Quiet imposed

Monday morning we got a couple of calls and then it got really quiet. Then we discovered the email wasn't working and neither were the phones. We did all the plugging/unplugging we were supposed to do and then we discovered by talking with the phone company that the lines were out and would be till mid-Tuesday at least. So, without the phones, (an my cell phone charger still missing) there were no calls the rest of the day, neither was there any email.

I decided to use the time in reflection about all the things that I've experienced. How to put together the information from the church in Bali and Java? How to look at the work done in India both the South and the North. What to do with all that was seen there and make a bridge between that work and make a bridge between our work here.

We have so much to learn from one another. When you think of the history of the USA and that the explorers were looking for a faster way to India and they bumped into the Americas instead leads us to understand I believe how deeply connected we really are. The hopes and desires of the people are the same everywhere. The expectations just have different looks to them.

One question I asked in our travel group was--what makes for happiness? Surely not a simple question nor a simplistic answer to be had. We spend so much time and money chasing happiness, reading books on happiness, how to succeed and what success looks like.... Others have happiness and a lot 'less' to encumber them, what we have to learn!

So, phone back on, at least for the moment. I'm still pondering how to put together all I have seen. I will go back to the paper I wrote on the train traveling in Java and see how that fits. This especially with the India experience added on to the whole of it. The churches, the prayers, the hopes and dreams of the women and people I met.

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2006