Shame on me

I'm a bad sister. Alaina is in Mombassa, Kenya right now at a YWAM Discipleship Training School. She left in September and won't be home until February. This is her first time away from all of her friends and family for an extended period of time.

Since she's been in Africa, I have chatted with her on MSN messenger once and joined in on the family's phone call to her at Thanksgiving. But I haven't sent a single email.

She has a blog and I read it faithfully. Acually, I do more than read it; I'm her editor. It's my job to add photos and formatting since she it's more challenging from via her Internet connection. So I feel like I'm somewhat involved in her life there, but I still haven't written an email!

I should know better. Every time I've been abroad, I have longed for word from home. Even though I loved what I was involved in, I always wanted to stay connected to the community I had left. I would leave comments at the end of group emails (blogs weren't popular back then) that hinted at my desire to receive "status reports" from my friends and family, (ok, I probably should say begged...) but few people would respond with emails.

Now I realize that most people were thinking, "There's not much going on here. What does she want me to write about...what I had for supper?" That's a fair argument, and actually the one that I use every time I think about writing and don't. But the correct answer is: YES! Yes, she wants me to write about what I had for supper or the fact that I got my midterm grades completed or that my husband wrote a paper on blogging in the classroom or that I had a funny conversation yesterday. It may seem dumb and insignificant, but it's just so nice to be remembered and included in the day-to-day business that you're missing.

Shame on me! I know the value of getting some news, albeit mundane news, from the homeland and I don't do it. But I will. I'm off to send an email!


Sidenote: It worked out well for me that Darren wasn't one of those people who thought his life was insignificant. When I was in Chile he wrote me long, informative emails that helped me feel less abandoned by my Canadian consort. Of course it helped that he thought I was interested in him...but that's a longer story for another time.