Transition

I feel like I'm through the worst of it. It's been a pretty rough 3 weeks, but I feel like things are going to get better from here. I feel optimistic today. I'm officially the Team Leader for AfricaHope and today led a successful staff meeting and have my office almost set-up. The rains lately have brought green back to the grass and trees and the flowers are blooming. Things are looking up.

About 3 weeks ago when we got back from the Triennial conference, Erin and I jumped straight into transition and training--plus we were also preparing budgets and plans for AH's programs for next year and for our big annual meetings. 

I knew there were a few things weighing on me, but I still couldn't believe that I was stressed to the point of tears everyday. I remember in college learning about these "stress tests" from my psychology study and going over a version of one in my training to move overseas earlier this year. I went online and found a similar test just to see what the results were. Here are some of the things from the test:

-Change in living conditions, check (I just moved countries)

-Change in residence, check , (plus into a new apartment last week)

-Change in recreation, social, church activities, check check check

-Change in sleeping habits, eating habits, check check

-Change in number of family get-togethers, CHECK

Did I mention learning a new language? Changes in my job? Living cross-culturally?

So, the test said that if you scored over 300 you had a 90% chance of getting an illness. Uh-oh! My score was 364! The test made me relax a little, just knowing that there are a lot of things weighing pretty heavily on me right now. Culture stress is pretty strong around the 6 month mark, and that's right where I am.

God is good. He's sustaining me. He never changes and He's with me here in Kenya no matter what "transitions" come my way.