Have often been there – in one way or another. However, faith and politics is what can work to begin to solve problems. The way we interact with power, the way we live the beatitudes, the ways we pay attention become the means by which we can be part of the ongoing redemptive power of Christ.
You have experienced power at the level of the White House and powerlessness at the level of only having bottles of water to relieve tremendous pain and suffering. You are privileged indeed to have covered the spectrum of human behaviors toward one another.
At this end we are more aware, less able to live the comfortable life without question and Africa is not as far away. At your end, it seems that the synthesis has not yet come – it will.

Yep. Me, too.
Well, not so much the “in the news” part. Because I haven’t really watched the news since I’ve been back. But there are all sorts of bloggable moments each day, and I’m just…done.

I know…there a new uncomfortable reality when you’ve seen what you’ve seen. My blog sits wordless for days as I write this. It comes and goes in waves. How does one “Get back to real life” when in reality it’s “Get back to fake life”?

David,
Maybe part of what your response needs to be is to help the rest of us, securely wrapped in the cotton wool of our culture at this end of town, to hear the cries, smell the smoke, and touch the burns and scars. We like our numbness because it lets us off the hook. Don’t let us off the hook. Keep telling us. Make us hear, see, touch and smell. If only one guy gets it, it’s worth it.

I couldn’t help but notice a certain irony that your blog is covered with ads for Oprah’s “Big Give”… We have gotten so used to the tension of our great wealth and the world’s great needs, with every plea need-based–we need to get back to giving as worship, just as justice is rightfully worship-based. Mark Labberton’s book on that was a response to his time in Uganda…

Don’t feel bad, David. I haven’t seen any political or US news worthly of the energy to type about, in AWHILE, either. I don’t think that anything interesting will happen for awhile.
It seems too much that the media beats us with the same ol’, same ol’ and they wonder why more younger people like to watch Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert present the news.

Well said, Anna. By writing about what you’ve seen and heard, David, you are dealing with that consuming fire, and helping us help you deal with it as well.

Dave,
I can totally relate. After spending a summer in Zambia, then doing it again, and again, and Kenya too I also had faces and smells and cries and nauseating realities seared into me.
Do not let those faces, smells, and names escape you. Let them continue to transform you and by God’s grace transform those whom you encounter, over here–on this side of the village.
During this political season I have found myself lamenting how, perhaps, many Americans sentiments towards the two-thirds world would change if they spent a few weeks in a hut and ate a meal with a Zambian family and were encountered by their huge smiles.

David,
What you are feeling is normal, it is sane, and it is rooted in the compassion of Christ, to which we are all called but which this crazy world too often ignores or ridicules. I grew up as a missionary kid in a developing nation, so I know a little about this. So what do you do? You don’t forget (remember all those biblical injunctions to remember?), and not just with your mind but with your whole being and life. You do the work Christ calls you to where you are and within your own sphere of influence. For some of us, that sphere is large; for others, it seems small. But Jesus uses all of us if we let him. Listen for God’s instruction, then do what he asks you to and what you can, for God’s glory and his Kingdom.

you need a break! No matter how much we care, how important it is, whatever we are immersed in sometimes becomes a too much of a burden if we don’t go outside for air once in awhile.

Dave, Dave, Dave! – you’re supposed to be on a 30-day non-stop sex marathon with your beloved and you’re trying to tell us you have NOTHING to write about. Dave, Dave, Dave!

on a more serious note, in writing a Lenten e-devotional for our congregation today, I noted Isaiah 52:15 which says of the Suffering Servant: “Many nations will be startled because of him, and many kings will be speechless.”
Maybe there’s nothing wrong with being periodically speechless during Lent.

The world got a bit smaller Sunday:
He Was Only Visiting This Planet: Larry Norman 4/8/47 – 2/24/08
Fred Mills
February 25, 2008
Larry Norman, the legendary musician and Christian rocker, died early Sunday morning at his home in Corpus Christi, Texas, from heart failure. His mother, siblings and several friends were with him at the time of his (peaceful) death. Norman was 60.
Though Norman was often referred to as “the Father of Christian Rock”— he was often associated with the countercultural Jesus People movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s—in some secular quarters he was also affectionately called “the Frank Zappa of Christian Rock” due to his outspokenness about the record industry, his uncompromising approach to making music and his sometimes eccentric ways. His career began in 1966 as frontperson for pop/psychedelic group People!, who had a huge hit single in 1968 with the Chris White-penned “I Love You.” The album of the same name also contained the terrific “We Need A Whole Lot More Jesus (and a Lot Less Rock ‘n’ Roll)” as well as the aptly-titled 13-minute “The Epic” (which took up all of side two).
http://www.harpmagazine.com/news/detail.cfm?article=12311
///
I feel like a prize in a box of cracker jacks with God’s hand reaching down to pick me up. I have been under medical care for months. My wounds are getting bigger. I have trouble breathing. I am ready to fly home.
My brother Charles is right, I won’t be here much longer. I can’t do anything about it. My heart is too weak. I want to say goodbye to everyone. In the past you have generously supported me with prayer and finance and we will probably still need financial help.
My plan is to be buried in a simple pine box with some flowers inside. But still it will be costly because of funeral arrangement, transportation to the gravesite, entombment, coordination, legal papers etc. However money is not really what I need, I want to say I love you.
I’d like to push back the darkness with my bravest effort. There will be a funeral posted here on the website, in case some of you want to attend. We are not sure of the date when I will die. Goodbye, farewell, we will meet again.
Goodbye, farewell, we’ll meet again
Somewhere beyond the sky.
I pray that you will stay with God
Goodbye, my friends, goodbye.
—Larry

hi david, (i’m a friend of greg and marcia’s)
pay attention to this. i know that feeling you’re talking about. after a bazillion trips to haiti (slight exaggeration) i know that feeling of, “how can you people possibly care about *insert whatever mundane thing you happen to be talking about* when the world is full of so much misery?” it is really worthwhile to let this question sit. it might be calling you to something. give yourself the time you need to really listen.

I want you to know that your blogging on your trip to Africa has meant a great deal to me and begun inspiring me to do more! I need to write my compassion child more . . . and maybe use a gift God’s given me to give to those in need (still praying and contemplating how that will all work). I don’t know how much I’ve mentioned you/your blog/your trip on my own (http://maciesreads.blogspot.com)and how Africa, which has always been on my heart is even more so! I want to do something and I’m going to. The blogging on your experience has done something . . . I hope you would continue to bring more awareness to the many, many beautiful creations of God who need us to do more.

i can understand how hard it can be to process a trip like that. I was on a missions trip with Campus Crusade for Christ to Tanzania 2 years ago. Coming home and trying to integrate back into society was difficult as it seemed that no one understood what I had seen, felt, and lived. Eventually, I realized what a powerful voice and experience that we all have from having visited Africa and all the beauty and strife that it is going through. It showed me just how much the world needs to hear about God and his blessings to us. Thanks for the Uganda blogs. They were truly eye-opening. God bless

I am right there with you. Friends keep saying, “give yourself time,” and I think, “time for WHAT? Time to forget just enough of what I saw so that my old life fits more easily?” I don’t want that. And yet, I do. I’m a mess.

I wonder what it would mean if you could see the fire face-to-face and then just come back home unchanged, unfazed, and go back to work as if nothing happened, as if you didn’t hear the screams.
You are in the grip of disorientation. Try not to go too fast.