It is a question that we are constantly asking ourselves too! It seems like we can't stay put and that we have a lot in common with our North African nomadic friends. It seems that the world is a big place and we intend to experience a lot of it! We are now into week #2 here in the Middle East. It is FUN to be back and we are excited about this new place we are calling home. We have yet to be settled into our own house, with our own stuff, but we know that will come in time. After a few days that were a blur of catching up on sleep, finding somewhere to eat, and attempting to keep two little kids entertained with 10 matchbox cars, 2 spiderman figurines and a few books, we are now in the "let's catch up with everyone" phase.
It has been awhile since we have had a schedule or a "normal" day. Our last few weeks in North Africa were made up of packing, selling, organizing projects, organizing our house, emailing to find a place to live here, saying goodbyes. We found our days going by quickly and by nightfall, we would slump in the chairs and look at each other with exhaustion (those were the few nights we were actually together in the evening, most nights Jeremy was off doing other "to do" things).
We are appreciating the green that is abundant here in the Middle East. We took a drive about 30 minutes outside of the city, and found a beautiful pine forest-it was quiet and peaceful. We heard birds chirping, we watched the clouds seemingly dance in the bright blue sky, we played with the kids amid rose bushes and a variety of wild plants. It was amazing, there was an overwhelming sense of beauty (remember, we just came from the Sahara desert!) and peace. After living in the desert, you begin to adapt to the harshness of the wind & sand in one of two ways: 1)you forget how much you miss green and begin to think it isn't that important to your senses or 2)you begin to think about the beauty that you are experiencing in the desert and begin to think that it is the same as that far away pine forest-in other words, you become semi-delusional! We realized after being in that pine forest that we had done both #1 and #2!
In the past two weeks we have only experienced the superficial things of the Middle East. We hope to soon become acquainted with our neighbors, find friends for the kids, become involved in an Arab church, start our schooling, and pursue other things. We intend to keep you as up to date as possible into the various aspects of our lives here. Thanks for praying for us and for joining us in our journey!
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3 comments:
Finally, an update :)
I can relate to your experiences. We had similar reactions to beauty and greenery when we arrived in France after 2 1/2 years in the Sahara.
Enjoy it!
Fantastic! Great to hear that things are going well!
Jeremy and Steph, this is Ken Jackson in N Dallas. Your folks sent us an update PL and I saw your blog address and thought I'd take a look at what you are up to. Sounds fantastic! I don't know where you are in the ME but a ministry that I was on loan to produced a series called, "Today with Alah", in English you can imagine the equivalent with G. The series is based on the 1st, 4th, and fifth books of the Nt. However it was done in an Arabic version possibly not well understood by the majoric group. If you are in a place where you could receive a copy sometime I could try to get you one if you thought you could use it. We are still doing audio for video with various groups around the world. Last year in N India in Lucknow. Drop us a line when you can. K&B
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