Freedom's Stand

I have been surveying readers to find out what they would like more of on this blog. This is for all those who like book reviews and for those who want to hear more spiritual thoughts relevant to travel, justice, etc. It also falls under “other people’s ministries with children at risk” because, although she is fictional, Jeanette Windle’s character, Amy, in Freedom's Stand works with women who have been imprisoned in Afghanistan and their children. (That is, children who have been growing up in prison with their mothers. You can’t get more at-risk than that.) Some of the “women” are hardly more than children themselves—children running away from forced marriages to older men who abused them.

Thoughts on My Father

My dad is coming up to his eighty-ninth birthday in September. I was recently going through old photo albums with him looking for pictures of the house where he was born for a blog about life in the Midwest. He was a cutie! He reminded me of my brother when he was small, and I know my dad would consider that to be the greatest compliment.

"Room" Gets Inside Me

Room by Emma Donahue was recommended to me by my daughter, an avid reader and administrator on a Nook e-readers site, and by a fellow writer on an e-mail list I subscribe too. The writer recommended it as a powerful child protagonist voice.  My daughter just said it was a good book. She started to say, ‘I really enjoyed it,’ and then decided ‘enjoy’ was definitely not the right word. “It’s disturbing,” she told me.

Laughing at Life Jungle Style

The 1960s were an era of counter-cultural rebellion—young people renouncing their parents' striving for affluence in the suburbs and choosing instead the simple lifestyle. For many of my generation that meant a commune with free love and drugs, no bras or baths. For some of us touched by the Kingdom of God, it meant committing to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth, no matter the cost.  I always pictured myself in a thatched hut in the jungle, befriending the ‘natives,’ wrestling with the puzzle of an unwritten language, creating an alphabet and translating the Scriptures.

 

Skating in Africa

Many of you know that when I am not writing at my computer or doing story times for orphans and vulnerable children at after-school programs, my favorite activity is ice skating. Believe it or not Africa has rinks in Joburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Nairobi and Cairo.  There may be more, but those are the ones I know about. Addicts like me check out places on the Internet.

Eating Marshmallows

 

I learned a new way to eat marshmallows my last day at the Tembisa Baptist Church.  Put it in your mouth; chew it; spit it back in your hand; stir to a paste with your finger and lick. Fully half the children ate their marshmallows this way. To make it last? my daughter suggests. Maybe. But I think next time I bring sweets it will be hard candy. (You will appreciate that this blog does not include a photograph for your edification.)

Nuggets Out of Confusion

As you have probably figured out by now, things in Africa don’t always go according to plan. As they say, the three most important qualities in a missionary after faith in God are flexibility, flexibility and flexibility. 

Wednesday was my last day at Arebaokeng. “When are you going to bring the children some sweets?” I was asked. My last day seemed like a good time.