So Now What?!?

I've officially been home for a month, SO NOW WHAT?!? I have been asked this question by different people and have had to really sit with this question.

The stress of re-entry was very real for me. I had a hard time accepting that no one would fully understand my experience, even if they had been on a mission trip to the same place with the same ministry. I wanted so much for people to share those emotions with me. I now realize that I was wanting people to live like they had been to Ghana with me. The Ghanaian culture is much different than the American culture I grew up in and had become comfortable with. After returning home and still now, I have a hard time justifying spending money on "things", whether it be clothes or groceries or whatever. I find myself asking the question of "do I really NEED that?" and the answer is most often "no, I do not". The first few weeks home, I struggled to see that the God that I experienced in Ghana is the same God that I experience here.

My time in the Ghana mission field might be over, but it is not a closed chapter, rather it was one more step on my journey. God had a reason for sending me out. Mission work doesn't have to stop just because I returned from Ghana. It was not just a trip. This part of my journey may take years to fully grasp what I've learned and that is okay.




SO NOW WHAT?!? There are a few easy responses (lol). The first is that I am back at work. (Well, I was actually back to work within 14 hours of landing in Louisville.) Another is that I finally feel rested and recovered.

But when I sit with this question of NOW WHAT?!?, I ask myself a lot more questions:
-What can I do to implement what I've learned?
-Am I going to let this be just another mountain-top experience?
-Am I going to sink back into how I lived before I went and live like it never happened?
-Why is it easier to share about Jesus in Ghana than it is in America?

NOW WHAT?!? I am seeking God and listening carefully to Him. I am continuing to stretch myself out of my comfort-zone, beyond the level of faith I have now. I have been turning off my phone. I have started to say no more often (even if it is something good) because I know I need to not schedule every minute of every day like I used to do. Other than that, I am continuing to pray for discernment in what my next steps are in my job, in missions, and in life. 

I used to think that I had to look hard to stay involved while I was home from the mission field but I have come to realize that where I am right now is my current mission field. God has me in Louisville for a reason. He has me at my current job for a reason.  Those reasons may not be known to me now or ever. But He is using me right where I am. 

I think the verse that wraps all of this up nicely is Philippians 1:6 "being confident of this, that He who began a good work in [me] will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."