And when the day comes I'll meet you here

We left Santa Cruz de Tenerife yesterday. I am feeling relieved and excited to be going back to Africa.
My time in Tenerife was wonderful yet extremely hard. There have been few times in my life where I felt more bleak. It was strange. We went to Tenerife to have the ship inspected, do maintenance, and have a bit of a vacation for the long-term people. It was a wonderful time of relaxation and respite for the people who had spent the prior 10 months in Benin. My role in this time was less clear. There were few people on the ship, so we were slow at work. My co-workers all had time off for varying reasons. I did not. Towards the end of our time here, I was getting discouraged and having a really hard time being civil towards people. Finally, I asked for two days off. The first day, I went to the mountains alone to have a date with God. It was so nice and relaxing. I realized then that I haven't been alone for a while. Here are some photos from my day alone with God:










As I am returning home in about four weeks, I have been thinking about my future a lot. I applied to Colorado State University for their Occupational Therapy grad school program. If I get in, I will move to Fort Collins over the summer to take my last two prerequisite classes and then start graduate school in the fall. If I don't get in, I am not sure what I'm going to do when I get back. It's a strange place of limbo, as I cannot make definite plans one way or the other, and I especially can not while I'm still here. Last year at this time, I was in almost the exact same place. I had applied to the same program. I was waiting, unable to make plans one way or the other. In the end, I did not get into the program. I got on the waiting list, which was encouraging, yet not because it was like they were saying I was almost good enough but not quite. It was frustrating. But had I made it in to grad school then, I would not be out somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean as I type this. God knew what He was doing, though I did not. So I'm trying to have faith that regardless of the results of my application, God will make the next chapter of my life His. I read this blog entry the other day, and I thought it expressed this truth quite well:

A lesson from the Garden of Eden: How God prepares for us

Posted by: elizabeth carmen in Untagged on Jan 14, 2010

In celebration of the new year, I went back to Genesis 1 to read: “In the beginning, God created…” I read through this chapter, noting the order he created things in and wondering about the significance, like how the birds and fish came before land animals.

Anyway, then God creates man and woman and gives them the command to live on this earth. “God said, ‘Look, I have given you all the plants that have grain for seeds and all the trees whose fruits have seeds in them. They will be food for you.” (Gen. 1:29)

As I read that, I noted the significance of the fact that, even before he created this man and this woman, God had already prepared their environment for them. They didn’t have to ask for food or even know a world without provision--it was ready for them as soon as they stepped onto the scene.

And I realized how that’s still God’s nature: To go ahead of us, prepare the way for us, even before we ask or know what’s happening, he’s at work. What an encouraging reminder for me during this time, when my environment (at least job-wise) is rather bleak and hazy. I can trust that despite what my eyes may see, God is at work, prepping the landscape of my future that will get me through.

I have a month left here. It will go by so fast. I'm praying that I don't miss what God has to teach me in my final four weeks on the Africa Mercy.