Bitter Taste of Poison

I don’t know about you but the trouble here in this country over the last couple days was more than enough for a lifetime.  I’ve never seen times so troubled.  I wish I could offer some salve to help people but mostly what I have to offer is my faith and prayers.  The different steps to dealing with this as a nation are tough to go through.  It’s a myriad of feelings that go from one end of the spectrum to the other.  Being patient with one another and trying to remain kind when the politics and news is scratching at our door with rumor after rumor isn’t easy.  May there be extraordinary grace for this extraordinarily difficult time.  God bless America. 

Digging through my archives again I see through a window to a kinder and gentler time.  I used to love dressing up in my Dad’s fire gear.  Yes, that was me putting on my Dad’s stuff that he wore when working with the fire crew at the refinery.  It makes me lighter to see these pictures!  My dear brother Joseph lifting his hands for the shear blessing of a beautiful day on the Ghanaian coast or this wonderful house in Zurich, Switzerland where we had a layover before returning home to America.  The pleasant Swiss garden as we walked was such a joy to see…both then and now.  I remember one year we were in London waiting for our flight onward to India when a huge snow storm hit.  If I remember right our flight was delayed three days at least.  The best times I’ve ever had in my life were working in this nation and others doing good wherever I could.  Working with children in India was a common thing when I lived there.  One memory wasn’t so pleasant:  hours spent on hard floors in hot little churches.  There were chairs but it seemed I spent a lot of time on thin mats on cement floors.  Here we were coordinating a coming church event.  These young men were good friends.  I felt like I poured out my heart and soul to them…that’s the pastor and his wife next to me…I still wonder what’s become of them.  My Mom did a good job wearing local clothes…here she is at the church we were working with.  India had some of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen.  Sadly when I visited these I was terribly ill with dysentery .  Once I was on a beach closer to home when this family asked me to take their picture…good looking family if you ask me.  Here we are in front of Pastor Samuel’s house…boy did we look white.  This is me and Samuel’s associate pastor Charles.  How many hours we spent driving all over India in this van I cannot say.  Going out we would often see these shacks near where some road work was being done…temporary worker huts?  What always surprised me was how the weather could go from downpour to dry at the drop of a hat.  I have seen some real floods before and it didn’t always just seem content to stay in large puddles.  One day we went out to a bird sanctuary where birds from all over the world frequent…it was a very peaceful place.  Another amazing place had a stone they called the “butter stone”…it was said Krishna dropped some butter and it has become a stone that is immoveable.  Many have tried to move it without success…I have to say it made me somewhat nervous being near it.  Last one is the place where people were getting salt from the ocean…something I’d never seen before.  Stay strong my friends.  It’s never dark as it appears.  Blessings to you.