Packing Up and Memories

The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too.

Saint Teresa of Avila

In 2004, after eagerly anticipating a new accommodation at Highfield Oval, I moved into my wonderful home in Building 7. Little would I have imagined how many friends would enter the doors of that house from so many different nations over the last 9 years. And now it is time to move on to a new home down the road.

Tomorrow a few friends and myself will load up my furniture and a huge chapter in my life will be transitioning to start a new chapter in Luton. The house is being worked on so we aren’t quite ready to move in, but tomorrow is a big step of closing out my home at the Oval.

As I have been anticipating this next season, I have been reminiscing about all the special times, I have had at Highfield Oval. I first visited the Oval in 1994 to attend a UofN event where I first heard Lynn talk about his plans for the RW and where I went and talked to him about what I had been doing with my DTS from Lausanne, Switzerland. I eagerly told him that I wanted to be involved and the rest is now history. My next visits to the Oval would come as we began to plan the RW and then during the RW, as I flew in to meet with Lynn and the team. The beauty of the Oval and the surrounding countryside would bring rest to a weary soul each time I came. I would walk along Cooter’s Lane just enjoying the quiet and the beauty of the rolling hills (and maybe eating wild blackberries) as I prepared to return to the Middle East and that wonderful world of diversity. But in those years, I never anticipated living in this beautiful spot, but God had other plans.

So when I first moved to the Oval in 2003, I thought I would return to Beirut in a year or two, and instead the Oval has been my home for the last 9 ½ years. I’ve lived in Building 7 and so enjoyed it with all the changeable conditions of a transient community. In my first year at the Oval, my niece Meghan and her brother Adam both worked at the Oval, and I had such an incredible time being able to have part of my family close at hand. And then a couple years later, Meghan and Victor were married at the Oval since our whole family had fallen in love with England.

 I’ve seen old friends leave and new ones arrive, and so there are so many stories to cherish. I can’t help but remember all the late night discussions of students’ dreams and outreach plans, theology, politics, future dreams, prayers for seeing the world impacted by God’s love, the planning of new schools and new adventures, the drumming, dancing and singing praising God (my neighbors heard this too)….and the eating of a lot of meals around a table that can hold a few or many.

In this room, I heard God urge me to volunteer to lead the first DTS on the Next Wave, to join with Peter Adams on a journey to China, to continue to build the School of Reconciliation and Justice and to believe God for all He wanted to accomplish at the Oval. It has been a rich time and so all those memories are going with me to a new neighborhood and a new chapter of this wonderful journey with God. Life has not been dull as we all sought to understand our part of building God’s kingdom. I am grateful for all who have so enriched my life and helped teach me in so many ways what it means to be a part of the family of God.

Here are a few snapshots of life over the last few years...randomly chosen and arranged!!! Enjoy the journey of life..even the bumps have so much to teach us! Thank you all for helping me move along through life!