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
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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
Mathare Valley Children
Mathare Valley in Nairobi, Kenya, sprawls in the equatorial sun, harsh and desperate. Six square miles of corrugated metal shacks overflow with half a million people. Here, children are born into deprivation, starvation, abuse, and disease. All the more startling, then, is the light and life in their eyes. Even the worst of this world…Read more Mathare Valley Children
My Secret Is Out…
I’ve been keeping a secret for five years. It started as fragments – scenes flitting through my mind, snippets of conversation coalescing, personalities merging into characters. When I was five years old, I wrote and illustrated a series called “Jumpy the Frog,” and planted seeds of a lifelong dream. Five years ago, almost forty years…Read more My Secret Is Out…
