Better is one day in Your courts...

I think there must be a time on every trip that you just want to go home. For me the homesickness hit bigtime on the flight back from Australia. A timely tax refund meant that I could afford the flights from here (it’s considerably cheaper than flying from the UK!) to Brisbane to see an old friend that I hadn’t seen in ten years. I’m not sure if it was being back in Western society, or if it was spending time with old friends that reminded me of home, but on the plane home I suddenly found that I was crying. I had a whole row to myself so nobody noticed, but the tears just kept coming. By the time I landed in Singapore I was so sad and so desperately homesick that I just wanted to go home.

I sat on a bench in the brand new terminal 3 of Changi airport (it just opened the day before) and worked out that I probably had enough money in my bank account to buy a ticket and that there wasn’t really anything left in Davao that I needed to collect so I could just buy a ticket and be home the next day. I wanted to go home so badly. I wandered through the terminal looking for a ticket agent. The next thing I knew I had walked through immigration and was getting into a taxi going to my hotel! As we drove out of the airport there was the most amazing thunderstorm with torrential rain just pouring down. I love storms so I was instantly distracted and by the time I got to my hotel for the night I was feeling a bit braver and not quite so tearful. The next day I got up and caught my flight back to Davao.

On Sunday afternoon I went to the mall to buy some groceries and as I stood in the queue (around 15 people deep) one of my favourite Christian songs started playing. (I still think it’s weird that they play Christian songs in the supermarket!) It’s from Psalm 84 about how it’s better to spend one day in God’s presence than spend a thousand days elsewhere. It just reminded me that this is where I’m supposed to be, that this is place that I’ve been lead to. I started singing along (it’s quite normal for people to sing out loud in public here, that’s also weird) and all my homesickness went and I was so happy to be here. It’s an amazing feeling knowing that you’re fulfilling part of your destiny! And I also love how God speaks to me in ordinary ways, like when I’m in the supermarket, while I’m buying chocolate milk. God is an awesome God. But he’s also the God of small things, and normal places. And I’m realising that more every day.