.to be known.

this week has been a wonderful week! My church (wellington square) and 'sister church' (calvary) is here serving and building here at the EOC! It's so awesome to have familiar faces, to reunite with dear friends, to get to share my new home with people, to have people cheer you on, to know where the team you are working with has come from and is going back to.
what a privilege.
i realize this week how important it is to be known. to really be known.
how often in a day do we pass someone as say 'how are you?' only to keep walking without even hearing their response.
it's often because we are too busy, or too distracted. i can confess to both those excuses. and add in there some language barriers and you've got a recipe for some pretty surface conversations. you sometimes can't get to really knowing someone, or really being known among a community unless you take the time to really hear how someone is doing, to ask the good questions, or to stumble through some broken spanish to say more than just 'que pasa!?'.
these last few weeks I've been feeling that bridge is being built more and more. feeling more and more that I am here. i can be me. and people are learning who that is. i am being known.
this week in particular it's been incredible as i visit the work sites everyday how refreshing it is to have people, friends, mentors pull me aside and say, so how are you really?! hearing people who i hold in high regard encourage me... and tell me that I am where I am supposed to be.
i am blessed and proud to be apart of these two incredible communities where for this week they get to collide into a hilarious, meaningful encounter! I suspect it will be hard to have my team leave... good thing it's only wednesday.
for now, im off... to the hardware store.