Homesick!

Written By Deirdre (An AF Wife):

I’m in Okinawa, Japan. It’s like paradise here. It’s a sunny day today. Our home is by the ocean and the water is beautiful.....blue and clear. I drive down the street to see palm trees and just think to myself how lucky I am to be here. But, that feeling passes and I start to feel down. I start to miss my friends and family and my hometown, Baltimore, MD, and I start to feel down.

Facebook is supposed to remedy this situation but it doesn’t. I look at pictures of my friends, laugh but then my laughter turns to tears. They are saying funny things online and imagine myself in their presence as they are saying these things. I remember just hanging out with my family with my mother’s hands going through my hair as she brushes it; yes I still get this treatment at 27. Now it’s gone.....well at least until I visit home.

“Girl....sorry correction these are my friends.....GURL, YOU SHOULD BE THANKFUL” I’m told often. Also I hear, “Oh, whatever I’m so over that two years ago, this feeling will pass!!” I feel like screaming to them.........”HELLO PEOPLE....SECOND TOUR OVERSEAS!!!” I scream that “I do miss you guys and I do want to come home."

Well I prayed took this matter before the Lord and he tells me that he would never leave me.......nor forsake me. That he has always known about this and that the plan of me being in overseas for two tours was always in the making. He reminded me of my passion of foreign countries and love for different cultures. I was also able to travel to Spain at 15 funded by a single mother who saved to send me. I had a blast with my friends and vowed to take many trips after Spain.....8 countries later......I still commit to this vow. I grew up with a single mother and I was poor, my family told me I would never have enough money to travel. Well actually they were right......somewhat.....the military actually pays me to travel....it’s even better.

Also, I reminded of the fruits of the spirit which are fruits that are apart of me. These fruits allow compassion and love to overwhelm me. I see people on the streets, the prostitutes and the homeless. The hungry, the unsaved, and unchurched. Also, on base the deployed spouses, the spouses who practically single parents are raising children while mommy or daddy works or the people like me who are far away from home and are homesick; or my husband who comes home from a long day at work to sit, eat my cooking and cuddle. They are the reason that I’m here. They are my ministry.

So yes.......homesickness is a feeling that is normal. And it is something that I have not gotten used to......and something I work through. But I feel as though I called to something here; something bigger than me that is in me....and apart of me.

Hey, there are some bases that are not “cool” and are boring. Not as exotic as Okinawa, but I challenge you all to find your ministry at your base wherever you are. Find the thing that drives you to become closer to the person that he wants you to be. Go where he wants you to do. Take this unique as a military wife and make the most of it.