Libraries and Graveyards

I friend who lived in Kolkata while we were there last year has returned to the States. As she and her family re acclimate to the lifestyle there, she mentioned their trip to the library. It was just the local library in their city, but the kids were PUMPED! They had not been to a library in over a year! Well, as I listened I was taken aback, because I had not thought of a library in a loooong time either.

Later in the conversation, she mentioned passing a graveyard and how her 5 year old child, "Look, it's idols!" "No," explained her older sister,"that's a cemetery- a place where dead people are put and those are the stones that tell who they are." (Good explanation, huh?) Well, as she spoke I was shocked to realize that I had not seen a headstone in a year and a half. Hindus in India cremate their dead loved ones. Likewise in Thailand among Buddhists. (There is a cemetary in Kolkata that Eddie and Hudson visited to see names of Christians- I never went.)

Isn't it funny how things we take for granted as part of the frame of our worldview, of our culture are so easily forgotten in another context? I can only imagine what it will be like for 4 year old Jonathan when we are Stateside!
It also made me think how much we can live without and still be whole and productive for God's Kingdom. We are all resilient-yes, you too!

Just some thoughts.

Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer

That calls me from a world of care,

And bids me at my Father's throne

Make all my wants and wishes known;

In seasons of distress and grief

My soul has often found relief

And oft escaped the tempter's snare

By thy return, sweet hour of prayer.

 

With all the intensity of pain and suffering in Haiti, we need to work AND pray. We are also mindful of your prayers that carried us through in our time of distress. We would not have made it without them. Seeing pictures of Haiti reminds me that we must be ready to press in and help. When we cannot go, we should give and when we cannot do either, we can still help by praying. It is in His presence that we find peace and strength to press on one more day.