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bold under italic Welcome Home Friday, October 24, 2008
I’m going to live in Jackson.That’s all I could really say. It never served as an answer. It was merely a gateway to more questions. What will you do? Where will you live? How are you getting there? I didn’t know the answer to any of the questions I was being asked. I was living in Turkey, finishing up two of the best and most challenging years of my life. I had gone to do missions, to reach the lost, to build up the church. I did what I could and I prayed a lot. As my time ended, I knew that my two years was simply a taste of my life to come. I knew I’d be back. If not Turkey, then somewhere. I knew that God had called me to a life of foreign missions. But I also knew it was time to move on. But to what? I’ve heard it said that God doesn’t show us the whole journey, just the next step. I had been told the next step, but I had no idea if there was actually going to be ground under my feet once I took it. I was headed to Jackson for a girl. We had met in training before I left. She had spent a rough year and a half in Peru while I was in Turkey and had come home a few months before me. From many long emails and late night Skype conversations, I had learned a lot about her. But to really know her, I knew that I needed to be on the same continent that she was on. So I did have a purpose. And I did have a place to stay waiting on me. A friend of mine had put me in touch with a friend of his that could help me out. They were willing to let me live in a rental house of theirs rent-free. I was told that it wasn’t in the best shape or in the nicest part of town. But instead of that worrying me, it comforted me. Growing up in a trailer park and becoming accustomed to the occasional bombings of my city in Turkey made me quite fond of the other side of the tracks. And I can’t forget the dog that has been with me through thick and thin was anxiously waiting at my grandma’s house. So it’s not like I had absolutely nothing waiting on me. Still, I was far from ready to start life over here in America. But once I made it back to the States, things fell into place rather nicely. My first order of business was to find some transportation. With a small chunk of savings and a strong desire to stay out of debt, I searched the used car lots for something that would get me around on the cheap. I looked for weeks with little or no luck. Apparently the rising gas prices had finally begun to change how and what people drove. Dependable and economical cars were hard to come by, especially at the price I was offering. But my first little blessing came with a hatchback. It’s absolutely beautiful, except that one door won’t lock, and another won’t open. Oh, and the hatchback won’t stay open and the hood won’t stay shut. And the paint is coming off in a few places. And sometimes the keys won’t come out of the ignition. But it cranks every time, almost. And it’s great on gas, even if it does burn a little oil. The SpongeBob Square Pants seat covers were just icing on the cake. So with my little piece of the American dream loaded down with my worldly belongings, I set off for Jackson, MS, and the life that God had prepared for me there. I made a few stops to see friends and then one stop to change a flat tire before I finally made it. My second day in town, my new landlord took me to see the next place that I’d call home. In her words, “It’s a nice house, but I wouldn’t live here.” Honestly, it’s the first house I’ve ever lived in. And for the rent I’m paying, which is nothing I remind you, you couldn’t ask for more. The last thing I needed to establish myself in Jackson was a job. I am a college educated man with a wide variety of work experiences. The job I had in Turkey had me teaching English. I had also spent a spring making pizza in the school cafeteria at Clemson, a summer cutting grass, a fall trapping bears and dissecting deer, and a winter in the police academy. I tried to think of what position would require that skill set. There aren’t many. But the girl that I was moving here for had a connection. The school she worked at was hiring people to help them develop an online diploma program. All they asked is that you be computer literate, halfway creative, and on time. Being two of the three was enough to land me the job. And that, as they say, was that. In barely two weeks I had gone from unemployed, living with my grandma and driving her Chrysler Sebring to living in a house on the southside of Jackson, MS, driving a pimped out Honda Civic hatchback with sweet seat covers, and working a well paying job that I sometimes enjoy. All the questions had been answered. God had paved the way for me to re-enter life here in America. To be completely honest, my job is actually pretty boring. My house really is in a bad part of town and it has a mold problem. My car has a leaky back tire and has broken down a time or two already. But, a good friend of mine summed it up best when he said, “The favor of the Lord is resting upon you.” For reasons I cannot explain, it is. He has blessed me greatly. And I am living in Jackson. |