Sarah Hundley

“Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.” – James Baldwin

I’ve been thinking a lot about home recently. Where is my home? Is home made up of human beings, the people who know you best and the expectations that come with that? Is home a place, an actual location that you make your own, the place you grew up, or the place you lived the longest? Or is home your happy place, not necessarily an actual location, but a state of being? Maybe home is all these things and more. I wasn’t quite sure until today.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what home means because during midterms (the gathering of a Global Mission Fellow cohort by GBGM about halfway through our service for a time of debrief and reflection) my cohort and I attended the Ecumenical Advocacy Days conference in Arlington, VA. At the conference, we were given name tags with our “home” printed beneath our names. For the first time in my life, my home was listed as a place that wasn’t Virginia. I really struggled with that, especially because I was the only person from Oklahoma at the conference and I kept running into people from Virginia. I had to ask myself if Oklahoma is home. If not, what or where is home?

“The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” – Maya Angelou

Right now, I don’t feel like Oklahoma is really home. To be honest, I don’t know if Oklahoma will ever feel like my safe place, and I think I’m okay with that, so geography seems less important. In terms of it being the people you love, my favorite poet has a line in one of her incredible works that says “you can’t make homes out of human beings, someone should have already told you that” (Warsan Shire). It’s a line that has always stuck with me. How can human beings be home if they can leave you?

Well folks, I think I found my answer. I came to the conclusion today. I don’t believe I need to worry about finding my home because I think it has been there all along, waiting for me to recognize it. I think you find it in God. Not to sound too preachy, but God seems to be the best source of comfort, safety, and love a person can find. We tend to focus pretty heavily on the part where we’re not worthy of the love God has for us, but I think it’s more important to focus on the part where despite everything, God loves us through it. God can be found everywhere. God is steadfast, unwavering in love for us. What is more powerful and shouting of home than agape love? So if you’re like me and you’ve been trying to figure out where home is, try finding it in God.

Thank you, Mother Father Creator God, for your agape love and your allowance for us to find home in you. Amen.

Sarah Hundley

The Gallery After School Program

Oklahoma City, OK

Global Mission Fellow US-2, Class of 2015-2017

#3022080

Every day is a new adventure with my kids. I call them my kids because as much as they drive me nuts, and sometimes I genuinely think they’re trying to kill me, I love them to bits. From 3:15pm to 6pm every Monday through Thursday, there are 15 kids attending The Gallery after school program that I have been running since I got here in late August. We have been through a lot. The program changed churches over the summer, it combined with the after school program at the new church, and I am the new director. We have kids returning from last year and new kids that have never attended before. Transition is hard for everyone and this was no exception.

Despite having an outline for what we were supposed to do, things were chaotic and to make matters worse, the kids weren’t getting along. There was a great divide between the kids from Oklahoma City schools and Putnam City schools. They called each other awful names, blamed each other for things they had done, refused to sit together. Finally, I had had enough. We were a month into the program and if anything, things were getting worse. They sat at different tables and never spoke to one another unless they were playing soccer or they wanted to be mean to each other. I gave them an ultimatum. They had two days to start sitting next to each other at snack time or I would start assigning seats. The first day they still sat apart and when snack was over, I reminded them of what I said. The second day, with the threat of assigned seats hanging over their heads, a few of the Oklahoma City kids went to sit at the table with some of the Putnam City kids. By the end of that first day of combined groups, two of them were inseparable. Two months later, all the kids have become friends and miss each other when someone doesn’t show up. They help each other with homework and invite one another to play together outside. Once they let go of the assumptions they had of one another and got to know each other, friendships bloomed. What a beautiful thing to witness and what an example for the rest of us!

We have all been victims of assumption, of stereotype, of judging the book by its cover. We know how painful and detrimental it can be to be written off before anything even happens. Isn’t it time we stop letting those things get in the way of great potential? How is that sharing the love of Christ with everyone? This holiday season, I challenge you to let go of your assumptions and spread God’s love to everyone you meet. Love is immeasurable because there is no limit to the amount of people with which you can share it.

Sarah Hundley