There and Back Again...

I’m back! After spending 8 days in New Zealand for a long vacation, I feel… tired. I don’t want to come back! I want to stay there forever! Looking at my inbox, I want to run away… away from it all. But then… this is life, isn’t it? Work. Ministry. I am beginning to see the many threads that I’ve left hanging before I went. So many things I need to do. But at least I managed to get them off my mind for awhile.

I’ve been really concerned about kidney stones before I went. Guess what… no pain at all throughout the eight days. God is indeed wonderful! No doubt it was a very selfish prayer… to ask God for no pain so that I can enjoy myself over there… but for some reason He chose to answer that selfish prayer. TRUST – that was the word I got from God the few weeks before we left for NZ. Not just in terms of my own health, but also in ministry and every other area of my life. Thank You! I’m speechless! Most of all, thank You for the wonderful time spent together with Mom and Dad… and of course, Agnes... the trip wouldn’t have been the same without them.

We enjoyed scenic New Zealand. And I do feel like running away from some of the things here. For a nature lover like me, New Zealand was paradise. No doubt I would love to go back there one day… but there is something familiar about this place… the rude people, the hot weather, the damaged public property, the traffic jams, the litter everywhere and the stink… yes… this is HOME… and I’m glad to be back! Not to mention the great food! And great friends as well!

Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains of the moon.

Roads go ever ever on
Under cloud and under star,
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that fire and sword have seen
And horror in the halls of stone
Look at last on meadows green
And trees and hills they long have known.

~ Bilbo Baggins, from the Hobbit