Clarity

In the past week I have twice had children scrounging through the refuse of what I have failed to eat. Life, it seems, is augmented by moments of ephemeral clarity that indelibly drive truths about love and joy and suffering into the fabric of our lives. It may be that moment in some song or in the pages of a heart-wrenching parable that shoves a lump into one’s throat and ends with tears trickling through trembling hands to muddy the dusty tennis-shoes below. Maybe it is watching ashen dust billow out from a vehicle as it winds it way through some barren wasteland at the dusk of the day, or that moment when you walk outside and gasp at the sprinkling of diamonds in the sky. Perhaps it is the scent of a rose or a hug when you needed one; for each of us these moments come in there own way and timing.
For me, these moments have often involved children in one way or another; whether it is children recklessly abandoning themselves in their parents embrace, running wild at play or the desperate look of a mother watching over her sick child. Children are the easiest examples of joy and contentment we can find around us and perhaps because of this, they also offer the starkest view of our troubled world.
Several days ago I was enjoying a relaxing moment on our kitchen porch when a small band of children came wandering up to our compound and began to sift through the garbage pit that lies just outside our fence. They eagerly shuffled through the mess that is there, looking for plastic soda bottles and anything else they deemed valuable before wandering off in search of valuables elsewhere. A few days later, I was eating outside near a street in a town north of here when a small boy approached our table as we were finishing. He looked rather pitifully at us and gestured at what remained on our table. We nodded, and he quickly grabbed what remained of the food and walked across the street to devour it. I had been contemplating eating a small ice-cream that was just handed to me…ice-cream never tasted worse!
We live in a world where children get excited about finding plastic soda bottles and are hungry enough to scrounge for food from strangers’ plates. I don’t have any answers. Everywhere I go I find hungry children, children dying from curable diseases and children who spend there days sorting through trash. Most of these children are happy if all I do is wave to them….I want to do so much more.
There are those moments of clarity when we can see such goodness and beauty around us, and there are those moments when we realize all too clearly that things are desperately out of order; moments that break our hearts, even as our King’s heart is broken. I hope I have the courage to respond as my King responds.

Jan 9 - CPA Day!

On January 9th we celebrated the CPA(Comprehensive Peace Agreement) here in South Sudan. It was a celebration of 4 years of peace. There were a lot of traditional dances and a few speeches highlighting the importance of continuing the peace. Here are some pictures from the day. Enjoy!