First Tentative Steps

It has been a while since I've written an update. In some ways I've been too busy. I also haven't always had good access to internet. But really, I just haven't been sure how to fit any of what has been going on into a nice, neat blog entry.

I'm still not sure.

Life here has been wonderful. Also crazy, tiring, hot, confusing, fun, frustrating, good, lonely, full, interesting, and uncertain. Perhaps mostly uncertain.

We've been spending our days exploring, meeting with different people and organizations, and just learning about the city. Also taking time to discuss and pray and listen and worship together.

I'm looking forward to settling down and finding a community where I can build long-lasting and deep relationships. Looking forward to being in one place and turning my focus to language learning and being a good neighbor.

But for the moment I'm enjoying this season. In a few months it won't make so much sense to travel all over exploring places I may never return to. It won't seem as worth it to spend a whole day tracking down one person just to hear their advice about what we should do and where we should do it. But right now, it's lovely to focus on learning and listening.

I've had lovely chats with people sitting near rail road tracks, drinking cha while I hear about their community. I've seen whole families clustered around trucks unloading garbage into the dump while they fight off pigs and goats and crows for any bits of things they can sell to recyclers. I've ridden trains beyond rice paddies and coconut palms to where jute factories tower over shanty towns out past the edges of the city. I've been invited into people's tiny homes for a cup of sprite and some sweets where I get to ask about their kids and their work and their lives.

We are just beginning and still very much uncertain about what it is we will do here or where we will do it. But it's an uncertainty that's filled with knowing that we are following One bigger than the unknowns. One who knows the tiny back alleys of the slums and loves the people working in the garbage dumps. It's an uncertainty that's not just full of questions about tomorrow. It's also full of hope and anticipation of what is to come and assurance that this is where we are supposed to be today.