I’m about as far from my Colorado Springs downtown neighborhood as possible. The organized streets and neon lights of a modern city fade far away as asphalt yields to a rutted, mountainside-hugging dirt road, and then to a slice in the forest where men on motorcycles cluster. I straddle a bike behind a smiling Vietnamese…Read more Who Is My Neighbor?
travel
Where I Saw Jesus in Vietnam
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Matthew 5:8 I walk down a path, rutted and baked in the sun. Red dirt stretches to blue sky, rimmed by green jungle and weathered gray wood structures. They watch, two small girls, framed in a doorway as we near their home. Behind…Read more Where I Saw Jesus in Vietnam
Vietnam – So Much More Than a War
The tank squats low and heavy in the middle of the city at the center of a roundabout, a giant hunk of refuse. Dark, cold metal, it absorbs the tropical light like a black hole. Afforded monument status, it reveals a past seemingly out of congruence with the idyllic mountain town facade, an ugly scar…Read more Vietnam – So Much More Than a War
So Simple, Yet So Profound…
It was a misunderstanding, we discovered later. But at the time, just after a morning worship service, we thought we had been invited to an exorcism that evening. So as the news passed to me, I bowed my head with two teammates, and we prayed. Around us swirled the activity of a church parking lot,…Read more So Simple, Yet So Profound…
Vietnam, fires, and Christmas…
Vietnam, fires, and Christmas.... my excuses for disappearing from the blogging world since late October! (Lots more dramatic than saying my dog ate my rough drafts... although that could happen.) Vietnam: Still can't believe I got to do this - absolutely amazing trip to Vietnam with a Hope's Promise Connection Team in early November. We witnessed the…Read more Vietnam, fires, and Christmas…
A Longing Fulfilled (Return to Vietnam)
In 2015, on a snowy morning in Colorado, memories of Vietnam (blog entry: Longing for Courage) danced in my head. Ironic, on the eve of a longing fulfilled, ticket in-hand to depart for Vietnam tomorrow, snow once again paints white the Colorado landscape outside my window. In 2015, still buried in the crux of crisis involving…Read more A Longing Fulfilled (Return to Vietnam)
Speak for Those Who Cannot
There was a time in my life when trauma stunned me into silence. I unexpectedly learned about harm perpetrated against someone I love. A friend exposed the truth to me with kindness and sensitivity, but I walked away from the conversation shattered. I told no one even though surrounded by people who cared deeply…Read more Speak for Those Who Cannot
