After too long a hiatus from writing, I feel refreshed and in need of some writing time.
I spoke with Clarisse yesterday for a good ten minutes, plus the 4 times I had to call her back because the connection kept cutting off. She is well along with all of the family. Her brother, who now works for a diamond company in Bania, has access to the Internet via a satellite down link and so we have been able to write back and forth. I recently gave him Clarisse's cell phone number (our old phone) and in the last four weeks he has been consistently calling Clarisse to find out how the family is. Unbelievable really. For the last five or more years he has been virtually inaccessible because of distance and no means of communication. Now that Clarisse has a phone they can be instantly (well, as long as they are in range of a cell tower) connected.
Clarisse said the gardens look great, the rains are steady and everything is growing well. I wish I were there. I have not remembered a more deeply sad time in my life. I am glad to be at ECHO, for if I had to be any place in North America it would be here. However, my heart longs to be in CAR, involved in the deep relationships that we have there, daily submerged in the sometimes messy lives of struggling people. I have yet to develop those kinds of relationships here. Maybe I just haven't gone out looking for them. Maybe I am too busy being sad.
I spoke with Clarisse yesterday for a good ten minutes, plus the 4 times I had to call her back because the connection kept cutting off. She is well along with all of the family. Her brother, who now works for a diamond company in Bania, has access to the Internet via a satellite down link and so we have been able to write back and forth. I recently gave him Clarisse's cell phone number (our old phone) and in the last four weeks he has been consistently calling Clarisse to find out how the family is. Unbelievable really. For the last five or more years he has been virtually inaccessible because of distance and no means of communication. Now that Clarisse has a phone they can be instantly (well, as long as they are in range of a cell tower) connected.
Clarisse said the gardens look great, the rains are steady and everything is growing well. I wish I were there. I have not remembered a more deeply sad time in my life. I am glad to be at ECHO, for if I had to be any place in North America it would be here. However, my heart longs to be in CAR, involved in the deep relationships that we have there, daily submerged in the sometimes messy lives of struggling people. I have yet to develop those kinds of relationships here. Maybe I just haven't gone out looking for them. Maybe I am too busy being sad.
Well, more on sadness later. Apparently sadness can mean becoming more like Jesus. We will see.
