When Children Soar Like Eagles

I started blogging in 2006 to have somewhere to share my experiences reading with orphans and vulnerable children in Tembisa Township.  We were living in near-by Kempton Park at the time.  (To read some of those early blogs see Lindiwe's Friends.)  We have since moved back to the United States.  I return to South Africa once or twice a year and always make it a point to get to Tembisa.  This has been one of those weeks, wedged between our retreat in George and teaching next week in Kenya.

Kenya's Traumatized Children

Despite the temptation of the beach on a summer day, I’ve been revising teaching notes and handouts for a writing workshop I will give in Kisumu, Kenya, in August.  Kisumu is a port city of 400,000 on a bay of Lake Victoria, which lies between Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.  It was the center of violence following the disputed December 2007 elections.  The city’s center was burned, the economy devastated.  Nearly 1000 people died and 600,000 were displaced across the country. The international community brokered a power-sharing deal in March 2008, but there are rumors of arms entering the country in preparation for the planned elections in 2012.

Finding Colin's Home

The suitcases are unpacked; the blisters turned to callus and my body is back on Central Daylight time, but Wales is not forgotten.  I told you about hiking the hills with my friend Liz and the time we spent in Pembrokeshire with the Langham leadership team, but I skipped one very important afternoon.  

Back to Writing

 I’m still struggling to meet my deadline.  This week I was reading the March/April issue of Horn Book Magazine.  (Bedtime reading, not computer time, and yes, I know I’m behind.  BTW, Horn Book is the classic magazine of children’s literature—highly recommended to anyone thinking of writing for children or young adults.)  This issue honors Katherine Paterson , a missionary kid from China who has written more than 25 books (many of them award winners.)  She is also the newly appointed National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.  In a short essay (p.36) Linda Sue Park (herself a Newbery Medal winner) talks about the impact that Katherine Paterson has had on her life.  Park was only thinking she might like to try writing when she found Paterson’s book of essays The Spying Heart.  In the essay “Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?” she came upon the author’s technique of writing two pages a day.

Seeing God in Thin Places

 Reading Mary E. De Muth’s Thin Places; a memoir, I wonder if I am reading memoir or devotional.  As she bares her soul, searching for thin places, “snatches of holy ground, … where, … we might just catch a glimpse of eternity”(p.11)—as she shares those place in her own life, Mary touches my soul as well.  Although I never had the terrible childhood experiences of abuse or losing my father at a young age that Mary experienced, I do make lists of the things I “ought” to do to be good enough.  I have been a broken missionary returning from an experience where I thought God owed it to me to bless.  “Pursue Me, not perfection,” Jesus told Mary in that thin place.  “Follow after Me, not a set of ideals.  Grab My hand and walk with Me in adventure.” (p. 178)

Touching Emotions with my Nose

I have been going through my shelf of books on writing and children’s literature, wanting to post them with reviews on Shelfari.com and Goodreads.com so when people ask, “What’s a good book on writing?” I know which ones I like best and why.  I have re-read a couple that I remember liking a lot.  The first was a disappointment.  Although I recognize the chapter on fantasy as the source of many of our family favorites, the rest of the book spends too much time analyzing works that haven’t stood the test of time.

A Different Kind of Romance

 I’m not a fan of the romance genre.  I dislike stories that deceive young women with the lie that the rogue will reform for love or that electrifying sex is the most important aspect of a relationship.  But romance sells, and even Christian fiction often centers around the question of whether or not the girl will end up with the right man.  

Jill Eileen Smith Wives of King David Series is romance with a twist. Biblical history takes a surprisingly realistic view of life and relationships.  David, the shepherd-king who was a man after God’s own heart, is shown with all his flaws.