Prayer For The Return

   As soon as I arrived at Smile Africa in the morning, I went straight to the babies room. I saw Caleb and I hugged him and kept him with me pretty much the whole day. I loved being with him. That little boy makes me so happy. When Bogere saw me, he came running to me! I hugged him as well and then unlocked his bike for him. I lock it up at night so that no one can steal it from him. That would be terrible. I gave him his bike and then off he went! He was riding that bike all over Smile Africa. The other children had never seen a bike that small, so they followed him everywhere. It was the funniest thing. Wherever Bogere went, there was a crowd of children following him. It was the cutest thing.

   During the middle of the day an architect and an engineer came to Smile Africa. They were helping us figure out the exact plot of land that we are going to use for the baby home. It was really great to have them there. We worked for hours trying to figure everything out. After much collaboration, we finally drew up the baby home. It's going to look so good.

   After the day was over, I went to Pastor Ruth's house for dinner. It was fun to be back at her house. I missed the whole family very much. Although it was really great to be with everyone, it got really quiet at the dinner table. It dawned on everyone that I was leaving in a week. It's going to be hard to say good bye. Then Pastor Ruth said something that stuck with me. She said,

"Paris, please remind everyone to pray for you as you return home. People will pray for the missionary when they go to a different country, but they make the assumption that it will be easy to go back home."

Then I said, "What do you mean?"

She said, "Going home is going to be really hard for you. You have been here for a long time. The way you think and act is going to be different. You are going to be going through a lot and people are going to expect you to just jump back in routine. Your everyday life is different. You're going to be thinking about babies and diapers and raising money for a baby home and your friends will be thinking about needing new clothes and if their coffee is just right. It's going to be hard to connect right away. Although people will try and understand, no one is really going to know what you went through. So people need to pray harder for your return than they did your departure, so you can reconnect back in your culture."

   I never thought about it like that, but she is right. So please pray for my return everyone. I am going need it! Anyway, it was really great day!

"Thank you Jesus for this amazing day! Thank you for loving me and for loving Bogere! I pray that you help us with our baby home! Please God, help us get the money that we need and help the building process go smoothly. I love you. Amen."