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
war
Sole to Soul in Vietnam
My visits to Vietnam with Hope's Promise deeply impacted me (click the link to read the story of the painting above). I painted Sacrificial Love after one of these trips. Recently I had the great privilege of interviewing Dennis Pringle after his trip to Vietnam with Hope's Promise. I wrote the following article for the Hope's Promise…Read more Sole to Soul in Vietnam
Whatever It Takes
On Saturday, I received an urgent appeal for prayer. A friend with colleagues in Nigeria forwarded a prayer request from Bible translators working in the African country. The insurgent group Boko Haram poised like a python above Michika, a large, mostly Christian market town near the border of Cameroon, ready to strike in their march…Read more Whatever It Takes
Painting a Place Beyond
I discovered this week that writing about the American/Vietnam War stirred up a torrent of scary emotions. I often “think” in feelings, not words or even images, but currents of emotional energy. After I wrote certain phrases, they tossed around in my head like a bare branch in the wind. Then, as I reflected further,…Read more Painting a Place Beyond
Grappling with the American/Vietnam War, Part 2 (of 2)
continued from my previous post… The Vietnam/American War resulted in a sharp increase in orphaned and abandoned children. Between 1966 and 1974, the number of children cared for by orphanages more than doubled (The War Cradle). Thousands of abandoned children, especially Amerasian children, were evacuated because of the fear that they would be killed by…Read more Grappling with the American/Vietnam War, Part 2 (of 2)
Grappling with the American/Vietnam War Part 1 (of 2)
When I mention that I have traveled to Vietnam, I am acutely aware of still-festering wounds endured by many. Although the “Vietnam War,” as we call it in America, ended before I was old enough to comprehend the intricacies of international politics, I grew up aware of the conflicting rhetoric and high emotion that surrounded…Read more Grappling with the American/Vietnam War Part 1 (of 2)
Colleen Briggs Art & Writing 