He's Home

Seriously, 3 weeks, 3 weeks ago, sounded like an eternity, yet here we are on the other side of it and oddly enough, we all survived. I couldn't wait to hug, kiss, smell and love on that boy of mine, and when the moment arrived it was all I had built it up to be and more. My boy - home safe, healthy, happy, glad to see everyone, the same boy I said goodbye to 3 weeks ago and sent off on a trip 3/4 of the way around the globe.

And yet, he is different; I see it in his face, hear it in his voice and witness it in his eyes.  He left a piece of himself over there in Indonesia, and he brought something else back. This is not a bad thing, but the realization that a piece of my baby boy was left in a world that I know nothing about, is a little bitter sweet. I know that part of him will accomplish amazing things with the people he met and they will be forever changed because of it. Like the  little Indonesian boy, about 7 years old, who led him in pitch black darkness, by the hand, through the mountain mist, on a rugged, rock strewn path, to a hut high in the Indonesian mountains, to spend the night with 14 men who could only communicate  with word pictures. How this little boy, although he couldn't communicate with language, spoke a language of the heart that is universal - love that was shared that altered both of them forever. I can't wait to hear about all of it. Just as Rem was changed by the experiences he had and the people he met,  Remick will have transformed some of the lives of the people he encountered a million miles away. The knowledge of this makes me a little sad, but also so very proud and inspired by the man that he has become, and that God has worked in and through that boy of mine, to accomplish His will and to allow a small town Vancouver boy and his team to discover new worlds, forge new trails, and bless the lives of people in faraway places. Do I wish I could have been with him to witness all that the Indo team accomplished? Absolutely!  But I would never take this experience away from him because of my own selfish desires. He has only begun to share his journey with us, and I can't wait to hear more. For now, I am thanking God for allowing him to have experienced this and so very grateful for his safe return. What an amazing God we serve, and how I am reminded that He created all of this world, all of His peoples, and how he uses even "the smallest of these" to bless us in ways we could never have dreamed of.
Welcome home my son - it is so good to have you back.