Uncanny Similarities

Recently Casey and I were able to visit our friend who is serving a prison sentence for armed robbery.  He was sentenced in 2004 and is not eligible for release until 2025.   We had an interesting talk with our friend.  What we found was that his experience is very similar to what we have been going through, adapting and transitioning back to American culture.  In prison, he has had to adapt to a new way of life.   He has had to figure out how to navigate the system and "stay alive".  I would argue that he faced many more challenging things than we did living overseas, but we also had to learn how to navigate life in a foreign country.  He spends a lot of time thinking about getting out and also asking questions about how things have changed "outside".   He has little understanding of how things are now on the outside, and when we came back, we did not either.   We both are American.  We've both lived here in Indiana, but because of our time away, it has all changed.  We've struggled to figure out how to navigate a completely online world of job applications and interviewing, and we've had a hard time figuring out what is required to get a job.  We've found that some things do look and feel the same, but our lives are different because we have lived in a different culture with a different set of values and concept of time.   So, there have been changes both to the place and county itself and then also to ourselves.  The same is true of our friend.  He will face changes to this place and country and then will also find that he is not the same person he was when he entered prison.  It was interesting to sit and listen to Casey talk to our friend--and watch them realize that they are in very similar shoes.  I hope that our experience helps him when he is in the position to enter society again.  

Nature's Beauty

Edgewater Park is not the prettiest park in the city of Anderson.  However, it has an attractiveness to my boys because it runs alongside the White River (which is not so "white").   Hence, the name--Edgewater.  Sometimes, when the rains have come or the snow has melted, you can actually not enter the park because a large portion of it is underwater.  When we came last fall, the water was very low.  The kids actually took off their shoes and headed into the river, searching for crawdads and other various treasures of the river.  It was great, until Chase thought he would drink some of the water.  I kept telling him to stop, but he thought I was joking.  Yes, he had some tummy issues the next day.  Sigh.   :(    The water is definitely NOT clean and should not be ingested.  You also want to wash your hands well after playing in it.  But, something about a river is magnetic.   

Sunday was tranquil.  The boys were thoroughly entertained by trying to fish (Ry/Niko) and by throwing rocks in the water (Ry, Niko, Chase and Casey!).   Ryan caught a decent sized fish actually--which flopped itself right back into the water after being unhooked.   We walked down into the forest for awhile.  The path is not so nice, because the animals (I'm guessing water fowl) cover it with waste.  You have to tread carefully, or clean your shoes later.  But, the grasses and the forest are beautiful.  They do not mow because it is wild grass and the flowers and the fungi are just amazing.  As we returned from our walk, we looked across a private field that is mowed.  In the middle of a field was a large and beautiful fox.  He was just staring at us as we went along the path.  Then as we moved on, he started to move too and then stopped again to watch us.  He was amazing.  Suddenly, out of the undergrowth of a tree line barged an animal I had never seen before in person.  Casey thinks it was a badger.  It was brownish and almost as large as the fox, but with a rounder body.  It attacked the fox and they fought a bit.  Then it ran back to the tree line and then charged the fox again.  They disappeared into the tree line, fighting.   I thought it was neat to see these animals, which I had not seen, in the flesh.   I think I am seeing more animals here than I saw in the jungles of Indo.  On a walk several weeks ago we came across a snake sunning himself on our path.   I think it adds to the beauty of nature, which sometimes I take for granted.   Casey has moaned some about how Indiana is not that beautiful--it's "flat" and "boring"....but, I'm finding quite a bit to be interested in :). 

Naked Flying

I was in Indianapolis in 2003 (I think :).   Ryan and Casey were back in Indonesia and I was heading to/from a writer's conference in Florida.  I had routed through Indianapolis for some reason.  Details like that escape my memory now for some reason.   I do remember though, being in the security line.  We were headed through the line and people were removing jackets and belts.  As we removed layers of outerwear worn in colder climates, I remember the gentleman in front of me turning around and saying, "We are just a few steps away from naked flying."   Oh, how right he was.   Shoes have to be removed now as standard procedure.   However, the news story that the boys and I heard this morning on NPR gave us frightening food for thought.  Apparently an Al-Queda Arabia plan was thwarted recently by a double agent.  He offered his services for a suicide mission and was given a funky new underwear bomb which was "form-fitting" into a pair of briefs and "hardly detectable by airport security."   Based on the track record of the TSA, an their propensity to be reactive instead of proactive, I now completely believe that the stranger in line was absolutely right.  No WONDER I am doing my best not to fly domestically in America anymore.   Train, automobile, boat...here I come!!

Same Verse

When you come across the same verse a few times over a relatively short period of time, maybe you should pay attention.  One verse that has come to my attention a few times is:  Matthew 8:20, "Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”  I came across that verse in a R12 study group and then my pastor just preached on it this week.  I think that God knows that I am really ready to have a "home".  Although I am a MK/TCK and have never really had that sense of "home" that others have, I feel weary of traveling and moving.  We've almost been here in the States for an entire year.  As I sit here, there are trunks stacked right next to me which can't be unpacked.  I'm tired of that.   I remember vividly some days when being "at home" in Salatiga struck me.  I remember that I was driving on certain city streets.  It wasn't a house I was thinking about, but I was realizing that the town of Salatiga was "home".  Although I was a foreigner, I felt comfortable there.  Although I had some belongings with me and others in the States, I was still as "at home" as I would ever be.  
But, that feeling is gone.  This town, where I live right now, doesn't really feel like home.  Don't get me wrong, there are people I love here.  There are some church communities which I love dearly.  They are helping me grow and learn new things each day.   I have made some brand new friends who are completely incredible and are sold out to God.  They humble me and encourage me.  However, this still feels transitory.   I am not sinking in and being "at home" or settling.  I don't know what that means.  Maybe it means that we will move again, sooner than I realize?  I do feel like a "foreigner and stranger on the earth".   I guess He is trying to say that following Him doesn't mean that we settle, sink in, and get comfortable.  We're ready every moment for what is next.  My heart cries out, "I'm ready Lord".   And, I think I'm ready for heaven...where we will be settled together with Him forever.