Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude. It is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrong. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Love is a video message of a friend showing me my face was the featured missionary of the week in my home church bulletin.

Love is a bag of chocolate chips carried lovingly and intentionally in a suitcase from a friend coming from the US.

Love is a student seeking me out at my house to ask me if I’m going to come play football (soccer) with them today since I joined them twice last week.

Love is a friend running with me, a way to exercise our legs and clear our minds as we run over dirt roads, and big hills, a view of the valley off to the left, monkeys circling above.

Love is seeing a friend who sometimes runs with us, and walking with to her house first, chatting on her porch as she gives us biscuits (cookies) before starting said run.

Love is a mug with African animals in the shape of the continent printed on it, a gift from my mentor who worked here at RVA for 25 years and coached me on my journey who is in town to visit and knew I just celebrated my first Christmas away from my family.

Love is my church from college putting me in the prayer calendar last week and having not one or two, but three strangers email me telling me they are and have been praying for me, sending me encouraging verses and words of truth to uplift my soul.

Love is an outdoor patio brunch, laughing so hard we fall out of our chairs around a card table filled with new friends behind masks a few feet apart.

Love is lending an umbrella when the thunder starts rolling and the skies begin to leak at the beginning of a fifteen minute walk home.

Love is a package sent from across the world filled with chocolatey-goodness in the form of the worlds best hot chocolate recipe and ingredients, literally liquid gold in a cup and a friend willing to pay the arm and a leg it took to get here, a gift I get to share with my friends and neighbors on cold rainy afternoons like today.

Love is a video call with a friend in North Africa, chatting about similar transitions and experiences as we both navigate learning new cultures and homes six months into living in a new place.

Love is a video call message from a friend who lived in Brazil for two years, teaching at a similar international school, sharing her insight and what she learned about how to acclimate to the wearying newness that comes with living in a new culture.

Love is running into a friend at our only local restaurant and suddenly having a party of four instead of two on the patio tables as kittens weave through our legs looking for scraps falling from the table as the sun falls in the sky.

Love is white bean chili on a porch the size of two couches pushed together, wind howling through the trees and whipping past the building as soup warms our bellies and company warms our hearts.

Love is a friend noticing my package in the mailroom and backtracking on their trip home when they see me on their way to let me to use their mailroom key to open the door for package retrieval.

Love is plopping down in the chair opposite me in my yard, crocheting in hand as I eat my hastily made lunch following a morning of online teaching.

Love is a smirk from teenagers, begrudging laughter at my ridiculous attempts at humor.

Love is being given a key so I can play piano when I need to decompress through music in a way that just doesn’t happen without white ivory under my fingers.

Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude. It is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrong. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8