When it comes to explaining my life and its various adventures, I often use films or books as points of reference. In leaving South Africa, I felt like a Hobbit readying to leave the comforts of the place I had called home for two years. I just had to put one foot in front of me and keep on going, just as Bilbo Baggins did in Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Now, on the other side of the Atlantic pond, I can relate to a different story.

Tonight, while spending time with my parents, we watched one of my favourite Disney films, Tangled, a retelling of the fairy tale Rapunzel. In one of the main scenes, Rapunzel and Flynn Rider, the hero, are in a boat waiting for the release of the flying lanterns that mark the birthday of the missing princess. Rapunzel is staring out into the night, awaiting the moment that will fulfill a lifelong dream, and says, “I’ve been looking out of a window for eighteen years, dreaming about what I might feel like when those lights rise in the sky. What if it’s not everything I dreamed it would be?”

Flynn smiles at her. “It will be.”

“And what if it is?” She looks to him, seeking an answer. “What do I do then?”

“Well, that’s the good part, I guess. You get to go find a new dream.”

Since I was young, I have dreamed of living overseas on my own, taking that step into the great unknown with the world at my feet. That dream developed a smaller one: Africa. The dream of going to Africa became a reality when I left American shores in January of 2011. Like Rapunzel, I questioned whether my dream would fulfill all expectations. Two years have passed since then, and now I find myself asking Rapunzel’s second question.

With one dream fulfilled beyond expectations, I do not want to let go of it. I may be in the United States at this moment, but still I look back, clinging to the dream of yesterday. I do not want to forget, to lose that dream, because what do I do next?

Well, that’s the good part, I guess. I get to go find a new dream.

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I will always treasure those dreams fulfilled, but I know my life is not to be spent looking backward. I will not say leaving Africa was easy once I landed on American soil. The tears of loss still fall and my heart continues to falter when I see photos of students and friends left behind. I want to be back there with them all. School started on Monday, and it hurts to know that the new school year has started without me. However, I know that God has another path for me now. The Lord and I stood at the fork in the road together. He gently tugged me to the right and a fresh start in Moscow, Russia, while I longingly looked to the left pathway that would carry me into a third year in South Africa. I looked left, but the Lord led me down the right path.

I now have a new dream: to live and teach in Russia, a place that captured my curiousity many years ago. Preparations for Russia have been put into motion. I will be speaking via Skype with one of the administrators at the school in Moscow very late tomorrow evening due to the nine-hour time difference. I hope to have substantial information then about what this next year will bring.

In other news, I am preparing for Liberty University’s Missions Week in February. I will be hosting a table for Build the Nations, the organization I worked with in South Africa. I will be putting an information board together in the upcoming weeks, in addition to creating a brochure for college students to take with them. I am looking forward to the week-long event. Mr. Palmer will even be coming out for the last couple of days that week to join me, which will be such a blessing.

I also plan to update my blog in the next few weeks. I want to transform it into a full-functioning website that will provide more insight into what I am doing, how I can be easily contacted, etc. I will let everyone know when I plan to make the updates since the blog will be unavailable for viewing during that time frame. I have been researching the process, so I hope the updates will take no more than a week to complete.

Should you have a prayer list, here are a few things that could use additional prayer:

• That I would adjustment to life in the US once more
• That preparations for Russia would come along smoothly, particularly as I speak with the administrators there
• For LU’s Missions Week and Mr. Palmer’s flight to the US for the event
• Guidance as to what the Lord has for me in the next few months
• For Shayandima School of Tomorrow and my family in South Africa