My essay "What Not to Say About Your Mission Trip" is available at Neue's website. It contains some (just a few! there are many more! :-) ) of my post-Africa reflections about how the church engages people who live in cultures other than ours.
I'm gearing up for my next travels. In less than two weeks--on Sept. 29--I head off to London where I'll live until two days before Christmas. I'm very excited over the opportunity really to live in another culture for a slightly extended bit of time. Though I was in Africa longer, I was traveling the whole time I was there, moving from place to place and staying with generous hosts. In London I'll really be living there, paying rent, preparing my own meals, creating my own life (instead of just going where I'm told to go when I'm told to go there).
Some good pieces are in place for the London excursion. I've found a good place to live. I have a church to plug into. It looks like I may be able to do some sort of volunteering with an organization I crossed paths with in Uganda). They're working in west London among some of the immigrants from places like Pakistan and India. I've found a French girl to trade language lessons with: she'll help me with French and I'll help her with English. And I've got a fairly long list of friends of friends who I'm looking forward to connecting with once I get there.
Finances continue to be dicey, but God is generously providing on so many other fronts: my mom is coming to help me pack up; generous friends have offered their basement for storing my belongings; another generous friend is storing some bits of furniture and has already offered me a place to stay when I return to Nashville in January; other friends are letting me borrow their truck for moving things; I have a ride from the airport in London; and others are praying, praying, praying with me.
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