It's been several weeks since my last blog, but I hope that you'll forgive me in light of my travels. My family and I are currently visiting family and friends in California. I left a week before Jess and the kids so that I could catch a few graduations. One broken plane part and TWENTY-FIVE hours later I arrived via Manila, via Tokyo, via Honolulu, and finally to Los Angeles. Praise the Lord I did arrive safely with all my luggage. Jess and the kids had a shorter flight, but kudos to Jess who managed to travel with four kids two of them under five (and a fifth child in her womb).
My friends David and Ruth Lowe, Cherisha, and Hiromi picked me up from the airport at about 10:30pm and we proceeded directly to Taco El Oso in Arleta (aw, the tacos of the gods). After reading Randy Alcorn's books in "Heaven", I'm even more convinced that Taco El Oso will be in heaven. Just past and to the right of the pearly gates. From there we went to Denny's for desert (Yes! Real ice cream), which I washed down with a caramel apple crisp. I lost about 12 pounds in the Philippines in about a year and a half, and I think that I may have gained it all back in the last three weeks. God Bless America home of the super sized everything.
It was a little strange being in the States again after almost two years. The first thing that struck me after getting off the plane was how opulent the Delta terminal is. Roman columns, marble floors. Everything was so clean, new, big, and brite. The second thing hit me while traveling through some neighborhoods that I remember to be kind of scary. Run down parts of the valley that are infested with gangs, drugs, and prostitution. I remember years ago being a little nervous while waiting at stop lights in these parts of town. However, things were different this time. These unkept and uninviting areas now looked so clean. The streets were so wide, the apartments were so clean and well kept. I even felt safe. Had things changed in these cities. I don't think so, I think that God has changed my perspective. I see the world a little differently now. My opinion of what poverty is and who are poor is not the same as it used to be.
I am also struck by my diminished compassion for those asking for money on the sides of the road or outside of restaurants. I just can't help remember the many faces that I see everyday in the Philippines who are asking for money because they have no where else to turn and are desperate to work. People who would thrive here with all the opportunities that many in the States are not willing to take for one reason or another.
The last thing that struck me is the growing feeling that while visiting the States I was not visiting home. This feeling actually started in the Philippines, but a sense of being a pilgrim or a man who is just passing through this world and is on the way to his home has been growing in me. I can't deny how beautiful America is. In just a few weeks back I can already feel the desire to stay. The air is so clean, the sky so blue, and the mountains are awesome. In spite of that, nothing here on earth satisfies. The more I travel and see the world, the more I sense that my real home lies somewhere else...Heaven. I can't wait to go there and be with God. Anyways, enough rambling. I will write more about our trip and post a few pics soon.
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