A Foreigner

   I am a foreigner here in the Caribbean.  I still am even though some of my closest friends are people from here.

Every day walking around I get asked by strangers, "Where you be visiting from?"  

To which I reply, I live here.  

Yet they insist,  but where do you live?  

Here - Arnos Vale.  

Yes, but this is not your home. 

      This part used to aggravate me, because they base my home on my accent or my coloring. My kids know home as here for now.  From schooling here they saying common letters, instead of lower case letters.  They get proud and excited to see the Vincentian flag and know the national anthem by heart.  On a map they list the major cities of St. Vincent.

     I still will be foreign no matter how long we live here. And despite how hard I try or pray for or long for it is not something to be changed.  And when I look at Ruth from the Bible, I see the same.  I see she was continually known as Ruth, the Moabitess.

      It can be easy to focus on the cultural differences.  Maybe her dress, maybe her coloring, or her accent.  But, I love that Ruth's

story is more than any of that.  Her life was one of devotion and service and became a part of the story of the birth of Jesus.

    I love my home country and so thankful for it's many opportunities and freedoms and I love my new country of St. Vincent and am so thankful for the people here.  My heart and prayer is not to focus on my differences, but to focus on serving and loving.

Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you....

Where you stay I will stay.  

Your people will be my people and

your God my God."

Ruth 1:16