I will no longer be adding to this blog, but have set up a personal one for those interested in following our journey here in Scotland – back inside the alleged comfort zone.
If you wish to have a look or to subscribe, please follow this link
www.ittakesawholevillagetoraiseachild.wordpress.com
Rob
I am taking the risk of continuing to blog, in the hope that you are still interested in reading what I have to say. If not, let me know (kindly!) and I will stop.
So here we are back in Scotland. Lesotho, for the time being, is behind us.
Do I miss it? Yes, certain parts of it. I loved my work there. It was great to be able to help people in such a real way, I loved being able to talk to folks openly about the love of Jesus and of course I loved the weather. And while I was there, I knew I was very much where God would have me. I knew it. In a way I was not ready to come home. To know that you are in the right place gives a great sense of peace and purpose.
In many ways, being back is wonderful. My friend popped in last night to see me. Might sound like nothing, but to me that is what being home is about. I met another friend this afternoon for coffee. On Saturday night, I am going out!
But I find myself still outside my comfort zone, in a different way. By necessity, I am worrying about more material things. I have two children and no work. I have had two interviews but no offer of a job.
I do trust God will not leave me stranded. I know He won’t. I know without a doubt that it was His time for us to come home. But I worry that I will never feel that “rightness” about being in His will again.
So I must resist the urge to give Him a helping hand. And to hurry Him up.
Stop, Robyn. In His will. This is just the beginning…
I have been trying hard to upload some photos, but it is not happening I am afraid. You will just have to take my word for it that we are all fine and looking absolutely gorgeous.
The weather is hot. The skies are blue and cloudless. I can see the ground.
I have spent the past years trying to organise, arrange and fix things so that I can settle down. Have a moment of peace. Trying to organise paperwork. Registering births and acquiring visas and passports. Organising study visas. And resident visas. Trying to make us safe. To make sure our vehicle is safe. And our house is safe. To provide the best I can for my girls. And ensure that we are legal where we are living, working and studying.
I have prayed a lot about each and every visa and permit and passport. Where we live depends on them. Yet, these restrictions are all made by man, and by man’s rules about who should live where and belong to which group, who has which rights and who needs which bit of paper.
I wonder what God thinks of borders? And “immigration”?
I nearly got arrested the other day. The closest I have been. I was crossing the border using my UK passport as I always do. But I also am now a citizen of the Republic of South Africa. And what I did not know (because I had not asked?!) is that it is illegal to cross any border into or leaving South Africa as a South African citizen using any passport other than a South African one. Ooops. I stood there facing a fine/imprisonment of up to 12 months. And worse, the fear that they would confiscate my UK passport and I would be unable to come home!
Unsure of how to proceed, I was summoned “through”. This is not good at an African border. The less fuss you make the better.
I was lucky. The actually very helpful official heard my wails and accepted ignorance as a valid excuse, granting me three months waiver to apply for a South African passport.
But, citizen of Scotland or citizen of South Africa, I am first and foremost a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. And that is what matters. That is where I will stop. For all other places, I am just in transit. Just passing through…
It is with mixed emotions that I share with you my decision to return to Scotland. I have felt for some time now that, whilst I am privileged to have had the opportunity to work with the boys on the street and to do the job I have been doing, I have to consider my children, particularly Palesa, who is at the age where things start to matter.
I have prayed about this decision, and have not made it lightly. I trust that I am hearing what God is saying and that I am moving in His will.
I believe that the signs He is sending me are very clear, and I have a great sense of peace about it. We hope to be home by the end of the year, and I am very much looking forward to being amongst family and friends once more.
Please keep an eye out for the next newsletter for more details on how the boys are doing and on our decision to move home.
With love Robyn and the girls
We have just returned to Ladybrand having spent the past week relaxing on a farm. A friend of mine lives there and suggested we might like to get away from it all for a time.
It was lovely. We did not do much. The children played, and I spent time with my friend.
Just what I needed…
Every little noise I hear has me peering out of the window.
Cowards die many times before their death
The valiant never taste of death but once
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard
It seems to me most strange that men should fear
Seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.
Mmmmmm. Tell that to my imagination…
I had been staying with friends since the break in, as my imagination is working overtime. I am not valiant. When push comes to shove, I think I am a coward.
On Tuesday night, the man of the house in which I was staying went out to walk the dog like he does every night at 6pm when he is home. But this time he did not come back. My good friend, his wife, set out to look for him in the wet, stormy dark. She found his car and the dog. There was no immediate sign of him.
She continued her search. I was praying for a broken ankle. Or something like that. Not far from the car, she found him. He had been struck by lightening. He did not survive.
She is in shock. I think I am too.
Living outside the comfort zone... 