I’m forgetting

It has now been over 4 years since I first moved to My Country. (January marked the 4-year point.) It’s hard to believe that the kids who were just starting high school when I left are now starting college or that the kids in the 2-year-old Sunday school class I helped with sometimes are now in 1st grade. I see on facebook that people way too young (in my remembrance) are getting married or having babies. It’s kind of weird, actually.

Another thing I’ve realized is that I’ve started forgetting things from that side of the “pond.” For example, when I first came, I would be excited when at church we’d sing a song in French (or Jula) that I knew in English. But just the other day we sang one of those songs that I used to know in English, but I couldn’t remember the English words for the life of me. Only the French ones came to mind. Today the youth group choir sang a song that I knew in English, and it was with a sigh of relief when I was finally able to recollect the words in English – “Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King. Alleluia, alleluia. We are going to see the King.”

It’s kind of sad realizing that I’m forgetting parts of that life over there, or that it’s going on without me. And soon I know that I’ll be feeling the same thing all over again, as I’ll be moving out of the city and into the village and that will be another world that will go on without me. Just yesterday, it was one of my best friend’s birthdays here in the city, and I was looking forward to having lunch together. But then I was called by someone in the village, saying I had to go take care of something with the house-building project in the village. So I hurried out there and had to miss the special birthday lunch. Also yesterday, I got an e-mail that someone from my home church in the US passed away – someone that I didn’t even know he was sick, even though when I asked my parents I found out that he had been on hospice for a while. So it kind of felt like I was missing out on things in two worlds as God is calling me to yet another. It’s good to follow God and I look forward to what He will continue to do among My People and in my own heart, but sometimes it’s still hard.