Visiting Orphans and Prisoners

Today was a sad day for some of our team members who visited a young mother with AIDS who sent her infants with a friend to FOMCO Orphan Care Center for their daily meal. Her small house nearby has only a partial roof with gaping holes where the rain falls down in puddles. And only a dirt floor where she and her two little girls must sleep with a simple blanket. It rained today and she's too sick to move, and it was just awful. Bob, who found her, didn't know what to do for her. No medicine, only food. How can a family live in a hut with no roof and sleep on a wet muddy floor? Hearing Bob tell the story made me cry...

In the afternoon, the team visited the prisoners to encourage them. I'll leave it to another to tell that story.

Tomorrow we're going out to check on one of the village wells tomorrow. That should be a joyful trip to meet villagers who now have fresh clean water in their village when before there was none.

Team News: I don't feel sick anymore, but Robby now has a fever. We all are still going strong. Chappy has been shopping for our staff cook, Taxan, and making good recipe suggestions. We have really been eating well, lots of greens, and balanced diet. Stacy has taken the lead in distributing school supplies, photo gifts, yarn donations (from Libby and Clarissa) and doing great with all the kids. Bob and Don participated with me today in the PACCT Training event and were very well received. Don and Sarah will leave tomorrow for Lilongwe and JoBurg for other ministry tasks in South Africa. The rest of us will visit the village of Zowe to check on a new CitiHope well.

P.S. Libby, we delivered your yarn and school supplies to the orphans and their guardians at FOMCO today. They each were so eager to get their share and it made them so happy to receive this valued donation. Thank you!

Liberation Spirituality: Henri Nouwen and Gustavo Gutierrez in Dialogue

Liberation Spirituality: Henri Nouwen and Gustavo Gutierrez in Dialogue Lecture Notes: Presented by Michael J. Christensen, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Practice of Spirituality and Ministry, Drew University; and International Director, Communities of Shalom, The United Methodist Church Introduction “There is a little man in Peru, a man without any power, who lives in a barrio with poor people and who wrote a book. In this book he simply reclaimed the basic Christian truth that God became human to bring good news to the poor, new light to the blind, and liberty to the captives. Then years later this book and movement it started is considered a danger by [the USA, or Rome], the greatest power on earth. When I look at this little man, Gustavo, and think about [the President of the US, or the Pope], I see David standing before Goliath, again with no more weapon than a little stone, a stone called A The...

First Generation Lambs Club Reunion

Fifteen of us gathered Saturday night at the Lambs Club for a 35 th year reunion of those who helped start the Lamb’s Church in Times Square in the mid to late 1970’s, including: Rev. Paul S. Moore , Founder of the Lamb’s Church of the Nazarene, and his wife, Tamara Dr. Michael J. Christensen , charter member and former associate pastor, and his wife Dr. Rebecca Laird Fr. William (BJ) Webe r, former Associate Pastor and Director of the Lamb’s Residency, and his wife Sheila who lived at the Lamb’s Jim and Dustee Hullinger, who were on staff together and made the Lamb’s their home for over 25 years Effie Canepa , who was the church pianist under 3 pastors, and her husband Peter Shirley Close, who attended the Lamb’s in the late 1970’s while studying, performing and teaching music and voice Carl "Chappy" Valente , former associate pastor Rev. Bob DiQuatto , lead singer of the Church’s “Manhattan Project” and staff member of the Lamb’s, and his son Jason Rev. Gab...

Not Afraid of Death by Julia Esquivel

In reading your blog, Michael, I immediately think of these two poems is poem by Julia Esquivel, from Guatemala, whom I had the pleasure of meeting years ago. Un abrazo, Ada Maria I AM NOT AFRAID OF DEATH I am no longer afraid of death I know well Its dark and cold corridors Leading to life. I am afraid rather of that life Which does not come out of death, Which cramps our hands And slows our march. I am afraid of my fear And even more of the fear of others, Who do not know where they are going, Who continue clinging To what they think is life Which we know to be death! I live each day to kill death; I die each day to give birth to life, And in this death of death, I die a thousand times And am reborn another thousand Through that love From my People Which nourishes hope! THREATEN WITH RESURRECTION They have threatened us with Resurrection There is something here within us which doesn’t let us sleep, which doesn’t let us rest, which doesn’t stop the pounding deep inside. It is t...

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