Nada

This is my beautiful friend, Nada. (She's sitting there in the front row with the little girl on her lap. Click on the photo for an enlarged view.)

Nada is absouletly alive with God's love.

All of Nada's family live in Lebanon. They've been too frightenend to sleep at night. A bomb landed not too far from their home. She said they've gone north now so they should be safe.

Bombs are not falling around nameless, faceless, personality-less people. They're falling around Nada's family.

The Irish, The Algarve and The Surfing Boys

We were in the Algarve over the weekend. We were on the quiet side where it's not full of tourists and where the surf is good. We went to see some lovely Irish friends, the Morrisons. We are forever grateful to Brian and Pauline (also lovely and also Irish) for introducing us to them. Byron and I stayed in a little guest house with Heather but the boys camped on the beach. I normally love to camp. I love to see the stars overhead as I'm falling asleep. But I just couldn't face packing for a camping trip at this point. The boys took Jonny and Dane with them. Colin too, but he's not in the photo. It was a good weekend! Brian and Pauline were here the weekend before, enjoying our heatwave and playing our summer party gig. (Great conversations and great music!) Two weekends in a row with Irish friends! How lucky are we? In the midst of a crazy summer, we've been having good times :-)

Feelings Unplugged

I'm finding myself a little reticent to write posts these days. A landslide has begun here.

I cling to Barbara on the curb by the train station as she begins her three month sojourn. I have no idea when I will ever see her again. When she gets back to Portugal, I will be in the States. From there, I will head to Tanzania.

The lump in my throat feels like a grapefruit. The tears are hot on my face.

I told Barbara on the night before that I don't know anyone in whom Jesus seems to reside so comfortably. He seems so at home in B. She is so hospitable to him. But just like in Narnia ("Once a king or queen in Narnia, always a king or queen in Narnia) I figure "Once a Borden, always a Borden." Baba has become a permanent member of our family.

Still I have no idea when I will see her again.

I pull away and pick up Heather, who is sobbing beside me. We climb into the car and sit there, waving until she disappears into the cavernous station.

The landslide of emotions has begun as goodbyes gain momentum. I want to put up barriers around my heart to keep it from being crushed under the weight of what is passing over it.

But my little fences would be foolish.

I question God. "Aren't we supposed to love deeply? Then why do you ask us to part? What's wrong with you?"

I am sometimes called upon to teach on coping with this life of following God all over the world. I always speak about the difficult but better choice to live with open hearts and to love the people God brings into our lives, rather than to protect ourselves from the cycle of separation and loss by keeping folks at a distance.

"And love is not the easy thing/the only baggage you can bring is all that you can't leave behind."

I can't leave Baba behind. And so I won't. Yes, we physically part. But our fragile human hearts are permanently intertwined.

Still, it feels like someone just tore out a great chunk of mine.

Strength for the journey. That's what I need.

Heat Wave!

It was about 37c (close to 98 F) all last weekend here in Lisbon.

We took our afternoon tea while still immersed in the pool :-)

Ear Fashion

It's after 11pm but Byron and Barbara are sitting at the dining room table carving and shaping things from buffalo horn for the holes in their ears. They look very serious and absorbed in their work. The hole in the top of Byron's ear was burned through with a hot awl 14 years ago by a Maasai woman that we consider to be our Maasai Mum. The one in question on Barbara's ear was self-imposed. It's cute to see them working away :-)

Groovy Phone

Byron got me this groovy new phone yesterday. He believes I need an improved one for the next phase of life when we're in the States and then Africa. It's very cool and does lots of great stuff. I have no idea what. Or how to make it do those great things.

I've had a very basic Nokia for years. When we got it, it was dull grey. I guess Trevor thought it was a boring look. He got me a little camo shell for it and typed in a zillion keys to make the M*A*S*H theme my ring tone.
I've always liked it, though I've abused it badly. On one of the many occasions that I dropped it and it burst into pieces, I answered a call and had a chat while it was still in said state of disarray.

My only specification for the new phone was that the keys not be so small that I can't easily text. I am the Text Master, or so I'm told. I was once sitting next to a 15 yr old boy as I was sending a message. Watching me he burst out with, "A parent who can text quickly, WITH ONE HAND!!"

Little camo phone was soon cannibalized by Trevor and so has no battery any more. It sits here sadly dead after serving me so well. I feel a bit sorry and I miss how easy it was to use. I suppose that as long as I can still wear the title Text Master, I'll put up with the hassle of learning my new phone.

The Church Gathered... The Church Scattered

This little community that we are a part of loves to gather. We love each other’s company and the company of Jesus that we find in each other. “Gathered” is us in my sitting room, or in Marty and Carey’s garden, or in the corner café, or at sunrise on the beach. We gather here and there. We’re not really picky. We just like to be together.

But we also scatter. We go out and do our jobs. We study at our universities, teach our classes, record our albums, play our gigs, prepare our seminars, align our patients! And when we’re out there doing the jobs God has given us, we are still the Church. We are the Church scattered through this city, bringing the sweetness of the fragrance of Christ.

We put a lot of emphasis on the importance of both words. We love to gather. We love to scatter. We often say we’re the Church gathered AND we’re the Church scattered.

But very soon now, some of us are going to scatter pretty far. Rachel has already left. She flew away to NASHVILLE (!!) to start her masters degree program. Nelly will be off in a couple of days to find God’s path for her to Italy. She can’t quite shake a long-time love for the place. She’ll be on a three-week prayer sojourn with friends from 24-7prayer before doing a week of language school and then heading to the States to pursue some avenues for a longer-term return.

Barbara has always been our wandering pilgrim, but in the last few years, we have enjoyed her consistent presence as she has lived a somewhat settled life here among us. But things are stirring and Baba is off on an overland journey to Palestine to be Church on the road with a group of friends. And when she does come back, she’ll be making her home base the farm up north. It’s not much more than undeveloped land and a lot of olive trees right now, but it will be a peace-filled refuge in the not too distant future.

And we’ll be heading out by the end of August to go to the States where we will be preparing for our new life in East Africa.

Maybe we shouldn’t have talked so much about following God on the wild paths he puts before us. Maybe we shouldn’t have said that we’ve got to stop talking about being missional and just start being it. I don’t know… it’s just that this scattering thing is cutting a little too close to my heart right now. I like us gathered a whole lot.

Barbara sent me the following today. Emma Cowan sent it to her from Ireland…

"We have to keep in mind that community, like solitude is primarily a quality of the heart. While it remains true that we will never know what community is if we never come together in one place, community does not necessarily mean being physically together. We can well live in community while being physically alone. In such a situation, we can act freely, speak honestly, and suffer patiently because of the intimate bond of love that unites us with the other even when time and place separate us from them. The community of love stretches out not only beyond the boundaries of countries and continents but also beyond the boundaries of decades and centuries. Not only the awareness of those who are far away, but also those who have lived long ago can lead us into a healing, sustaining, and guiding community. The space for God in community transcends all limits of time and place."

-Henri Nouwen in 'Making All Things New'


It comforts me to know that some forms of community are not bound to geographical closeness.

As we scatter, we carry the gathered with us.

Mac Attack

I just needed to make note of the fact that right now Byron is in the office answering email on his Mac, Nelly is in there working away at her 50 page paper on her Mac, I'm sitting on my bed reading blogs on my Mac, and Jesse is lying here next to me checking his facebook on his Mac!! Now we just need Barbara to come home and open up her Mac so that we can all network together and that way we don't even have to speak! Oh brave new world! Maybe I can go against the flow and shut my lid now and start a TREND and then maybe even a CONVERSATION!

"Resistance is futile! You will be assimilated!"

Bed-Head

Byron has great hair in the morning! Jenelle is staying with us for a couple of weeks before she leaves on her trip to Italy. She gets some pretty good bed-head going but can it rival Byron's? They are holding a competition while she's here. This is Byron's entry from Saturday morning. I'll post a Nelly entry when I capture one on film.... PS If you click on the photo you'll get a really big view of this amazing hair.

Joga Bonita!

This little country is very happy tonight!
Joga bonita! Our boys went through!