6 months. The mark when the honeymoon phase ends in most relationships and lead either to a break-up or the relationship continues. Much like relationships, moving somewhere different has a honeymoon phase. At first everything seems so exciting and cool. You can’t believe you are where you are and you soak in as much as you can from this new place. You try new foods, you watch new tv programmes and you accept all the things that are different from home with open arms. Then something happens and you find yourself getting easily annoyed at small things. You ache for familiarity and you can’t understand why you have to deal with things like rubbish bins and drying racks. You think to yourself, Screw the environment, I just want to throw all my rubbish in one bin! I can’t stand that compost bin anymore. And my clothes, why does this house not have a dryer? It’s really not convenient when I need something dry but it’s still not dry. And you still miss your car. Especially now that it’s really cold. You know it sounds lazy but you just don’t want to walk 5 mins down the road to buy your groceries or take that dart into town so you can go to the gym.
But unlike a relationship, you can’t break-up
with your decision to move to this new place even though at moments you want
to. You are committed to live here for a designated time. Deep down you know
that you do want to be here and deep down, you care about why you are here. It
just takes some reminders.
The past 6 months have probably been some of
the hardest of my life. Nothing bad or awful happened but I realized that I am
way more attached to suburban Philadelphia than I had thought I was. I have missed
my family more than I expected to. I thought that how much you miss your family
goes hand in hand with how old you get but I have learned that’s not true. Age
does not change the moments when you’re sick and just want your mom. I have had
feelings of loneliness that I have not felt in years and I have felt God break
my selfishness and fears over and over again and chisel away at the parts of me
that I would rather not give to Him.
Despite the things that I have found
difficult though, I have come to this place at the 6 month mark that I am truly
grateful to be here. I am thankful for my commute into town. I love looking
over the city and seeing all the lights at night. I love listening to music as
I walk about the city at night. I am thankful for the people I have met here
and for how welcoming everyone has been. I am thankful for my fellow
Apprentices and our nights of pumpkin carving and Boojum dinners on Thursday
nights. I am thankful to be pushed into leadership positions that I would
usually run away from. I like that I get to teach the teenagers on Sundays and
not just lead discussion questions. I am thankful for the people in my church
who put together a Thanksgiving dinner for me and even made a homemade pumpkin
pie. I am thankful for meetings with ministry leaders from all over Dublin where topics are
discussed that make me really think. I am thankful for game nights, nights of
take away with housemates, movie nights with hot chocolate, a place up North I
can also call home, carol services with mulled wine, and chats over coffee. God has been so good and has provided so much.
I can’t believe it’s already been 6 months.
Today, I am thankful for God’s comfort and reminders of His presence through songs,
scriptures and others.
Here are
some things that you can pray about:
-that I would continue build
relationships with the teenagers
-wisdom and
direction in lesson planning
-comfort
for fellow Apprentices and team members. Some of us have family visiting but
being away from home during the holidays can still be hard
-daily
trust in Jesus and place my hope in him
-To be filled
with hope and joy during dark days. Winters can be really dark and cold and I
have been struggling with it. Pray also that when I am filled with hope and joy
on dark days, that I could share it with others.
As always
thank you for your continued prayers and support. I appreciate you all. I hope
you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Grace and
Peace,
Amy
