Friday, July 16, 2010

Where is home?

Recently I read the book Homecoming by Cynthia Voight.  In the book the 4 Tillerman children aged 13, 10, 9 and 6 are abandoned by there mentally ill mother.  They were on their way to their Aunt Cilla's house, so they continue their journey on foot hoping that they will be able to live with their 'great' aunt. Upon arrival at the house they find their aunt has passed away and her daughter Eunice is now living alone in the house.  Dicey, the oldest child, decides that Eunice's house is not the best place for her family, so they set out once again to find their grandmother they only just found existed.


Throughout their journeys Dice plays with the idea of what is home? One night when her family sleeps in a graveyard she reads the inscription on one of the head stones: “Home is the hunter, home from the hill, and the sailor home from the sea.” From this inscription Dicey concludes that no one is really home until they are dead and “[i]t was an awful thought.”

But, where is home?



For many of our students at ICSB this concept is just as hard to define as for Dicey. They haven’t been ripped away from where they called home on the account of their ill parents, but many of them move from place to place every three years or they may have lived in Hungary their whole life, but some people may still want them to call the United States (or where their citizenship is held) their ‘home.’  Even into adulthood some will with struggle with the question of where are you from? 


Perhaps as Christians Dicey’s idea that they are not really home until we die is true?  It is only upon our death or the return of Christ that we will be home with Christ. Our bodies and this earth are only temporary. Our true home is in heaven and this is not an awful though at all for those who love and worship Jesus Christ.

Where is home for you?

Thursday, July 8, 2010

When it rains it pours

The in June my computer power cord died due to a power surge.

As I was getting ready to go out to buy a new one I flicked on the switch to the pantry and it didn't work.  I thought to myself "how strange the bulb must have burnt out."  I proceed to get the toaster and the bread wouldn’t stay down.  I couldn’t believe it the light was burnt out, the toaster was broken, and I had no power going to my computer.  Then it dawned on me “maybe the power is out in the whole flat” and sure enough the fridge had no power either.

The power problem with my computer was not due to the power outage, so I ventured out into one of the hottest days in June.  Just walking the 10 minutes to the tram stop had me almost dripping with sweat.  I went to one store and then another and then another looking for a power cord.  No one had one.  The third place I went to looked up the Dell store address and directed me there, but it would have taken me over an hour to get there.  So instead I stared calling my friends to see if they had a Dell power supply I could borrow until I returned to Canada the next week.  No luck there so I went into the final computer store on Bartok Bela and sure enough they had one.

I paid for the power cord and a surge protector. I proceeded to the ATM to take out my rent money, but my ATM card didn’t work.  After trying another ATM and my card not working there either  I went home only to find the power still out.  One of my friends returned my phone card earlier and I was thankful that she would allow me to go to her flat, so I could Skype the bank.

I went to my friend's place, fixed the problem with my ATM card and headed to get my hair cut.  Of course coming back from getting my hair cut the tram was not running, so I had to walk to my English Home Fellowship Group.

Needless to say I was relieved to find the power on when I arrived home that evening.

For all of my friends who are learning English the day I just described gives the true meaning of the idiom - WHEN IT RAINS IT POURS!