Getting Settled

It has been far too long since I last wrote an entry for this. But it has been hectic finishing up training, going back to Detroit to finish work there, packing, moving to Albany, and then finding a place to call home for a while. But I have accomplished all of this now. I have started to put my roots down here and it is a relief. There is still unpacking to be done but I'm getting there.

I'm in my second week at the Albany United Methodist Society (AUMS from here on out) and it has been interesting. My favorite parts so far have been seeing our connection to other missionaries that I was commissioned with. We do some work with the Interfaith Workers Justice here and my fellow US-2 Mistead is working at their headquarters in Chicago. I've met with the local Council of Churches and I don't remember who was sent there off the top of my head but at least one Mission Intern was sent to work with the World Council of Churches. Now obviously their work has no direct connection to what the Capital District Council of Churches is doing but Peter, my supervisor, was able to be in on a conference call that included the US-2 that just finished his work at IWJ so I might have to talk to Mistead sometime on official business. It's crazy how that all works out some times.

I have met more people than I can remember and it'll take me a good long time to get everybody's name down. But it has been good so far. Today I spent the morning working in our emergency food pantry for the first time. I picked quite the day to jump on in. We had to have served well over a hundred community members today. Truly incredible. I'll be working in the pantry for the next three days too.

On another note I stopped at a cafe on my way home yesterday. It's close to the big university here but apparently 5:00 on the first day of class isn't the time to be hanging out. Oh well, I'll be trying another place tomorrow. The cafe I went to was really good, and inexpensive, just not a lot of young people when I was there.

All in all it's been good getting settled in. I'm working on getting some precooked corn meal so I can make Arepas soon. Might take the long way home today just so I can get what I need. We'll see.

Life in Transition

I am now a fully commissioned missionary. What a cool thing to be able to say. Of course I couldn't just stay where I was commissioned for my service. I must go out. Doing that first meant coming home. I returned to Detroit last night and this morning went back to work at Motown Mission. I love Motown and the people I work and serve with. But it was such a strange experience today. I came back from being commissioned and jumped right back into life before training. Motown is exhausting physically and training was exhausting mentally. It is a weird transition to make. But even then I cannot go back to my life before training completely. Tomorrow I will take a couple hours off of work to speak about being a missionary. On Saturday I will move out of Detroit and move back to my home. Less than a week later I will arrive in Albany. Life is hectic while being routine.

I moved out of Detroit to go to training. I moved three times over the three and a half weeks of training. I then moved back to Detroit. Moving back home again soon and then moving to Albany is just crazy to me. Over a five and a half week period I will have moved 6 times. I am ready to arrive and unpack (I'm taking your advice to heart Liz!). I need to settle down and plant my roots. I need to join my new community.

I look forward to next week when I can relax a little. Even if it is just a little. Maybe I'll nap tomorrow since we'll get off of work early. Maybe I'll keep thinking about deep social and theological issues. Rest seems distant as it is. My wonderful prayer partner told me to make sure that I'm resting up because self-care is important. I need to do a better job at listening to her. Haha.

It's odd being away from my fellow missionaries after spending so much time with them but it is so good to be back with my Motown community. They are as funny as I remembered. These last couple transitions will be the hardest as I bid farewell to more and more friends.

I think it's time for a little bit of rest though.