It was hot and muggy, and I could barely hear Margo on the phone as we drove through the rain. But it was really happening. The long ago prayer, the hope once almost forgotten, was really happening. The prayer was to return to the mission field. The hope was love - the reason I came home from Africa, almost a decade ago. To pursue nursing and to learn to be rather than do.

And now James and I were starting the journey. Back to Tanzania as long term Missionaries. First stop, St. Augustine Florida, Orthodox Christian Missions Center, New Candidate Orientation - training for new Missionary candidates, and orientation to life as a missionary couple.

In our classes, as we discuss aspects of missionary life I am reminded of the book of Ruth, because we are learning to say to Christ, as Ruth did to Naomi, “Wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people will be my people."

We are learning to love incarnationally - love robed in flesh, as Christ loved us. Our goal is love. In the midst of the struggles of missionary life, we remember that love is there. God is there. Am I quiet and still enough to be present with God and with those around me?