New Year Greetings

The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.” 
― Melody Beattie, The Language of Letting Go: Hazelden Meditation Series

Greetings

As I sit here with the third day of the new year coming to a close I am so excited about the new year standing before me as a giant book of blank pages waiting for me to write the story and my first goal waiting to be realized. The goal to return to Akobo that has been waiting for a full year now.  It hardly seems possible that I have been waiting a full year and that I will be returning one week to the week since I was evacuated last year.

I have a whole new definition of “just a few weeks” until I can return.

I am still not quite sure I will actually end up in Akobo, a part of me will believe it when I am really there.   I know that I am better prepared for whatever God has in store, wherever that may be.  I have lived on the brink of uncertainty and learned that God is there waiting.  I have learned to have understanding and compassion for internally displaced people, returnees and refugees and those fleeing their homes with no certainty they will ever return in ways I never could have unless I had lived those experiences.  I know how to embrace each day with hope for what is to come and faith that it is God’s plan and to embrace the adventure it can be.

Looking back on the pages and chapters that were written,  I can see it has been an amazing year of  blessings I could never have imagined.  There is an album full of images of people, places and experiences engraved in my heart and soul.  I can see the many ways that God’s hand has been in all of it.  I am amazed by the many ways my life has been turned, shaped, stretched and blessed beyond all imagination.  I thank you  all for your part in it.

And so, as I look forward to returning to South Sudan next week, I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for the many ways you have blessed my life.  I pray that, as you look at the new year before you, all the chapters you will write in the books of your lives are as full of wonder and as rich as they may be.

My prayer for each of you is…

“May Light always surround you;
Hope kindle and rebound you.
May your Hurts turn to Healing;
Your Heart embrace Feeling.
May Wounds become Wisdom;
Every Kindness a Prism.
May Laughter infect you;
Your Passion resurrect you.
May Goodness inspire 
your Deepest Desires.
Through all that you Reach For, 
May your arms Never Tire.” 
― D. Simone

God bless you and keep you my friends until we meet again.

Shalom,

Sharon