Packing suitcases is always a big challenge - what do you put in? what do you leave behind? what is indispensable? what isn't really needed? I am always intrigued when I return from a trip to see what never got used. I suppose I am one of those people who puts things in 'just in case'. But as I leave for Kenya on this trip I am having to think about three different types of journey - and I am not sure whether the task is made any easier by the fact that I have just discovered that we can take two 23kg suitcases per person. O the choice of what to take and what to leave! Most immediately there is the family holiday to consider. That part is easy - swimsuit, mask and snorkel, cotton clothes, sandals, bird book, binoculars (yes I am a birdwatcher!) . But then there is my 4 week secondment to the Presbyterian Church of East Africa and to Philemon Kenya. Will I need any books to help prepare sermons? Better take Common Order me thinks. It's a funny feeling leaving my library behind. I have been so immersed in books over the past few years and now I will be standing in a foreign country, miles from Scotland with nothing but the Bible and all I have ingested through years of study and placements. Then there is the actual move out to Kenya which I will be making later in the year. What can I take out now that I might need later? My youngest son, Aidan, will be starting school in Nairobi in August and he is packing all his worldly goods into 2 suitcases. What baggage we accrue as we go through life. In fact one of the good things about moving is that you get a chance to throw out all the junk that you never use or wear. Preparing for moving to Kenya is also an opportunity to look at what I will find most useful in all the training I have undertaken and what bits I may end up leaving aside. As circumstances change different skills and attitudes are needed at different times. This can be unsettling but the lure of a new place, new people, new situations always outweighs any reservations I might have. I have found it is the same with my faith as well. As new questions arise, as I face new situations, as I meet others and listen to their point of view I have a chance to reflect on what baggage I have been carrying around from the past, what is useful and what needs thrown out. So my cases are packed - but only for the journey. Its not good to pack things away for too long.
