What a difference a day makes. Today we have felt healthy, full of energy (relatively anyway) and up for a challenge. The first one was another new church. Once again we were made to feel very welcome and the sermon was about creationism (watch my concern about the church in the USA grow...) but about how
not all Christians feel the need to believe in a literal six-day creation (phew!). In fact the preacher gave a very nice account of how the Genesis creation story blends 3000-year-old science with epic poetry about the way that God was in the centre of the act of creation and went on to point out that that fusion of science and faith is still just as possible today.
After going back home for a proper Sunday lunch (that even
Exile #3 who has been off her food enjoyed) we ventured about 10 miles up into the snow in the wonderfully named
John Boyd Thacher State Park. Here is the recently refuelled
Exile #3 by a frozen stream (the surface was completely frozen, but we could hear the water running underneath). The sunlight sparkling on the powdery snow was really beautiful and the views down over the lowlands to the East towards the Hudson River were spectacular. We did however need all our cold-weather clothes!
Whatever you may believe about how it came to be, the world is an amazing place.
I guess that when I moved over to the States in 1990 just for 6 months, it was the crushing defeatism of the "not familiar enough" that made the home-sickness the worst!
ReplyDeleteReading your blog is reminding me of all those moments. Familiar brand names on unfamiliar goods. Learning new words for the most obvious things ("natural" - of course!). Going to church and sometimes seeing that all these people were connecting with God, but I couldn't find him anywhere because I just didn't know enough of the culture to know where to begin looking. (In 1990 I hadn't really heard of Vineyard, so maybe that wouldn't be so difficult now...)
It is a strange thing to feel foreign! But that's what you all are, and actually it is the most enormous privilege. "Strangers and aliens" get a really good deal from God. Being one certainly teaches you why you need that good deal - and how to give it to others.
I am glad to have found your blog - I shall continue to read with interest, though somehow I don't think you'll continue to make every day as fresh as they have been so far: Day 23 - nothing unusual happened today. Day 46 - we took everything in our stride - what's happening to us?
But given that it is a couple of months since you came over here for my birthday party, I really must sort out that return visit in the summer so I can check it our for myself!
Thanks Marcus - of course we'd love you to visit exiles-central. I promise not to do too many no-news-postings, but the thought of a day when we've nothing to say is not altogether unattractive. Fortunately, no-one but myself is forcing me to write an entry every day.
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