.home.

We spent the past week visiting both our parents in Serbia.

It was our first longer visit (nine days!) in quite a while, and being there for longer than the usual few days gave us more time to spend in the town. The town where I grew up, Subotica. Going about different errands, or just walking around lake Palić with my parents brought back so many memories. I caught myself walking - or actually, running - down memory lane soooo many times - when strolling down the walking street called Korzo, I was reminded of all the times I strolled down there as a little girl with my mom or dad, as well as the times I was there as a teenager with my girlfriends - yes, you guessed, checking out the boys! And then, while we were sipping iced-coffee by the lake the other day, they started playing music from my oh, so important teenage years. One song after the other revoked memories that flooded my mind, almost to the point of overwhelming.

But each time memory-lane hit, there was something wrong, and it took me a while to put my finger on it: the places look the same, but that's about it. Everything else has changed. For starters, the country is very different than it used to be (and it's not just the name that's changed from Yugoslavia to Serbia). Not worse, just different. The people have changed. So many familiar faces that I used to see on those strolls are gone now, and there are so many new faces that I don't know.

And then: I have changed. I realized that more than ever before on this trip. I am a very different person now than I was when I left for college in Budapest at the age of eighteen. God has changed me, and the experiences I have gone through with Him, living in a different country, meeting so many people have all influenced who I am today.

Realizing and thinking about all this made me feel a bit homeless, which, in all reality, I am. All Christians are - here on earth. Our home is elsewhere, and it is so much more amazing than any place here on this planet, even one that evokes emotional memories.

All this made me remember a verse that the Lord gave me years ago, confirming my call to missions:

Blessed are those whose strength is in You, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. (Psalm 84:5)