TRANSITIONING THROUGH SEATTLE

It’s been a bit of a whirlwind in the last weeks and months. In preparation for my dream job I spent a few weeks in Vancouver, Canada at a very meaningful orientation with some amazing, like-minded friends from various countries. Following that time of focused preparation and encouragement, I flew back to the Philippines where I finished up the last weeks of my Community Development program. I’ll miss the rich learning community that became like family, but I eagerly look forward to putting these theories into action, and I’m bracing myself for the harsh realities of poverty and development that I’ve only tasted thus far. I’ve yet to take a big bite that may be bitter and cause me to choke. I’ve been learning about the successes and failures of others, but there are no more ways to move forward other than to just jump into it and learn from my own mistakes as well and ‘fail forward,’ as Robert Chambers describes it (Whose Reality Counts? Putting the first last). My life will be an ongoing process of learning that will never stop or become neat and linear as would be desired. This is reality.

I finished my final papers in time to meet part of my future team in K-town. The two weeks in the city were a great time of connecting with teammates, visiting different friends and organizations, and enjoying the wonderful hospitality of some friends who opened their small home to us. It was a trip of confirmation and inspiration. But it also reminded us of the realities we were committing to and the humble attitude we’d have to take on as learners and newbies. We’ll be like little toddlers learning to talk and survive in our full-grown, awkward, foreign bodies. My teammate and I both expressed that, “we can’t wait to come back for the long run where we can commit our lives fully to one group of people in one place.” We’ve both been on journeys toward this commitment and we’re excited about settling down in K-town till God tells us otherwise. It’s great to feel peace from God about going to a specific place where God has called me to a specific purpose and way of life. Maybe this is what true security is – being right where God calls me.

At the moment I’m in Seattle where I spent a long overdue thanksgiving with my relatives and brother. I’m also sharing with several small gatherings of people in the area as part of my necessary preparation for K-town. My hope is to invite a few hundred people to pray for me regularly while I’m in K-town, because it’ll certainly be tougher than my young, naive, idealistic, adventurous mind expects. But with God directing and sustaining me, and with the prayer and support of many friends, even if sickness or depression awaits me, it’ll be a beautiful act of surrender and dependence on God. I’m confident that as my supporters and I take this mission seriously, God will continue to burden our hearts for the poor and that he'll also heal the brokenness and poverty inside each one of us. We’re all broken people, and we’re simply sharing the words and actions of our Physician with others who are also looking for hope and healing. Thanks be to God for his grace, redemption, healing, and hope.