Why are you late to campus? What have you been doing over the past year? What are you doing now? These questions are the ones that I have been answering over the last week. Naturally, a new setting with new people invokes the exhausting but good work of getting to know the neighbors... Truth is, I have found that these questions expose the more important bits my narrative has to tell - this last years bloopers and blessings (perhaps the bloopers are themselves blessings, too)
Almost a year ago, I ventured off to the States leaving behind a place that had become my home with its various connections and loves. The following months proved to be hard and good ones. Death visited my Aunt Jean and then Aunt Erma. Then in late November the Hague family went about celebrating my brothers marriage. So miles put between Israel and myself drove me up to Grand Rapids, Michigan then out to Des Moines, Iowa. A little after thanksgiving I circled out even further to see what kind of jobs were available in my field. I flew out to North Carolina drove to South Carolina then to Georgia visiting friends, colleagues, churches and schools. Flying from Atlanta to Seattle, I did more of the same in Washington and BC, Canada.
I found graces upon graces, mercies upon mercies. I found that even the shortest previous interactions could lead to deep-rooted and meaningful relationships. Finally, I found work. I took up wings and flew out to Australia. I didn't expect a Jerusalem University College experience would land me a construction job but it did. One that then provided an opportunity to teach. A provision I also did not expect. With these very lovely folks, I began to find my voice. I began to see how much I loved to teach and what the teachings could mean to people. A three month period may only allow you to scratch the surface with folks but God can use the smallest of seeds to topple the largest of mountains.
From Australia to New Zealand for holiday and reprieve, I went. A while before I had decided to come home, I had begun looking for what might be next. Coming home, it became more obvious that I should return to Israel and take up the task of finishing a thesis that I had seriously thought about letting go. Its not a document that I need for the degree though it is a document that would put me in better stead for more serious work in the discipline.
So April, I returned home and began searching again for work and the ability to finance a return to Israel. I again landed in Grand Rapids, not least after having visited a number of lovely friends in Chicago, Upland, Greenville, Lowell, Nashville, Little Rock, Buies Creek, Scioto Hills, Akron, Oberlin and Tank Lake. After one last trip from Grand Rapids to West Virginia and I began taking on as many hours as I could manage to fit the flight bill. God be praised. He provides and I have made it back. The journey has so many meaningful happenings and Providences. I have found that, God as my witness, the most devastating of losses can lead to the most life-giving gains. "The greater the struggle, the more glorious the triumph."
