Re-entering America

Coming back into the "home" culture has been a different kind of experience over the past two weeks. Previous mission work in India and Ireland had two different kinds of impact on my life and thoughts...

India left me grieving. The experience of the "third-world" within a few feet of "first-world" was a shock to the system. Then coming back to see the vast difference between the American church and the world church had me in tears.

The first year in Northern Ireland left me looking for a beautiful place. I soon realized that I would not find that which I was seeking on this side of heaven.

This time, I return from Northern Ireland seeking something that matters - something significant. To work so intentionally for ten days and then return to the "mundane" is a time of sadness and searching...

As with most people's re-entry experience, there is somthing of a struggle with others understanding the experience. A quick poem to work some of that out:

Either no one cares
or they don't know
what to do with all we have to share...
Questions with a desire
to know all is well -
but it's not... it's not...
And conversation shifts
to the importance of the irrelevant,
the urgency of nothing to do
or be done
as stares fill the space
of the still in our living rooms