Of Typical End of Year/New Year Ponderings...

It is nearly 2007. This is the time of year when everyone sits back and ponders the year before, makes impossible resolutions for the next year and heralds the steady march of time with giant parties and loud noises. Last year I was in Khartoum at the Belgian Embassy with some friends and we shouted and cheered as the clock struck midnight. I wasn't too sure how I felt at that time, whether or not I was happy for another year, as I was just a few days shy of leaving Sudan after fourteen months of living amongst its destitute and marginalized. Still I cheered, whistled loudly, and clinked glasses with my buddy as we both cerimoniously took puffs on our cuban cigars.

This year is much more quiet. I'm at home. I didn't have the heart to go out and frolic the night away, spending money that I really shouldn't spend, so I decided to stick it out here with the fam. I've got a bunch of things to save up for in this next year, so saving money is a good idea. There are other reasons I want to be with my family, but I won't go into them here...at this point.

Most of you are aware of my adventures in 2006, but for posterity, and because it is the thing to do this time of year, I will list them here:

I came home from Sudan. On the way I met my younger brother Jordan in Frankfurt and we took a train to Rome for a week. As a tour group of two we walked the streets of Pompeii, marveled at the pomp and circumstance of the Vatican, stood in awe in the Pantheon and wandered the streets of a city worn with the hustle and bustle of the ages.

I bought a motorcycle.

I rode my motorcycle thirteen thousand miles around the United States visiting friends and family. There were several times where the only thought running through my mind was "this is the end." Well, it wasn't, although many people on their cell phones and in way too much of a hurry did their best to try and make it 'the end'.

I returned to Sudan, but was only there for a month and a half as I returned to the States to be best man in a close friend's wedding. Due to the tenuous relationship of the Sudanese and US governments I was not able to return to Darfur and instead sat in limbo, waiting and hoping that the tide would change and I would be able to return.

I met Sara Davis at my friend's wedding. She was the maid of honor. One thing led to another and now we are dating...well, not really...I can't call it 'dating' because I am not taking her out on dates. She lives in Illinois, a fact which makes 'dating' rather difficult. As she has told me many times about me I say now about her, "I think I'll keep her."

There are many other things I could list, but I'm not going to.

Happy new year! Mobrook al senna jadeed...

Jonathan

Of Life Observing the Fast Lane, Holiday Cheers and Developments...

Greetings my readers,

Life still rumbles on and I am finding that time is steadily sifting through my fingers like grains of sand and that in spite of intense desires and lofty plans (which, in my experience tends to cause time to drag on slowly) it is passing in such a manner that when a day is over I am left in awe at how quickly it came and went. There is much on my mind these days and I am staying busy and distracted with a steady job.

Operation Christmas Child, Samaritan's Purse's shoebox ministry, hired me shortly after I discovered with certainty that I would not be returning to Darfur, and for the past month or so I have been working as Dock Manager for the warehouse/processing center here in Boone. For the majority of the season I was privy to working hours that were delightfully pleasurable, coming in at 10:30am and leaving at 7:00pm. I was the only one working this 'swing shift', and served as continuity between the first and second shifts. Although it has ceased now, we were working six days a week, and hand in hand with thousands of volunteers our center received and cranked out around 500,000 shoeboxes.

Operations are still in progress, although it is greatly diminished, and I have been told that I'll be kept on until at least the end of the year. This is good news for me as I was not looking forward to having to find another job, but even now I am keeping my eyes open for something that will occupy me until summer.

One of the reasons that it is good news for me is that Sara comes on January 6 for eight days, and I won't want to be working during the time that she's here. If this job ends right before that, then I can relax with her for the week she's here, and then start right after she leaves.

Working in the warehouse has been a great job, full of fast paced days. My responsibilities were for all incoming and outgoing materials, the mounds of paperwork involved with that, and 'managing' a crew of guys charged with unloading and loading trucks. As often as I could I pitched in with unloading as it was a chance to stay active. Unloading a 53 foot trailer filled with 750 large boxes weighing 30-40 pounds a piece is a great workout.

Even though it was a pleasurable experience, something I can say largely because of the people I worked with, I'm fairly exhausted from it as for the entirety of the day I was standing and moving around on the concrete warehouse floor. I remembered how brutal concrete is on the human body from my hot dog stand days and forked out some dough for some shoes that really saved me.

Anyway, I'm finding it hard to comprehend that it is halfway through December, and nearly another year. I'm glad to be staying busy, and am not really disappointed that Darfur is no longer on my itinerary. God closed that door rather clearly, and so I now rest in the knowledge that I am where He wants me to be, doing what He wants me to do, and trusting Him for the future.

Merry Christmas

and

Take care,

Jonathan