A Week of Anniversaries

Two big ones were this week already. The first, and biggest, was 9-11. It really doesn't seem all that long ago that I was waking up in Calhoun Courts, N3G, turning on my computer and seeing Spautz' away message that said "They're attacking us," and included a link to cnn.com. I had no idea what it was about, but when I tried to click the link, the CNN website wouldn't load. I went into the living room and turned on the TV in time to watch the second plane hit the Towers. It was, and still is, unreal. So many thoughts went rusing through my head that day. Would it be the beginning of the next World War? Could this be the beginning of Armaggeadon? Would there be a draft? It sounds almost silly now, but at the time, nobody knew what was happening. All we knew was that there had been planes flown into the World Trade Center towers, and the Pentagon. The WTC was the most deadly and most devastating. But for me, knowing that someone had sent a plane into the Pentagon, the center of American intelligence and military, was the most shocking. If that could be done, what else could happen, and when? It was a scary day. I remember walking around in a daze, everyone did, surrounded by people and yet somehow still alone. Everyone was numb, but not because they had no feeling, but because of too many feelings. It was the feeling you get when you've been punched really hard in the face. You know it hurts, and will hurt for a while, but at the time, you feel nothing. That was five years ago.

The second anniversary this week was my One Month in the Country-versary. One month ago today I stepped off the plane into the next chapter of my life. It carries it's own set of emotions. On the one hand, it's sad to leave so many friends and family for such a long time. I think back, a year ago yesterday I was at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, listening to an amazing Dave Matthews Band concert, with two of my best friends, and a new, but good friend outside of Denver, CO. The next day I was wading through a stream shocking fish for the Div. of Wildlife before seeing another amazing show at Red Rocks. Now look at me, just a year removed from that day, but literally half a word away from that place and those people. So much happens so quickly in my life. This time here will be the most time I've spent in one place continuously since I left for college. I know that I have changed as a person more than my circumstances have changed. Two years ago I was immature and unsure in my faith. I had just started to find answers to some very important, but amazingly basic questions about my God. Now, though still learning, I have quite a bit of understanding, and I am trying to impart that to people here. And that's the flip side to the sadness of leaving one place, the excitement of going to another. In one month I have made some very good friends here. I've met dear brothers in Christ who have encouraged me in my faith and amazed me with theirs. What they lack in knowledge, they more than make up for in their devotion. To follow a God that is totally despised by their country, to be exiled by their families, to have little hope of having a family of their own, to suffer in trying to find work, to just claim Christ in land where it could possibly cost you your life to do so, that more than compensates for any lack they have in knowledge. This is what excites me, to be here, among these people, working hand in hand to get the message to their countrymen who have yet to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ. It has only been one month today, and I can't wait to look back two years from now and praise God for what he has done in my life while I was here, because at the pace things are going, there will be plenty to thank Him for.