Skeeter and I

Skeeter is the name of Christian and Jenni's dog. He has a sister named Kona. Skeeter injured his knee and had to have knee surgery to repair it. Since Kona is the hyper-active of the two, Christian and Jenni decided to have Christian's parents watch Kona while Skeeter was rehabbing his knee. This has made Skeeter a very lonely dog.

I moved into Christian and Jenni's house about three weeks ago. On the day I was moving in I suffered the most extremely lonliness that I have felt since I decided to move to the Czech. At first I didn't understand what was going on. I even found myself wondering if I should even go to the Czech. I immediately captured that thought as a lie from the devil and spent some time praying and listening to worship music. The feeling wouldn't pass though.

As I unpacked boxes and got my new room ready, Skeeter kept coming into my room. I don't particularly like animals (I don't hate them-I'm just indifferent), and I don't have lots of experience with them, but I could see the loneliness in Skeeters eyes. I thought about him some and I thought it was odd that he would be lonely even though I was there. I was being extremely friendly to him and petting him, but he kept wimpering...then I realized that he missed Jenni and Christian. Even though I look similar to the other humans that he normally sees and even though I do the same things that they do, he knew I wasn't his owner...

I think it will be the same for me in the Czech. I will be around many people. They will all do similar things that my friends and family do. They will speak, act, and live in a similar fashion to how people do things here, but they will be different. And I will experience lonliness.

I'm actually thankful for that period of lonliness. I feel that it was God's way of giving me a taste of what I will experience in the Czech. It really caught me off guard here, but I am still surrounded my family and friends who love me, so the lonliness has departed for now. I don't know what I would have done if that fit of lonliness had struck while I was in the Czech...it would've been very difficult for me to break out, but now that I have experienced it, I know how to pray for it and I know that I need to be praying about it and when that feeling of lonliness occurs in the Czech there will at least be some familiarity.