I am so thankful to arrive in Canada during the 150th year! It's been quite the journey! I still remember when I felt God ask me if I was willing to try Canada. I was in a worship gathering in Colorado, when He gently poised the question.
Canada? I knew what that meant.
Reconnecting with my dad, who I hadn't seen for over twenty years, and asking him to apply for my citizenship. Canada had never been an open door for me and had not been on my radar for years, but the thought of losing the freedoms I had become accustomed to in America was part of the emotional preparation God used to prepare me for the very hard and humbling road I was to walk ahead. Every journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, and my first steps included a call to the Canadian consulate and an email to my dad.
But would he pull through?
Waving my white flag of surrender, I said goodbye to my home of more than a decade, and returned to my land and my clan (Leviticus 25:9). My visa had come to an end and if my time in America had taught me anything, I knew that if I wanted to be free, I would have to be brave (Supernatural Ways of Royalty). Brave enough to face my fear and unforgiveness; and eventually brave enough to meet my dad.
2017 was climatic in so many ways. Not only did I get special time with family, who now live all over the world; witness a momentous governmental transition in my nation, Zimbabwe, in the "coup that wasn't a coup"; but I also received my new citizenship. It took longer than expected, but when it finally came through, it was just in time for Canada 150. I still remember the reassuring words of the consular, as she gave me my papers, "Welcome home."
Yes, this process has been a homecoming for me. From my identity crisis as a Zimbabwean, who felt part American, and who was on a birth right journey to becoming a Canadian; to feeling like an emotional exile in my homeland; to the transitional anxiety of what it means to belong; to facing the darkness of my own personal grief in search of the light of dawn; to coming to a place of breakthrough and victory in the glorious power of God's infinite love.
And what better way to celebrate Canada 150 than at a gathering hosted by the ambassador. This is my season of Jubilee and God is restoring the double portion (Isaiah 61). Oh Canada!