One night at life group while praying for my housing situation, Ben commented he had the image of a snail who carried his home on his back. The other day I opened my door to find a snail on the front doorstep and took a photo of this little friend.
Lots of people have asked about the new home, and the thing is, it’s a house, and it’s not fully accessible. I’ve made it feel pretty homey, and I’ll be safe here for at least a year, and it’s traded away most of my inconveniences of the other location, but it’s still not ideal.
The shower in particular is not accessible (the landlords who bought it from a wheelchair user removed the wet area shower for a classier looking non wheelchair friendly option). I’ve been safe so far, but I’m still praying for that full recovery.
This week has been hard on my body as I do my best to take care of it in this not ideal space (that does have an ideal ramp to the front door, so I want to celebrate that) with some difficult things of my regular life in the mix.
I’m scheduling this in advance of going on camp for the weekend, and I’m so grateful for the development space my friend Hannah has made to bless youth leaders around the south island with this awesome weekend away in a beautiful space to spend time together and learn how to love and serve Jesus better. I’m praying that my body does well away from my own bed, and by the time this goes live, I hope you’ll pray for the drive back to jump back into my beautiful busy life here.
Even though I’m away from my new house for the weekend, I’ve got my elements of home with some of the amazing people I’ll be alongside, and I’ve thought a lot this week about how my expat and immigrant experiences working with TCKs shift my whole idea of home. If I’ve got the internet, I can be home with a call from Lissy or a text from Maggie or Sarah like this week included. Plus all the people here who love me so deeply and care for me and create a home for me in Christchurch. Home is complicated, but it’s not stationary, so I’ll keep pondering the lessons of the snail who moves his home with him wherever he goes as I keep praying for God to prepare the perfect place for me to live once I finish my season in this space.
