Monthly Archive

We had a wonderful Christmas with our children in Abilene. Christmas eve, there was a blizzard with a drop in temperature by 60 degrees from December 23, blowing snow and ice. 60 miles of the freeway east of Abilene were closed. All Christmas eve services were cancelled so we had a quiet evening together, playing games and watching a movie. Naomi did lots of baking and we enjoyed a feast on Christmas day at Rebekah's boyfriend's (Ray) home.  We played Monopoly with Naomi winning.

Well, Naomi made it to Denver Thursday night, was scheduled to fly out Friday night late to Idaho.  Her flight was cancelled with no advance notice. Her cousin had dropped her off at the Denver airport, 30 minutes from their home. Came back and got her back to their house around 11 p.m and then left again Saturday morning at 6:15 a.m. Then Naomi's flights were cancelled again and the next option was to fly to Boise Sunday night. She decided to fly to Texas and was able to talk the airline to fly her to Abilene.  She arrived Saturday night and 68 hours of travel.

My travels have gone extraordinarily well, 6 flights, 35,000 kilometers. It is the 7th flight that didn't go as planned. The flight board said that my flight was on time but then I heard whispers around the flight counter. Then an announcement that Boise was "fogged in." I was in Salt Lake. They boarded the flight with the intent to fly intoo Twin Falls instead of Boise. Hold us in Twin Falls until a later flight landed and then bus us at some late hour to Boise. I called Naomi who had traveled from Auckland to Los Angeles and was to meet me in Boise.

I had two good days in London. I rested one day and had another day with friends visiting Kensington Palace, John Wesley's house, church and museum, the Dissenter's Cemetery (those counter the Anglican church) with John Bunyon's grave as well as Isaac Watts and Alexander Duma, and finally the musical, Billy Eliot which had an incredibly talented 10 year old as the lead.

In Philadelphia, jetlag caught up with me. I spent time with friends and family; had medical appointments with my spine specialists; and visited Calvary Church where I had a wonderful reunion with friends.

This is a remarkable passage that speaks of Jesus being a sympathetic high priest. The passage says that earthly spiritual leaders, even the top spiritual leader of a nation should be gentle to those who struggle. They should be gentle because they themselves as human beings are in need of the grace of God.

Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison, most of them on Robben Island, for his opposition to apartheid in South Africa. It is hard to imagine having those years stolen from one's life.  Incredibly Mandela did not allow himself to be consumed by bitterness and revenge, rather led the effort towards reconciliation and negotiation in the transition of South Africa to a multi-racial democracy.

View from Robben Island of Cape Town and Table Mountain.

Yesterday at lunch time, Desmond Tutu and the Dahli Lama were awarded humanitarian awards for their work in promoting love, compassion and forgiveness. The awards had taken place in Seattle a few months ago. Due to illness, Desmond Tutu was not able to go, his daughter went in his place.  So the ceremony was repeated yesterday.  Here is the picture of Desmond Tutu dancing with the host of the conference before receiving the award.

About 250 academics/practitioners gathered for presentation and discussion on diverse related to reconciliation, forgiveness, healing and restoration. Many of the major conflict regions of the world were represented. Although this was not a religiously based conference (it was sponsored by the University of Cape Town, the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation and the Cape Town Holocaust Centre), there were scholars from Muslim, Jewish and Christian backgrounds represented among others.

The first 24 hours of the conference have been exceptional. Last night, the key organizer of the Rwandan Genocide Museum (which I have visited) spoke. He spoke of the importance of memory for closure and spoke of his own faith crisis due to the violence of religious people. This morning began with Desmond Tutu in interaction with 5 academics. They posed very difficult questions. His responses were exceptional. At age 78, he exudes passion for God and for forgiveness.

I arrived safely in Cape Town. Was able to lie down for a while to rest my back and then got about 30 minutes of sleep before leaving for the conference. The first session was outstanding. It was a look at the Rwanda genocide and then a post genocide project for identifying the victims, evaluating what went on and then working through a catalogue of issues important for the restoration of people and country. The speaker was from England and had been responsible for setting up a Holocaust museum in England. He was then tasked with developing the genocide museum in Kigali, Rwanda.