Category: faith
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Love does not stay idle
Love does not stay idle.” -St. Catherine of Siena (from Letter T82) This is my 100th post on this blog, and to celebrate I thought I’d write a brief manifesto of sorts–a window into who I am and why I do what I do. As I wrote earlier in my story about staying in the […]
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Hildegard’s Abbey
Charity abounds in all things, from the depths to high above the highest stars, and is most loving to all things; for to the high king it has given the kiss of peace. — Hildegard of Bingen, “caritas abundat” On the vineyard-covered hills above Rüdesheim am Rhein, Germany, sits the Abbey of St. Hildegard of […]
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Atmosphere Meditation
Here’s a break in my posts about my work and travel. I wrote this several years ago when I was in graduate school studying Christian Theology and Spirituality. It was fun to blend the interests in weather and spirituality. Atmosphere Meditation Text adapted from a meteorology textbook: Essentials of Meteorology: An Invitation to the Atmosphere […]
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St. Francis and the Tropics, Or Why I Sing Praise to the Gecko
October 4th is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi. Once a favorite of mine, I am re-reflecting this year about St. Francis and a spirituality of the tropical climate. As the Autumn season begins in North America and leaves are changing from green to yellow, orange, and red, life along the equator continues […]
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Preaching
I am back in the US now, and it is long overdue to catch up on some blogging about my time in Indonesia. At the end of March, I was invited to preach in a congregation in Medan, the capital city of North Sumatra, and some 7 hours from my usual residence in Balige. Actually, […]
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Advent at the Equator
As much as I’m looking forward to spending my holidays in North America, I’m kinda loving this tropical climate at the equator. The daily warm sun, the ever growing plants and trees, abundance of fruit all year round, and even the torrential rains which are now more often than in June. Here is no bleak midwinter—it is now the rainy season—and although we can still light candles in the night, the amount of daylight is nearly the same as it was 6 months ago.
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One Year
Just like hiking the rugged terrain of the Cascade mountains of Washington state and the mountainous rainforest of Sumatra, I experience the joy of summiting peaks and the pain of dark valleys in my current life. This description is not anything extraordinary, as I know these kind of ups and downs in life are a […]
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Holy Week
Blessings during this Holy Week. Before the start of the Easter holiday, we had a morning worship. The 2nd year class I teach performed a role-play on the crucifixion of Jesus. I wrote the basic text in English, and they organized the acting. Most of them have a low level of English, so it was […]
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More of the Unexpected
“…I was in prison and you came to visit me.” Matthew 25:36 Quite unexpectedly one Sunday morning, I found myself walking through the streets of Balige toward the local prison. I was accompanying the 3rd year class of students at the deaconess school, who go into the community every Sunday and attend various churches, often […]
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Ready for the Unexpected
Be ready for the unexpected. That’s a lesson I’ve learned here. Not that I’ve never had something unexpected happen in my life, but in this life in Indonesia, I’m often called upon to do something I didn’t previously plan on. And here, it can mean living and doing something without much detail or knowing what’s […]
Megs the Wanderer 