Dear Friends, It has been about a month since my last post. After seven of them in the last two weeks of Lent I thought I would take a breather for a good while!!.......................................................................................I have been busy with wrapping up preparations for a two week pilgrimage in the Holy Land (June 6-19) and writing chapters for a book I have been at for the better part of a year's time. I don't think there is anything more stressful for me than trying to write something good enough to be published. Only God could push me to write a second book, and that is exactly where I am getting the motivation for doing this. It really has its ups and downs. And at times it is so hard to let go and take breaks. I can carrying lots of tension in my neck and shoulders, in my face and with my grinding my teeth in my sleep. Ugh!! .......................................................................There are times, one of them over the last weekend, when I get this sense of such a deep friendship with God and also with a certain circle of men and women acquaintances I have made over the years. It hits me in a very deep part of my soul, with the sense that I have been given such precious gifts and this makes me feel profoundly consoled and blessed. This is something I cannot buy; that I know. It is all gift and valuable beyond any estimate. Is this one of the gifts of living a long time??............................................................................................... I heard yesterday a story from one of my retreatants, a delightful Australian Christian brother who works in the slums of Nairobi here. It is a story that disturbs me greatly. He told of a fellow Christian brother who was going to "blow the whistle" on a small group of villagers who gang-raped a young orphan, a girl about 11 or 12 years old. (Orphans are especially vulnerable to this horrendous crime!) This fellow Christian brother was going to expose these despicable rats to the law but learned that they had bribed their way out of going to prison. So they go free to this day. This is so typical in this land!! The brother was cautioned to be less aggressive lest he take a bullet and die. Ironically he did die a little later in a taxi accident, one of the many in Kenya where drivers speed so much and take chances and get killed and kill others they are taxiing. Life can be so cheap here!! I feel so very sad for that young orphan. What a difficult beginning for her life. Surely God must have a special love for such people and his mercy is endless with them.......................................................................... I am really tired and am retiring early this evening. Thanks for being interested in reading these posts. May God be very good to you! Bernie Owens