Home

“Home is where the heart is.” 

“Home is where you hang your hat." 

“There’s no place like home.”

 “A home away from home.”

Home.  I’ve been thinking on it a lot lately.  It is a word that invokes a lot of feeling.  Sometimes it brings positive emotions and sometimes negative.  It can bring peace, joy, loneliness… but for me the concept of home can also be confusing. 

How so?  Well, where is home?  We have just returned home to Mozambique from our first furlough.  But we were also “going home” for that furlough, and not just to one home but two, in two different states.  And last year at this time, we were getting ready to say goodbye to our home in Portugal.  For me, I keep coming back to that iconic phrase: “Home is where the heart is.”  But my heart is in a lot of places these days, with a lot of people. 

We enjoyed being back stateside, spending time with family for our six week trip.  Two weeks in Texas at my parents’, where I grew up from kindergarten on.  Soaking up time in the yard, watching my kids play with Oma, Opa and Uncle Cody, gobbling salsa and fried okra (not together), feeling comfortable. 

(with Oma and Opa enjoying tractors at a historic farm reenactment)

And there were three weeks in Washington, too, making memories with Grady’s mother, brother, and sister.  The weather was gloriously sunny.  We lived in that house for three plus years while Grady became a mechanic, coming when Diego was less than a year and only moving when it was time for language school in Portugal.  So, in both cases it was coming home, only not totally home anymore, a strange feeling . . .

 (sledding with Grandma and Uncle Jody on Mt. Baker)

Diego was asked while we were back how it felt to be home.  His response was swift: “This isn’t home! My home is in Mozambique!”  It does my heart good to know that Diego and Lucas are identifying home as Moz.  In fact, Lucas did not even remember the US – it was all new to him because we had left before he was seven months old.  We delighted in introducing him to our special homes in TX and WA, in building memories with him and our family there.

Now, we have returned home to Mozambique.  To be honest, I was nervous when we left for the States.  I thought I might not want to come back; that I’d come back resenting it.  The nine months we’d had in Moz so far hadn’t been easy ones and we left worn out.  But, while the goodbyes stateside were hard, while Diego cried as we drove away after each goodbye and it tore at my heart strings to leave, I didn’t really want to stay.  Because home is here in Mozambique, too.  We are building a life here, relationships here.  Our teammates met us at the airport to help with our bags, and oh, I had missed them!  We went to church on Sunday and during the greeting time I felt so joyful.  So many familiar faces that I am slowly coming to love. 

(a pause do admire our passion fruit vine during his ride)

(Diego riding to Lucas after school)

So, I’m learning that you can have more than one home to turn to.  And I’m so thankful for the people who make those houses into homes for us, all across the world.  The love found in each gives us a taste of our heavenly home. 

Can you be praying that our love for the Mozambican people would grow, that it would become more and more reflective of the love Christ has for them?  Please pray for these weeks of transition back into life here, dealing with jetlag, being willing to step out of my comfort zone into the culture, final recover from surgery, etc?  Also, for our family back home – goodbyes are hard and while we are missing them, they are also missing us!

Here are a few quotes on “home” that I’ve found and enjoyed lately:

“Like a bird that flees its nest is anyone who flees from home."  Proverbs 27:8

Home is where one starts from.” T.S. Eliot

“Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in. “ Robert Frost

“There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.” Jane Austen

“You’re traveling all over the world but to be home is something special.” Sebastian Vettel

“When you live far away, home looks a little different every time.” Gideon Raff

“Family makes a house a home.” Jennifer Hudson

“The thrill of coming home has never changed.” Guy Pearce

“Nothing can bring a real sense of security into the home except true love.” Billy Graham

"How lovely is your dwelling place, LORD Almighty!

My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD;

my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young - 

a place near your altar, LORD Almighty, my King and my God.

Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you." Psalm 83:1-4