Liminality is the word that denotes a "threshold", a quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of rituals, when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they will hold when the ritual is complete (Wikipedia). Many God's chosen servants have to go through such processes and rituals of liminality before they reach their full potential and fulfill what God has ordained for them. Even John the Baptist, a transitional figure lived in the wilderness or at the edge of the wilderness when crowds had to leave their cities and towns in order to hear John preached in wilderness of Judea. Jesus himself went through 40-day test in the wilderness before he returned to the cities and villages filled with the Holy Spirit to preach the coming kingdom of God. Jesus would from time to time return to the wilderness to take a break from ministry and then returned to the cities.
As for me, moving to Namaus is another step in such ritual of liminality where I encounter the forces of nature in the wilderness. Not only all kinds of insects I find in my room, but also the intermittent electricity supply is trying at the best of times. Only this morning we started for the first time to open the library on a Saturday, twice in a month (2nd and 4th Saturday), the electricity supply went off at 9:45am and a couple of students that were present vacated the library after a while. Power is back on now but the students have returned to their dorm. For that, a few days ago a colleague and I went to KK and purchased a generator to cater for situations where we need electricity for ongoing theological education in all its form.
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