Oct. 13, 2017 ~ The Gift Bestowed
All this hurrying will soon be over. Only when we tarry do we touch the holy. Rilke A summer morning finds me sitting by an open window in Café Don Diego, a small café near the plaza with the yellow and white La Iglesia de Merced. Homework (tarea) is spread across the small wooden […]
May 14, 2017 ~ Wondrous Beauty
All the beauty of this world is wet with the dew of tears. Theodor Haecker She folds into me like a small child and rests her head on my chest. So tiny and frail she seems now. So childlike and innocent. I hug her, tight, once more and turn to climb into the passenger seat […]
May 3, 2017 ~ Clean Water, Food and Fun
Kenyan Deaconess getting water…. I want to give a little shout out for the fifth annual Taste of Loomis on Friday, June 16, 2017 from 6:30 -10:00 P.M. Each year, this event grows and tickets for last year’s event sold out! So, buy yours now. “OK, so what is this Taste of Loomis and why […]
Feb. 10, 2017 ~ Embodied Mercy
Tomorrow a young mother will be buried next to her father near her childhood home in rural Kenya. She leaves behind her three-year old daughter. Janet’s story is a bleak reminder of the need for improved healthcare for those who cannot afford to pay. She had grown used to the shame that surrounded her. Shame […]
Oct. 29, 2016 ~ 30 million Kenyans cannot access clean water
It was an unlikely meeting one April morning, 2012. She, not even thirty. Me, nudging into middle age (OK, I was plunging into middle age, not liking it one bit). Mutual friends kept insisting that we meet because of our travels and work in developing countries. And so one sunny morning we met for tea. […]
Oct. 16, 2016 ~ Love is Born
Shock as new widow ‘strangles, dumps baby in toilet’ “A village in Githunguri, Kiambu County, was in shock yesterday after a woman allegedly strangled and dumped her two-week old baby in a pit latrine. When the body was retrieved, residents of Kamburu Village suspected that the 40-year old woman was embarrassed after giving birth to […]
Nov. 27, 2016 ~ Gratitude and Advent Longings
Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world. JOHN MILTON, 17TH-CENTURY ENGLISH POET Matongo, Kenya We’ve rounded the corner of Thanksgiving and moved into Advent. Advent is a season of reflection, quiet and longing—a preparation for the One who […]
Sept. 19, 2016 ~ Leaving on a Jet Plane
All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go… OK, I WISH, all my bags were packed and I was ready to go. Sunday, 18 September 2016 Awaking at 4:30 on a Sunday morning and try as I might, unable to go back to sleep. My mind on alert and captive to the to-do list […]
Aug. 27, 2016 ~ Mercy Ever Ancient. Ever New. St. Augustine
I’ve had some time off these past few weeks and have filled it with resting, reading, walking and more often than I’d like, catching the ever shifting news. Tucked in amongst the tirades of presidential candidates, the gold medals of Olympiads, (some tarnished by bad behavior) appear heart-stopping images of victims of war and bloodshed […]
May 8, 2016 ~ She Walks in Beauty
“To love someone means to see them as God intended.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky My mama about age 11 Ten years ago, I sat by my mother’s bedside as she was recovering from surgery. I don’t remember the exact context of our conversation but I was prompted to ask, “Mama, what is your greatest fear?” Her reply […]