This is Life

Wow, I haven’t blogged in over 2 weeks, and I wanted to be blogging more, because there’s so much I could share.

Yum!

I could write about the adjustments of getting used to life here, like the constant traffic sounds in my room, lukewarm showers, living at a higher altitude, amazing fruit available all the time, and dressing for the warm, then cool, then cold weather every day.

Or I could write about my experiments with stove-top cooking here (no oven to use), some turning out great and delicious (chicken soup, omelets), some not so great but still edible (as in under cooked rice).

Wall of Prayers

I was planning to write more on what my job is actually like, at least so far, and some of the different things I’ve been doing as part of my orientation here, some trips I’ve gone on, and some things I’ve seen that reminded me of home (a wall of prayers in a church made me think of the prayer tree in our youth room!)

Or sharing a bit about the different churches I’ve been able to visit (so far 3 different ones: a Mennonite church, a Brethren in Christ church, and a Mennonite Brethren church).

It snowed a tiny bit my last morning in Akron

And I wanted to write about orientation in Akron (a lot of fun and learning more about MCC), back in January, and a bit more about why I’m here, why I decided to come and serve in Colombia.

I have lots of thoughts about all of these things. But the thing is, so far I’ve been pretty busy doing them. And there’s more stuff coming up. This weekend I’m joining a learning tour to visit MCC projects in the Chocó region of Colombia (a plane ride and then some away). In 3 weeks I’m going on an MCC retreat on the Atlantic coast. Oh yeah, and I’m also working too ;)

Cazucá, south of Bogotá

And this is life, things happening, making adjustments, looking for God in what’s going on around you. In the past 48 hours, I returned to my comfortable room in Bogota from a neighbourhood outside of Bogota that was full of people and many struggles and challenges. I joined in celebrating with friends who shared the news of a coming child, and in sorrow with another who lost a family member.

This is life, joy and sorrow, abundance and need, and looking for how God is already here.