Monday, August 27, 2018

Dear Friends, It has been so, so, SOOO long since I have written a blog letter. I cannot remember when, but I do know I was in Kenya when I last wrote. Now I am in Toledo, Ohio, in the USA. and settling in to my new house and working situation, that is, finishing a book for publication that I have almost finished the first draft of it. On June 29 I said "goodbye" to a beautiful place, a place and its people I had come to love and always will love. But it was clear I needed to move on. I was feeling a kind of mental burnout in the kind of work I was doing--listening closely to the souls of people day after day. I was with some 250 people over 5 years, seeing each of them 8 times over 8 days, 30-45 minutes each day. So that is at least 2000 hours of listening closely and then guiding these people on retreat. Some people I saw for 30 days, yes 30! I felt I needed to change the kind of work I was doing, so intense is its manner. I could not do this while staying in Kenya. Besides, I was having a lot of trouble with the way some of the foods were being cooked. So much fried food! I often got dysentary and frequently felt "off balance," weak. It seemed more and more that the good Lord was saying I needed to return to the USA. At the same time I never got malaria, and I was never robbed at gunpoint. All in all it was a very meaningful chapter in my life, a great gift to me from God. I am so very glad I said "yes" to His invitation to go with Him to East Africa and experience firsthand a young, vibrant church/nation. It certainly has sensitized me to certain things back here in the States. ..................................................................................................................Anyway, I want to say "hi" after a very long break from this blog and am hoping to get back soon to my book on how God draws us over our lifetime through desires that are increasingly more noble, more generous and trusting, more loving until there comes the day when our deepest desire is realized--wanting only God and with all we have and are, and then experiencing everything in creation being given back to us but this time we are free to relate to everything in complete spiritual freedom with no disordered self- centered love but are free like God to relate with no attachment but rather with profound selfless love. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, God bless for now! Bernie Owens