When it comes to leaving this place, I am not really sure what my heart is saying...does that happen to you sometimes? I am so glad there's One who knows my heart so much better than myself.  I anticipate the day of reuniting with family and friends.  (I have a new nephew I've yet to meet & and a few others that's growing all too fast.  At the same time, I want the days to pass slower, finding ways to seize the moment and to somehow lengthen my time in the land and stay with the people I've come to love in just about four short months and two precious visits. 

Speaking of this land and people, I need to fill you in a bit about them  (it's late but I want to tell you nevertheless).  This island is quite modern...not like the States but there's McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, etc. close by.  But my favorites are the international cuisines offered.  There is a wide range of housing (with western commodes and all  J) but since this city is the commercial capital of the country, most of the affluent are here.  Most people own cars--NICE cars, but public transportation is readily accessible. Oftentimes, I opt for the bus b/c it is so inexpensive but 3-wheelers are more fun except when the drivers attempt to take advantage of the foreigner and increase the prices.  There are big shopping centers here so most things are available.  Companies manufacture clothing brands such as Abercrombie, GAP, Colombia, and even Vic. Secret, and export them to the States & elsewhere.  So items that you'd purchase for around $30-60 USD, you can buy for about $5 and rarely above $10 here.  Shoppers who want to be a worker here--BEWARE!  Once under the British rule, many natives speak British English with a twist of their own accent. 

Sorry I didn't paint this picture for you earlier.  I hope you are not disappointed I am not in a hut in the jungles in Africa or Southeast Asia.  (I think the boss only sends out the strong & top company workers out to those tough areas.  J/K :)

The people here are SUPER friendly.   I met a lady at the grocery store the other day and asked her how to cook a certain native dish and after we parted ways to our different isles, she came back and invited me to come to her home to watch her prepare that dish and have dinner with her.  This country thrives on tourism; the island's beauty, with white sand beaches and coral reefs to the hill country with splendid mountains and waterfalls everywhere your eyes set, allures tourists from Europe, Australia, the Far East, and occasionally from the distant U.S.  Marco Polo, upon his discovery of this land, called it 'Paradise'.  But what the tourists often miss out on is even a greater beauty, that of the people here; the chance to interact with them, catch glimpses of their hearts and be in awe at what is seen.  Teachers, I've not seen sweeter & more fun-loving students.  I am at an all girls' Muslim school, but I have observed the boys' school and the 1st-6th graders boys are boys but precious all the same. 

I am completely captured.  Crazy how I didn't even know anything about this place until I came here.  A complete serendipity, wouldn't you say? (that word actually derived from 'Serendib', coined for this island).  Except it's not really via accident that I am here which brings me to the second thing I want to share with you.  In spite of how much the One true Love woes and captures our hearts, this human body and mind is so way-ward, so 'prone to wander'.  Perhaps it is partly spiritual warfare, partly my own weakness, but the battle rages on and it is a struggle everyday from the most basic thing to the more complex to be in the Father's presence.  Reading one of my best friend's  email made me miss & long to see her but she too is on the mission field so I wont get to see her when I go home so all of the sudden, it made me very lonely, so lonely though He's provided so much.  Deeper into that night, I am reminded of an eternal AND practical truth: being away from family and friends, and all with which you are familiar is difficult, but being far away from the heart of the Father brings grief and loneliness that the heart can't and isn't meant to bear.  Our hearts were made to love and be loved by Him and experience the relationship's unsurpassing joy.  Anything else is just a temporary., a fill-in.   Walking with Him, I am learning, gets harder yet more beautiful by day.  And seeing His promises unfold right before my eyes for me and for the people He longs to call His own shows me how feeble I really am and how great He is.  This country that Marco Polo called "Paradise" has captured me, but I know it is beyond this small island that has.  It is the Creater Himself.  And whether I am here or home or anywhere else, as long as I am inHIs presence, I will continue to be in adoration and awe of my First Love.