Fancy meeting you here! I will apologize, when I first embarked on this incredible adventure, I thought that I would have all the time in the world to sit here and share all my wonderful stories, of the life I live way out here in the Jungle. Turns out as a missionary, you are actually really busy and your days tend roll on by, in the blink of an eye! I will do my best to keep you folks back home updated!
 |
| Rebecca and I at her Pinning Ceremony, glad to see these last 4 years have aged us well. |
 |
| Love getting together with this rowdy bunch! Finally the gang was back together again! |
So let us begin. It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks! I decided to surprise my parents by coming home for a quick 2 week visit over Easter, and let me tell you, it was a blessing straight from God! Being way out here, I miss a lot of the mundane day to day events that happen back home. Little events that mean so much to me! I am very family oriented, so being away can be a little tough sometimes. During my first few weeks here, I was and continue to be stripped and called to give up my wants and desires, in order to serve Gods wants and desires, which is wonderful and hard and incredible. I came out here knowing this, but there parts of my life that I wasn´t quite ready to be rid of. Things that are good, and important to me. Things like bridal showers, house warming parties, graduations, friends with health situations, holidays and new babies being born. All of these things are wonderful life moments that are memories for a life time! Things I hold very dear to my heart!
God allows me to be here with wonderful people, doing wonderful things, but He also knows me. Personally. He knows my wants,my needs and my desires. He knows what I like,what I love and what I absolutely adore. He ordained perfectly this time spent back at home. He allowed me to be there for every single moment. I was able to watch my best friend Rebecca receive her nursing pin,a journey we have been travelling for four years now. I got to attend bridal showers and house warming parties to support and love my cherished friends back home during this wonderful stage of life they are in. I got to spend Easter with my family of loved ones, eating and celebrating Christ´s incredible sacrifice for us sinners. I even got to spend just some quality time with dear friends over coffee or dinners. To be there, just be there, where for a moment I was needed. I wasn´t needed to feed a homeless person or help a team. I was needed to sit and cheer my best friend across the stage. I was needed to watch my beautiful nephews while my sister brought a precious new life into the world. I was needed to make cupcakes and do dishes for family parties. I was needed home, and it felt so good. To be home. To be with family and friends and to honestly just enjoy some freedom!
 |
| What a little sweetheart! |
 |
| Proud Auntie |
I cherished every single moment of it, I can assure you! I drove down back roads with the music blaring! I went for walks and enjoyed quiet time. I ate like a queen!! Let me tell you, I miss my family cooking! I enjoyed countless snuggles and surprise visits. I enjoyed life.
I had my wonderful community shower me with donations to bring back for my baking program and for the people we serve here. A giant suitcase full of blessings! It still continues to amaze me how a community can come together so quickly and give so much! We can´t wait to distribute it to those in need! I am so thankful for my little small town back in Canada. It is so wonderful to have customers come and visit because they just had to see me and see how I was doing! It´s something that means so much to me, you can´t even begin to imagine!
 |
| Donations will go towards my baking class with our New Dawn Children and the rest will be handed out to families that are part of our food Co Op |
It was then time to pack up my bags once again. I wasn´t sure how this whole trip would go, it being my first time returning after being here so long, but it was perfect! That´s not to say there weren´t moments when I found tears streaming down my face for seemingly no reason at all. because there were. That´s ok! In the end I packed up my things, I will admit incredibly last minute and unorganized,much to my mothers dismay, but I managed to waltz out the door, over packed, over weight suitcases in hand ready for my journey back to my other home. I am stuffed full with the little comforts of Canada. Cans of beans and taco seasoning, dish soap and spatulas, hot chocolate and stuffing from a box! Even a cute new Canada mug and magnet. It truly is the little things that bring me so much joy! I said my ¨see you soons¨ (I don´t like goodbyes) and got on a plane, and it was surprisingly easy. I knew what I would be arriving to. I had friends waiting for me and a job to return to. I was needed back here for right now.
I will say this. During my perfect visit home I learned something very important. I love Canada! LOVE it! I respect what it stands for and am thankful to God that I get to call myself a Canadian. I also love El Salvador. The people, the culture, the work God is doing here. I love them both. I was leaving home, to go to my other home.
I have had to learn that Home isn´t a place or things. Home is simply this. Home is where I will ALWAYS have a place, where I will always feel loved and where I will always be cared for.
It´s not four walls. It´s your heart. I have people that welcomed me with open arms here in El Salvador, with hugs and laughs of how much they have missed me. I also have family back home that feel the same. I am so blessed, so richly blessed. God has given me the opportunity to have such a wonderful life, one in which I don´t have to worry, because He knows the desires and needs of my heart, and He lets me be there for those life moments I cherish so much!
I am happy to be back here in El Salvador, do I miss my family, a little, but hey in 9 weeks I will be back to my other Home. So I am really not too worried!
 |
| I even splurged and got myself a nice big Canada mug, just in case anyone was wondering where may roots lie. Tea warms my up but being able to have a wonderful Bremfield´s scone all the way out here... warms my heart |
