I'm Home

Hello All,
I am officially back in America and it feels great. I drove my car today for the first time in over a month! I was so excited. I almost forgot how to use the clutch! Haha. It is nice to be independent again and be able to go where I want to when I want to. Though I had the same freedom in Oxford, there I had to go on foot, now I have MY CAR. :)

I got back yesterday at 2:50pm and went straight to dinner with my parents at Taco Bueno. I missed Mexican food so much! I am going to eat it again tonight for dinner. It is funny how much I missed a type of food.... But you don't realize how much you like it until it is gone! Hopefully in the next week or two I will calm down about Mexican, but until then Tex-Mex it is! :)

It was so great to see my parents at the airport yesterday. I felt a huge weight lift from my back as I exited the gate. I realized I was really homesick but I didn't realize just how much I was ready to be back. I learned so much from my time in Oxford and the Lord was so faithful to show me how to cling only to Him, but MAN did I miss my friends. Being in Oxford was fun, but I have never felt so alone before. It is weird to go to a foreign country alone. I met some interesting people and all, but I could not shake my feeling of loneliness during my whole trip. I didn't like it. I felt like myself, but not at the same time. I wasn't depressed, I was just lonely all the time.

I decided I don't like being outside of the body. I think that God blesses us with fellowship for a reason and I don't like having no support system where I live. I did not meet a single Christian during my entire trip. Not one. Which was odd, because when my friend Mel came to Oxford for a week she met several (from Houston I might add) on the street. I don't know if I specifically didn't meet any because the Lord was teaching me something, but I didn't meet another believer. I think this made my homesickness harder. But I learned that at the end of the day, we need to depend solely on the Lord and not on other believers. (This is a lesson I have learned several times, but God always seems to teach me again in new ways.) I place my faith in the Lord alone, yes, but on a daily basis I have so much support that spurs me on to the goal. In Oxford that was not the case, and the Lord had to sustain me Himself. It was a wonderful time, but as a person who LOVES fellowship, it was quite hard for me.

So, being back in Texas and surrounded by my support, my prayer is that I would continue to apply what the Lord taught me during my solitude. I pray that my fellowship with Him would not be diminished by my fellowship with the body of Christ. :) And I pray that I would not take my wonderful friendships for granted!!!

I really did have an amazing summer and I am so thankful for my time in Oxford. But it is good to be home! I can't wait to see everyone!