Isaiah 26:3-4

Spring Break 2012: (Sparknotes)

Phase One (Zanzibar)

Easily one of the prettiest places that I've ever been. It is a very small island off the Tanzanian coast and is consistently rated as one of the worlds top tropical islands. Stone Town, which was formally a slave trafficking town is 99% Muslim. This town is filled with culture and amazing buildings, markets, and restaurants. The rest of our Zanzibar trip was spent on the Northern part of the island (about 2 hours away by car from Stone Town) at a beach resort called "Kendwa Rocks." It was absolutely stunning and possibly the prettiest beach I've ever seen. Not bad for $16 a night!

Phase Two (Bagamoyo)

Bayamoyo is a very small town sharing a coast with Zanzibar, sitting just parallel with the island. It's known for it's incredible powerful cultural influence that has been preserved, the Bagamoyo ruins, and the abundant talent in the arts.

Phase Three (Dar Es Salaam)

Dar Es Salaam is the capital city in Tanzania, and is one off the most developed cities in Africa.

So it was time for spring break, and life in Arusha had actually gotten mildly exhausting. Everyone looked forward to a relaxing beach vacation, and we were excited at the thought of a chance to run away from our worries and stresses. This vacation ended up easily being one of the most stressful trips I've been on, however. But hand-in-hand with that stress comes challenges and growth from Christ.

Every single girl on that trip ended up on Cipro. I got to accompany 3 girls to the hospital and wait bedside on their needs. The heat was quite overwhelming. Zanzibar Muslim's have a tendency to be very uninviting to tourists and visitors. Men at resorts and around Dar were very blunt, touchy, and disrespectful. I could honestly go on forever, but the point isn't to explain why the trip was bad. The point is to explain why the trip was amazing.

I found myself at each one of these moments longing for Arusha. Longing for my girls. Longing for the comfort of my familiar mosquito net. Upon our return back to our compound, I caught myself skipping into the house shouting "IT'S SO GOOD TO BE HOME!"

Home. This place a world away from all familiarity that I barged in on only 2 months ago... home. Home isn't my house in Fayetteville. Home isn't my house in Kansas City. Home isn't my house in Arusha, Tanzania. Home is my girls. Home is that feeling of comfort. Home is getting upset by a random Tanzanian boy and sitting on the beach talking on a long, long, long distance phone call with a very special man until my phone runs out of credit. Home is cringing when the doorbell rings because you know that dogs are about to bark. Home isn't a location, but a feeling.

As I was laying on the beach staring at the stars on my last night in Zanzibar, laughing about my "break," I realized that God had tricked me. I didn't need a week to rest my heart before getting back to work in Arusha. I needed to remember that there was a place for my heart to rest no matter what part of the world I was in. Christ created the most wonderful home that travels everywhere with me, right in the thicket of my heart. I always knew that I had a heart for missions, and I always knew that I heart for home. I just never realized that they were the same. My spring break was about God teaching me the beauty of appreciation. It was exactly what I needed, whether I knew it or not. My spring break brought me home.

And my home is perfect.

"Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

Genesis 28:15 (ESV)

Yours Truly