Not so different...

That seems to be my theme for today.  The previous post is not the one I sat down to write, this one is.  The previous post is the one that came pouring out of my heart as I sat to write.  Do you ever have those days when you start out to one thing but your brain takes over and you do something completely different?    That is what happened to me tonight.  So, I will try to go back to where I intended to go in the first place.

I was driving to a friend's last night about sunset. I looked across the road the sky was that orangy color it turns just after the sun has set, kind of hazy, smoke from the fires I suppose.  The cows were silhouetted in black, grazing at the end of the day.

It dawned on me, this scene wasn't so different from the pictures I have seen from Akobo.  Their cow's horns give a whole new meaning to the term "long horn", but the scenes are the same.

I was taken back to a thought I had earlier in the week, driving home from another friend's house.  As I topped the bridge a looked off to the side of the road, the field was a warm sandy color with mesquite trees scattered, waving their feathery branches in the breeze.  I thought, "Hmmm, it looks like all those pictures of Akobo.  The trees are a little different, but all it is missing is the grass roofs on the tukals..."

Maybe that is why I feel so comfortable going there.  It's not so different.  They have the Baro River, we have the Brazos.  They have fish, we have fish.  They have cows and wide open spaces with trees dotting the countryside and so do we.

Our hopes and dreams are the same - good health for our families and children, peace in our countries and neighborhoods, better education, enough food on the table and prayers for God's protection....

...See, not so different, and yet so very different in so many ways.

Peace,

Sharon

Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah

This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.  Psalm 118:24

God has created a new day, silver and green and gold.  Live so that the sunset, worthy his gifts to hold.

Both the verses bring back so many happy memories for me.  The first brings back memories of walking down the road in Dembi Dollo, with a line of kids following me, shouting it back and forth rap style.  I can still see the dust and dirt during the dry season, kicked up by oxen and donkeys slowly making their way to market.  I can hear the laughter of the village elders as we marched on by, and see the joy in their faces as we laughed and played, me marching backwards and stepping in the things that oxen and donkeys leave behind.

The second, God has created a new day, brings back memories of early morning campfires and rousing sleepy Girl Scouts from the beds after a night of pranking, by beating on metal pots and singing horribly off key at the top of our lungs.

They also bring back memories of children and adults alike singing both songs reverently in worship.  In Dembi Dollo, in a language I didn't understand, but the tune was the same.  At Girl Scout camp, surrounded by adults dedicated to teaching new skills to young and old alike.

I remember the all night hike the girls complained all through (after having kept us up all night the night before, I might add), and the sudden hushed silence as the sun crested the distant hill and we all joined hands singing "God has created a new day" as they experienced the awe and wonder of their first sunrise.

Those thoughts flitted through my head as I drove to church this morning.  What an awesome morning it was!!  Once again, the sun was just cresting the tops of the hills, music playing on the radio.  The radio was playing "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah", one of my all time favorites. 

I went down a hill and just as I started up the next  the choir was singing "Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,  pilgrim through this barren land. " when the sun burst through the early morning clouds, a big, bright, huge - ball of fire - sitting on top of the hill, like a head on shoulders, with two huge orange and yellow angel wings on either side and a crown of golden rays coming from behind.  It was made even more brilliant by the hills still shadowed in darkness.

As I listened to the words of the song, they had more meaning today than usual...

let the fire and cloudy pillar
lead me all my journey through. 
Strong deliverer, strong deliverer,
be thou still my strength and shield;

It is with God's strength and deliverance I will make this journey to South Sudan.

bid my anxious fears subside;
death of death and hell's destruction,
land me safe on Canaan's side.

Do I go without being anxious or having fears?  Absolutely not.  But, I am secure that God will lead me.

Will I see death of death and hell's destruction?  More than likely.  How can I not when I go to a place where children and adults alike are dieing from hunger.  How can I not when I go to a place still torn by war and inter-tribal violence.

But I go secure in God's love and protection.  I go knowing and praying

I am weak, but thou art mighty;
hold me with thy powerful hand.

I go knowing that I go with God's powerful hand to lead and guide me.

Strong deliverer, strong deliverer,
be thou still my strength and shield;

I go knowing that God will be my strength and shield.

And when I go, knowing all of that, I will go singing

Songs of praises, songs of praises,
I will ever give to thee;

Peace,

Sharon

Snrise on the HIlls

I stood upon the hills, when heaven's wide arch
Was glorious with the sun's returning march,
And woods were brightened, and soft gales
Went forth to kiss the sun-clad vales.
The clouds were far beneath me; bathed in light,
They gathered mid-way round the wooded height,
And, in their fading glory, shone
Like hosts in battle overthrown.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow