In my very nomadic life it’s quiet normal that people often ask me where is home or where am I from? And, sometimes in my naughtiness, I make jokes like “I’m from North Korea!” and it’s interesting how many times people do think that I’m from there. I guess to some people Asians are all the same but as my Thai friends always say “SAME-SAME but DIFFERENT!”
Over the last few years I wrestled a lot with this question: where is home? I grew up in the Philippines but I haven’t lived there in the last 15 years (though I’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to come ‘home’ every year and sometimes multiple times a year in the last 15 years. The Lord has given me opportunities to travel to more than 60 countries and I have lived in The Netherlands, England and South Africa since I left the Philippines.
I know that Earth is not our permanent place of residence but it’s our temporary home for now until we see Jesus face to face. For now he’s placed us on earth on temporary assignment and it’s a human need to have a sense of home. And that’s quite normal as long as we don’t forget also to live life with remembering the reality that there is a place that is so much better than here and that we are meant to live our lives here in preparation into our transition to our eternal home.
If earthly home is where you have friends that you hang out regularly multiple times in a year and where you leave your belongings and where you have a bed to come back into, then my earthly Home is definitely South Africa (for now!). It’s a place where I long to come to and rest from all my wanderings. I thank the Lord for provision of a place to come back to, after sleeping into many types of beds.
I heard once from a speaker in a TED talk (http://www.ted.com/) that “movement only has meaning when you have a home to come back to”.
When I was reading and reflecting on the life of Samuel I was encouraged as I learned how “he moves around year to year on a circuit from Bethel, to Gilgal to Mizpah judging Israel in those places but that he always went back to Ramah, where his home was and there he also judged Israel.” (I Samuel 7:16-17)
I feel like my life is kind of similar to that of Samuel where I travel and get involved in many expressions of ministries all over the world, mobilizing and networking Christians to be lifestyle missionaries and career missionaries. I participate myself in reaching the lost, the last and the least globally but whenever I’m home in Cape Town I engaged myself locally as well in what the Lord is doing and how He wants to use me.
I know CAPE TOWN is where I reside but you probably won’t see me there much but nevertheless it’s where I consider my earthly home for now until Jesus calls me to move into another geographical location or calls me to my Eternal Home.
Let’s continue to deposit treasures in Heaven where our Eternal Home is!