Last Monday...

Today we started our de-briefing meetings to reflect over the last four months that we have been here.  WHERE did the time go? It was exciting to come together with the six other students that were living in Central Asia and to hear bits and pieces about their time. What a blessing! This morning we started with hearing some encouragement from the Word.  It was a great reminder that as we look back over what we have seen and done in the past four months, it is all by the grace of God that any of it has happened and that God is the One that causes the growth from each of the seeds that were planted!  Next, we had a small time of discussion and then split up for the rest of the day at to go to individual locations and work through a stack of de-briefing papers that we were given.  They had really helpful questions to help us work through and analyze how we have grown and changed and expectations of going home, etc.  It was really helpful for me, but also overwhelming in ways at seeing the big picture, now looking back over the past four months.  I can’t believe that we are already at the end!  After our personal reflection time (which really was a huge encouragement), we all met up at a restaurant to have dinner!  We laughed and laughed and laughed and shared so many stories from our time overseas and joking about culture shock (ironically the menu was in English – that totally threw me off and I actually found myself wanting a Turkish menu).  I guess I’ve lived overseas for long enough when I feel less lost with a Turkish menu than an English one.  I actually couldn’t even pick what I wanted – I ordered the first thing that was recommended to me and it was good. Good thing.