Foreign yet Familiar: I stepped off the plane 3 weeks ago to greet a country both foreign and familiar. All at once, I was 19 again, young, green, and experiencing Georgia for the first time. In 1992 when my feet first hit Georgian soil I wanted to lay down and kiss it! Seriously! We had flown into Moscow a few weeks earlier and then taken a train from Moscow to Tbilisi. Can I just say that this is a guaranteed way to make your destination country feel like heaven? That’s how I felt when I got off that train. After 3 days on the train with a toilet that could inspire horror movies and various other challenges we faced on that part of the journey, Tbilisi felt like the promised land! Of course, there was no way to know that the train ride was just the beginning of situations that would stretch my 19-year-old self, but isn’t that the only way we walk forward into the unknown?

Svaneti, Republic of Georgia - photographed July 3rd, 2021 by Daniel Treat

As you can imagine (and many of you have heard) the stories are many. They tell of language barriers, crazy drivers, new foods, open-air markets, metros and buses packed with humanity, the lack of hot water, electricity turning off at random, water turning off at random, no heat, walking for miles and miles, no washing machines, infrastructure missing, trash in the streets, unemployment through the roof, no money to be made and desperation pressing in. (There are also a few stories about guns, grenades and ice cream, but I don’t want to digress…) In that year there were chapters about friendship, dinners that stretched into the night begun with electricity illuminating the laughter and food only to be finished by candlelight and the long descent down flights and flights of stairs in the dark. Tales of almost impossible trips outside the city to take in the beauty of the countryside and the unreasonable hospitality of a people under such an incredible weight but who over extended time and time again to welcome us in. It’s a beautiful story. The kind we all gravitate towards, it opens with a land pressed down by hardship but has so much potential. So much creativity and passion, talent, promise…all the ingredients for greatness. This was the state of the country I left in 1993 after a year spent within its borders.

And now? Coming back to Georgia is like meeting someone you knew as a gangly teenager all grown up into elegance and style with a few of the endearing quirks you remember from adolescence! So many things are deeply familiar, and yet much has changed here as well. As I’ve wandered through familiar and unfamiliar places alike, I’ve had this hunger to visually capture everything! So many of the photos I took in my head all those years ago have been possible to capture, and of course many remain only memories of a time gone by. This has been a very full-circle moment. 29 years ago I came here young and naive having given God my full-hearted yes. Having no idea where that yes would lead me. At 19 the hard and uncomfortable places pushed me right up to the edge and at some points over. Now at 47, I have learned that this is often how God operates. Then I had heard this saying “God never gives you more than you can bear.” And I believed that. Now I know that He often gives me more than I can bear because it is at this point that complete reliance on Him comes in. How do I do hard and holy things?, only by the Spirit of God in me. Back then it came as a shock to my Christian system that I had very graciously said yes to the question, “Will you go?” And God at that moment instigated my weight training! It wasn’t exactly what I expected… the sweat and tears. I maybe had the triumphal entry with rose petals falling gently to the ground while I gracefully walked the lily-lined path of obedience in mind. But the hard and beautiful road that unfolded before me was something of a shock! Today I can look back at my 19-year-old self and feel compassion for her bumbling, mercy for her stumbling, and just a little bit proud of her bravery. This land was a major step in my journey and will remain tattooed on my heart forever. I am so grateful to have had this full circle moment with you საქართველო!