastan & Summerstan led worship (in Russian of course), Scott spoke, and then the pastors and church leadership had our team come up one at a time to pray for and bless us. I will miss this church and the people here so much.
over the next 5 days: - debrief - clean the Bible College - Little League All Star Game at the field - Little League Closing Ceremonies at the College - packing - goodbyes - debrief Summerstan - cleaning the apartment - finish editing songs - burn One More Friend worship cd's - pray over and dedicate the new One More Friend Student Center - more goodbyes - thanking God for the privilege and honor to be here
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