Dear Friends, Time is flying by and I have only 53 more days before I leave East Africa, my home for the last 5 years, with lots and lots to do before saying "goodbye" to some terrific people and a wonderfully rich chapter in my life. I have been trying to find the best way for shipping back my books, papers, clothes, and wall and desk items without being charged a horrible price. (I trust you know I will be locating in Toledo, Ohio, at least for one year. I am told it will be next winter, after January 2019, before I know whether my stay there will be longer or not.) I looked at DHL, a highly advertised company, and saw they are very expensive. After further searching I found a company (Bollore') that will wrap and pack and take to the airport my belongings and put them on the airlines I am taking out of here (Alitalia) and have them shipped in cargo under the category called "unaccompanied baggage." The price I was quoted was a fraction of what DHL wants to charge. Besides, I would have to do all the wrapping and packing if I went by DHL. So that is a worry off my mind..........................................................................................................Just before Easter our community of Jesuits was affected by a voltage surge of 340 volts coming from a short when weather prompted two power lines of our next-door neighbors to cross. The surge ruined my printer and knocked out all four of the sockets in my computer such that I cannot use a key board for typing (yes, I am now typing this by 'hunt & peck," very laborious ) nor a mouse to direct the cursor nor the "back-up". I am told that the cost of the labor involved in repairing this would be better spent on a new computer. So that is what I expect to do once I arrive back in the States: replace this Dell computer, Windows 7, with a 17" screen. It has served me well. I am sorry to lose it. .................................................................................................................................................................... I have been working hard on my next book. Today I finished the first draft of chapter 11. I am hoping the next chapter will be the concluding one and then an epilogue. Once I get back to the States and settle in, I will look for some friends to proofread and make suggestions for improvements. Writing and publishing a book of this kind is a long, long process. Some 2-3 weeks ago I learned that my first book has been printed in India and is being marketed in many Asian countries and will be sold also here in Africa. How very gratifying! I have the book translated into Spanish but have not yet been able to find a company willing to market it............................................................................................................................................................................................................ I have not taken time yet to ponder well what these last 5 years here in Nairobi have given me. I know one thing is to feel something of how depressing is the life of the really poor, who are so poor they cannot pay school tuition for their children and skimp on food money while living in huts that right now are cold at night and surrounded by mud and dirt thanks to the enormous amount of rain we have gotten here in the last 2 months. I have never been that vulnerable before. It makes me respect greatly the vast majority of these people wanting employment and many leaving here to go to England or other countries to find work. ................................................................................................................That's all for now. Bernie Owens

Dear Friends, Six weeks ago is the last time I wrote. I think that is the longest gap between letters on this blog-site. So, so much has been goign on and lots of people pulling at me to respond with this and help with that. So this is part of the long delay. ................................................................................................... My biggest news is that I am returning to the USA for good, yes, for good, on July 26. I have been sitting on this decision for the last 13 months and have had to go through numerous offical channels to inform them about my request to return home. Ineed to have a new kind of work, to make some friends I can relax with beyond the Jesuit community, and especially to get myself back to more stable health.............................................................................................. On August 30 I wrote to my provincial in Chicago a six-page letter requesting to return home and explaining why I was asking for the change. Within two to three days he responded and welcomed me back home whenever I could arrange such. Commitments here, the conclusion of my fund-raising efforts which included leading a plgriamge in Isarel last June, and a number of Amercian visitors coming in November, another group in March and, to my surprise, another group coming in late May/early June made it necessary to delay my departure till this summer. I am OK with that, but I do feel I have finished well doing what God called me here to do. It feels really good to know that ground will be borken to begin building the two buildings I did most of the fund-raising for. Some alte donations from one person in Ireland and another person, a priest from Sweden, has made it possible to finish what we needed and start both buildings. It will take until the following summer, 2019. to finish both buildings. So I feel closure on that task. ................................................................................................. I have had some ups and downs with my stomach and intestines. This started seriously a year ago last February. It prompted tests of stool and blood. Conclusion? I was manifesting lots of stress; no amoebas, no parasites, but lots of dysentary. There some foods here I refuse to eat, especially beef, goat, and pork. (Fish and chicken are OK; veggies and fruits, soups also are wonderful.) The meats I will not eat are very fat and greasy! This condition of dysentary flared up again in late February and after a doctor's visit I have managed only recently to return to normal. Not fun at all!! It so drains me of energy, of my electrolytes. My weight is about 10 pounds less than what I carried when back in the States. Not all that bad, but this means for losing that much weight is not good, NOT GOOD at all. ............................................................................................................. Then, I feel that the work I am doing, guiding retreatants, is getting rather repetitious. I am good at this work, but after five years I really need a change and I find my creative juices begging to express themselves; I would like to create something new and have a combination of ministries to do, not just one as is the case here most of the time. My being creative, initiating new programs like I was free to do when at Manresa, is not going to happen here, especially since I do not speak Swahili and am too old to learn it. So . . . I asked my provincial to send me to a high school in our vast midwest province, unless he had a bigger need to assign me to; to my delight he concurred with my inclination to work at a high school and design a biweekly, evening program for the parents of the students. He could assign me to any one of our schools: in Omaha, in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Detroit, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Chicago, Cleveland, etc. I was shocked when he asked me to go to Toledo, Ohio and finish there the book I am well into now and eventually ease my way into the life and work of St. John's Jesuit High School in Toledo. So . . . that is where my new home will be starting in mid-August. I am quite pleased with this imminent change and have already started the process of packing and shipping, giving away certain books and other items, and consolidating notes, etc. ........................................................................................................ . I do feel much peace about my decision, lagely because I sense I have accomplished the work God had asked of me when I came here in 2013. It has been a very blessed time. I am among mostly young Jesuits, some of whom are very impressive and well-educated, most in their 40s and showing lots of promise for leadership................................................................................................... I have a growing need for better healthcare. Serious medical needs in Kenya would not be covered by insurance, while in the States much of it would be covered by insurance. ............................................................................................................. On my way back to the States I will spend 4 weeks with some dear friends at their summer home in southern Italy. Their house, I am told, is about 500 feet from the Mediterranean Sea. I expect to really rest when there, swim often, laugh a lot, get in some important reading, and eat some great Italian food. At the start of this four-week stop, I will spend the first day visiting the two major Jesuit churhes in Rome, one of which has the bones of St. John Berchamans, a Jesuit seminarian who died when only 23 years old. The school in Toledo is named after him (St. John's Jesuit H.S.) and I want to pray a mass next to his tomb and beg his prayers for all of us in this new venture in Toledo. ................................................................................................... I need to go. I wish all of you who read this letter a very blessed Easter that is touched a lot with the quiet joy and peace of the risen Christ (Right now it has been so rainy; we are full of mud around here. The farmers have been begging God for rain and they got it!! ) Bernie Owens

Dear Friends, For those of you in the USA this is Super Bowl Sunday, an excuse I guess to have friends over and party all afternoon prior to the game, with many falling asleep during the game, bored with a game they do not understand nor even care to understand. And loyal Lions fans can spend their time admiring Tom Brady leading his team to victory again while wondering whether the city's team will ever make it to the big dance. Oh, I have been down that road too many times. From far away Africa I wonder whether I will live long enough to see that long awaited championship team......................................................................................................... These last nine days have been unique and quite chaotic for this nation and somewhat chaotic for our Jesuit community. Let me explain a little............................................................................................. On Friday the 26th, we had in the afternoon an ice storm, yes, a storm of hail, little ice-balls fall on us, really DUMPED on us with much force . . . sheets and sheets of hail stones falling on a 45 degtree angle and covering up most of the grass. It went on for 20 minutes while the skies thundered and thundered for more than an hour. Heavy, much needed rains followed about an hour later. I had never imagined anything like this in this part of the world, but happen it did. It took almost an hour for the ice balls to melt. They were about as big as the nail of your index finger. The chaos then followed. Electrical power was knocked out, the internet connection was broken. Then on Sturday Kenya Electic tried to restore power. The resumption of power led to surges or jolts of power into our lines and this burned up, destroyed many pieces related to our laptop computers. I lost my transformer, a plug-in to the back of my computer. It is worth about $25, a fourth of the money I get to live on for a month. Some witnessed flashes of fire shooting out from wall sockets in their rooms. the surge also destroyed a key piece of electrical equipment in the pump from which we get our water. So for three days we were ailing water from the tank that catches run-off water from our roofs. Thank God we still were able to purchase clean drinking water. But no whowers during this time, no water out of the taps. Then bubbles in the water lines blocking the flow of water for the first day water was restored. So I went four days without a shower. Pee-UUUUUU!!! Ugh. My hair was oily beyond description! Ugh! I felt like a stinking rat. On the third day I went for a swim, outdoors here. Low 80s during the afternoons. Having the chlorine residue on my skin was preferable than to no shower at all!.......................................................................................................Then on Tuesday the loser in the last national election, Mr. Raila Odinga, had himself "inaugurated as the people's president" over against an election he said was rigged against him. It would be like Hillary declaring from exile that she is the People's president and that Trump stole the election from her--which some will say is exactly what happened. The government in power allowed the rally and inauguration to go forward, I think as a way to assuage the anger of many who voted for the opponent. A large crowd turned out. All went fairly quietly that day, last Tuesday, but someone in the government shut down the TV stations that were carrying the ceremony. I was sitting at my computer at that moment and all of a sudden all power went off. We all right away said the government did this, in dictatorial fashion. And sure enough, that is the explanation. Then in the last few days the government has been rounding up the member of that party who led this sediitous ceremony, imprisoned some and have revoked the passports of them all. Where Odinga is right now is not known. Rumors have him hiding in Tanzania, the nation to our south. Three of the TV stations are still not back on the air and are said to have to re-apply for their licensces to be permitted to resume broadcasting........................................................................................... Many say this has the feel of a dictatorship, that the elements of democracy are suffering because of the way the government is handling this turmoil. At the same time, what Odinga and his group did is an act of sedition, a crime against the state. Odinga is so frustrated in trying to get reforms, constitutional and economic, in this nation. And he has a point to some degree, but his methods have boomeranged on him this time, it seems. The interenational community urged him strong not to do this, that it would not support him as a preisdent outside the country nor as a people's president inside Kenya. ........................................................................................................ I wish I had the time to study in depth who and what are the power clusters in the government and millionaires in the business community that block real reform and the opening up of the job markets and the vast parts of land in this nation so desperately needed. Islamic jihadist efforts are closely tied to young men frustrated that they cannot get a job, so they are easily recruited with wads of money provided by sources in Saudia Arabia and Qatar to join Al Shabab in Somalia and conduct raids in Somalia and Kenya. American military with drones are stationed clandestinely in Somalia and Tanzania kill many of these young men. It is so tragic for these people who are trapped in what feels like a hopeless situation. The poverty in this part of the world is so striking, over against the relatively small number who have enormous wealth and are the real power behind government decisions. Not a lot different than in most first world nations, the USA included. ............................................................................................................ Yesterday I had a young nun tell me the very sad story of how her family and all in her village in western Kenya were burned out of their homes last Friday in a raid by neighboring tribal people, people who worship in the same church they do and buy food at the same market they do. Almost always this is about one tribal group getting angry over the alleged stealing of their cattle and goats by the other tribe. You have to image the setting: a rolling highlands area, rich in green growth from generous rainfall, full of herds of cattle and goats. The people live in wooden or mudbrick shacks with tarp paper to protect against rain. They usually form a circle of the houses for protection and have a large open space on the inside of the circle for their children to play, for meetings with their elders, and where at night they bring their animals for safety. This nun teaches in a school far away from her family, in eastern Kenya, and received a phone call that the huts of all of her family members were burned down, all possessions were lost, and some were wounded with bullets from Russian AK-47s provided by government leaders who make good money from selling war weapons. Sounds like the USA!! The only things left were the clothes on the backs of her family members. She is struggling so hard with the feelings of anger and hurt and the call of the Gospel to forgiveness and reconciliation. Life is terribly brutal at times........................................................................................ Then I have learned from one of my retreatants who is a nun some shocking info regarding her efforts to rescue children kidnapped by and for the local sex industry, one of the most evil, monstrous industries in the world. Surely there is a hell for these perpetrators!! She tells of a 12 minute video shown to some of her fellow workers dedicated to the rescue of these children in which a little 5 year old Philippina girl was kidnapped and would be drugged with a pill shoved in her mouth so that she would not be all that conscious when sordid customers came to satisfy their animal cravings at her expense. Again life can be very brutal. It is truly one of the worst manifestations of today's ongoing crucifixion of Christ in His Body, God's family. It and the world of pornography are the second biggest source of money in today's world, following what the arms merchants make. It is the cravings for money and a lavish lifestyle that pushes many of these people to do such criminal things. God will not be mocked. There will be a day when justice is done, as sure as the sun will come up tomorrow. What are these poeple going to do when they meet their Creator and asks them what did they do with the life He gave them??!! I know for a fact that this human trafficking, of adults and of children, goes on everywhere; in Detroit, in Flint, in Toledo. It cries to heaven for justice. Pope Francis has spoken out on it a number of times. I pray daily for its victims. Many commit suicide; many end up in prostitution or other crimes. Yes, the world needs a Savior........................................................................................................For me I continue to plow along on the second book I am writing. I have gotten the OK to have my first book published and marketed here in Africa. Very encouraging news! The book is translated now into Spanish and I am presently looking for a publishing company to make it available to the Spanish-speaking public. Mexico, USA?? Weather here is usually wonderful: cloudless skies, low 80s during the fternoons, great for an outdoors swim. I wish all who read this a spiritually rich Lent.......................................................................................... I will have two visitors coming on the 27th of this month and staying until March 8--one a very good male friend from Troy, MI and the other a male friend from Rome. I expect to have a fabulous time with them. They are both close friends of mine and know each other quite well. We will see some of the beauty in the surrounding area and sip some scotch or sambucca while my Roman friend plays the guitar; He has been good enough to play in restaurants in Rome, so this will be a treat. God bless to you all....................................................................................................... Bernie Owens

Dear Friends, It has been a long time since I have written and so, so much has happened, too much to capture in words here and some of it too personal to share in a forum this public. Anywy, I am quite well while in the midst of being continually amazed at so many things going on here in Kenya with its poverty and political turmoil, in the USA and its unabated turmoil, its public lack of respect and verbal violence, and what strikes me as its increasing spiritual poverty, yet not without some extraordinary citizens who still believe in and live well from God's love and mercy, people for whom Jesus and His way still make all the difference. .............................................................................................................. I had a blessed December. It was especially so with a very enjoyable celebration of Christmas, a dinner for 35 people (20 of these being guests) on Christmas afternoon (with lots of turkey, wonderfully prepared, and cranberries which I love!) Then starting on December 27 my own 8-day of retreat in silence, alone with the Lord and a few scriptures and two readings that touched me greatly. Day 6 of the retreat, on January 1, seemed to be the most blessed of all the days. In that afternoon I had a very strong sense of God's depths and the quality and utter beauty of God's goodness and love. I had never experienced such like this before. It was heavenly. What was entirely new in this experience was how there is simply no "bottom" to God's depths. There is no "end" or limit to Divine Love. I knew this before in my head, but this time I SENSED it with much power and unforgettable wonder. The deeper I went into God's depths, the more this awareness simply opened out into the infinite spaces of everything good and true; not unlike what an astronout might experience looking out from a spacelab window and peering into space. Astronomers tell us the universe is perpetually expanding and we have no idea where and whether there is any outer boundary to the cosmos. Try to get your mind around that idea; Really, it is impossible. All one can do is accept and adore............................................................................................................................................................................................. So, we cannot even imagine the breadth and depth of the Divine Heart because it has no boundaries, no "outer limits." It seems to me we are all largely unaware of and mostly blind to the Source we come from and are being drawn back to. We see vaguely, maybe, but "as thorough a glass darkly," as St. Paul says. It is so, so humbling yet consoling to "taste and see" this aspect of God, to understand better why some mystics like the 14th century woman, Juliana of Norwich said that because of what God is like, "all is well, all manner of things are well." We have no good reason to fear or worry even though we suffer from the lack of love in the world, and in ourselves. And so, despite the craziness of the world and that same craziness welling up inside our own selves at times, and despite how it seems that the voices of self-centered arrogance and pride, lust and greed appear to be prevailing, there is something far deeper and will have "the last say" when all is over and death has met everyone of us. (That Presence is with us even now; we need not wait till death to claim it and live in its Assurance.) It will not be the deeds of our lives but the mercy, justice and sheer goodness of God expressed in the open Heart of His Son given totally for each of us that will make the ultimate difference. This gracious Source of all that is will write the last chapter of the book of our lives. It is good to remind each other of this overriding Truth and Power to ground us and save us from hopelessness, anger and blaming but to really intercede for the world and all of our loved ones and so too for all those whose deeds make them very difficult to love in Christ.............................................................................................................................................................................To all of you who read this, I wish a happy, blessed 2018. I will be visiting Detroit in late July and early August and hope our paths cross. God bless. I will see all of you, known and unknown, at the daily Eucharist where we are all one in Him; in Him who says, "Fear not, for I have overcome the world." We have to believe and trust Him when He says this and look for His reassuring presence and friendship along the way we are going each day. Bernie Owens

Good afternoon, Friends, I write on Friday, December 1, on a day with temps in the mid to high 70s and I am surrounded by blue skies and lots of flowers. So different from what many of you are now experiencing. It is a stark reminder for me of how life is in the southern hemisphere of the world. Our hottest months will be the next three, the heart of summer for us. I had planned on making my annual retreat (8 days mandated for every Jesuit every year) in Mombasa, a port city on the Indian ocean abut 250 miles from here during Christmas week and the first few days of January. But some Jesuits who visited there recently said, "Wow is it HOT^ there and humid too." That comment made me change my mind right away. I cannot do any work at all, let alone pray and make a retreat, when my skin is wet and I am perspiring so, which would be the case in that city. It is great for tourists. Many Kenyans who have at least modest money will take their children there over Christmas time to play in the water, which is truly wonderful I am told. So, like the last four years I am staying here for my retreat and have whatever resources at hand I will need. Besides, this setting is really beautiful for making a retreat, especially if you can be under a tree during the middle of the day. I have just finished leading 17 people through an 8-day retreat in which I gave the talks, two a day, and made myself available for numerous one-on-one conversations with any of them who needed that. I had many, many pages to xerox and staple. I established the theme for each article, then gave it to them as a summary and points/topics to pray from. The entire retreat was about who is the Spirit of God, what does that Spirit do in each of us and in the world. It seems many Christians have little or no knowledge of who is this Holy Spirit, so to provide instruction on this fundamental of our faith -life seemed fitting, reflected in how glad people were to get instruction and be able to pray much more deeply in regard to the Spirit. They loved the retreat from what I can see, but wow, was I ever tired when we finished yesterday. This past month of November has been a demanding one for me. Besides the retreat I was host, taxi-driver sometimes, and tour guide for part of two weeks for three American friends. The highlight of the two weeks was the four of us going to Masai Mara, the spacious game park in western Kenya, a 6 hour drive from here, an hour and a half of it over very bumpy roads. IN two full days and parts of two other days we saw so, so many wild animals. In one day we saw what are called the big five: lions, elephants, leopard, water buffalo, and rhinos. All in all, we saw 31 lions, all of them up close (maybe 40 feet away from our four-wheeler), some 25 feet away; 14 giraffes (so elegant!), one hyena, one rhino, countless water buffalo, wildebeasts, heartebeasts, and zebras, a few crocodiles, a dozen or so cheetahs, countless antelopes, gazelles, impalas, guinea-fowls, baboons, and many, many hippos, two of which came to the back area of our lodging and were so loud when munching grass. I woke up at 4:30 AM two of the mornings we were there because of the noise thinking it was an elephant up close to my bedroom window; instead it was a mother hippo with her baby munching in a rhythmic manner. What a site. They were probably 35-40 feet away from me. One of the most dramatic scenes was two female lions eating a wildebeast. We had come upon this scene maybe 20 minutes after the chase and kill. One lion was the mother of the other; she was gorged and lying almost on her back sound asleep. The daughter lioness, maybe 2-3 years old, had the wildebeast on its side and was feasting on the rib cage area and then worked hard to turn over the victim to get at more of the flesh yet to be torn off and eaten. One of the wildebeast's front legs was sticking straight up in the air while being worked over by this pretty large lioness. All of this happened in the middle of a shallow river; the wildebeast was lying on a sandbar and part of its body in the stream with the water running by gently. For me a bonus was the enormous vistas one gets at that park. I think it must be 50-70 miles in all directions; you can see in all directions over very gently rolling meadows with some mountains that form boundaries at opposite ends, 80-100 miles away. Very few trees over these vistas. It was so impressive to spot zebras, water buffalo and herds of elephants at different parts of the park at great distances. Binoculars really helped. One other very impressive scene was a herd of elephants up close with a baby elephant perhaps 2-3 weeks old. It was so interesting to watch the baby stick very close to its mother and be on the other side of her away from us. We would stop, turn off our engine, and stare for like a half hour. A moment of great humor came when I spotted on the side of our road in the park what is called a dung beetle. It is about the size of an adult's thumb. It rolls into a ball the dung of animals in the area, like that of the impalas and antelopes, and pushes with its rear legs this ball while pivoting off its front legs. It was hilarious watching how vigorously this beetle was pushing, doing its job to provide food for its eggs. I need to go, friends. Another batch of retreatants comes in this evening, so I go back to work with six people to guide in one-on-ones conversations each day. A blessed Advent and Christmas to each and all of you. Bernie Owens

Dear Friends, It is November 2, the day Roman Catholics especially remember in prayer the deceased members of our families and friends. It is a tradition taken from many centuries, more than a millenium, to intercede with God for those who have passed on but, we believe, may still have issues and ways of relating that indicate their not being in complete union with God and their neighbor. In other words, there is still need for some purification of their past, something that needs "correcting" and realigning with God's Spirit before they are ready to be with God face to face. When we appreciate what is needed in the human soul before it is ready to be with God, it becomes immediately obvious how many of us upon death probably do not meet the minimum state of interior freedom and purity of heart necessary to be with God. How God does this purification and completing his work of transforming us in Christ so that we are in complete harmony with Him, God alone knows. In any case today is special just for this reason and for caring for those who have gone on in the Lord. ................................................................................................................................ In an hour I leave for the Nairobi airport to meet three American friends who are coming for a two-week visit. The four of us are planning to go to the famous game park, Masai Mara, next Monday through Thursday. I am really looking forward to this--to drive in a truck next to a group (pride) of lions or near the giraffes, etc. It is such a special place in the world. Right now it is raining and leaving everything very green. Spring is in the air, the flowers and trees in bloom add abundant color, a feast for the eyes. The jacaranda trees with their light purple bells in clusters are for me the most spectacular display of nature's colors at this time of the year................................................................................................................................. The repeated election, held on October 26, is over, the incumbent declared the winner, and the political jousting continues. The loser in this second election is a big source of pain to most in the nation. Most just want the economy to get going again. It has been stagnant for so long. Many want to go back to work. At the same time some major structural changes are needed in the way government is run and the elections are conducted. This is a young nation with many growing pains. Some observers are of the opinion that the next generation is needed to come into power before the old crony system modeled by the British dies; the Brits ran this place for more than a century as one of its colonies. So much favoritism toward the few families who own most of the land. this makes bribery and embezzelment easy for the way of operating, and staying out of prison while you can continue committing money related crimes and an occasional assassination or elimination of a political foe. There is a small middle class, too much unemployment still, which make for the seeds of violence and thievery. Thank God for the Christian churches, especially for the many nuns who run so many of the institutions that show care for the ordinary citizen and then the very poor, not-so-ordinary citizens. There are so many orphans and abandoned children, idle men and alcoholism. I sense many parallels with where the USA was after the American Civil War and into the 20th century. ...................................................................... I feel good about having predicted from the beginning of the baseball playoffs who would be the two teams in the World Series and that Houston would win it all. I am also glad that Justin Verlander finally got his World Series ring after two failed attempts with the Tigers (in 2006 and 2012). The trade that sent Verlander to Houston last July 31 made a huge difference for Houston getting to the WS. As a Tiger fan I must admit I have great hopes for the Tigers picking some great talent during the next couple of years and being back in competition in the not too distant future. ................................................................................................................. Will the government of the USA ever calm down? Will our populace ever calm down and show respect and be ready to listen to the other perspective for what truth is in it, if any? It seems we have so many who have adopted a "me-first" attitude and ready to accuse the other. Our culture is experiencing the ferment of men and women using each other through lots of sexual misbehavior so that those involved can become very rich and live the wild life. If anyone is exposed, they have an excuse and then point the accusing finger as if they have nothing from which to repent. Is it possible that a truly competent, inspiring leader emerge and get elected? Will Christian voices that are not fundamentalistic and capable of speaking knowledgeably to the injustices in the USA political, economic, racial, and cultural realms get a platform so that they are heard as widely as the standard media are able to be heard?...... .....................................................................................................................I continue to make good progress on my new book. I am presently toward the end of chapter 7 and hope to have the entire first draft done by June. God bless. I need to go to the airport now! In Christ, Bernie Owens

Dear Friends, I have been remiss, yes. Too many other things getting my immediate attention, especially the time I have been putting in on writing the next chapter of the book I am writing (five chapters done with the part of the book I am most interested in yet to be written! Book-writing can be all-consuming, and after a while I don't think of anything else.)......................................................................................................................................... What is this book about? I am showing the various stages of spiritual and psychological, emotional growth possible in a person's life, if they deeply connect with Christ as the greatest discovery of their life and develop a deep friendship with and love for him. (So many do not really know Him; they know about Him but do not know Him!) I am using many sources to explain this but principally the framework of Teresa of Avila and some of the great insights of John of the Cross. Both of these people are Carmelite saints of the 16th century and so perceptive. I discuss why it is that most people do not grow beyond a certain relatively early point in the spiritual journey and miss out on realizing the greater, richer possibilities we have in becoming truly happy and fulfilled. What I seek to show in the latter half or third of the book some of the richer experiences available to us in these latter, more mature stages of life. It all depends on our taking a few basic steps to open up to and receive those deeper gifts of God. The problem is: like the Rich Young Man in the Gospel, so many of us don't want to take those few steps but would rather stay in our comfort zones and pretty much settle in to a certain level of growth and there live out the rest of our lives. God still loves us as we are but there could have been so, so much more for us if we had sought guidance and learned more about the possibilities available to us all, if we had made more courageous choices. So, I hope readers in the coming years will find my book to be like a map and guide to a richer, much happier life................................................................................................................................................ While I live far from the USA, I do read from the internet each day a quick summary of the news of what is going on in the USA. Like so many US citizens I feel concern for the deepening disunity in the US, great distress at the deepening godlessness of many elements and how the media reflect an implicit atheism in the politically correct values they approve of, then the fighting and disrespect shown in public speech and behavior, and the unthinkable consequences of a war that would be fought with the weapons now in the hands of nations who keep threatening each other. It all leaves me feeling rather powerless and praying urgently that God spare us lest we end up like Sodom and Gomorrah consumed in sulphuric fire. We so need credible, articulate voices that will witness to and proclaim in a public way a basic humble and grateful attitude, rooted in a deep faith in God, and a new dedication, especially in marriages and families, to live such values. Something has to be done to counter the hypocritical philosophy or system of values praised in the last two weeks by the media when Hugh Hefner died. The media were filled with testimonies to how he was a champion of and trailblazer toward a new freedom from repression. (Yet one twitter sent in said, "I think it safe to say this is one guy who is not in a better place!") But the media treated his death and his long life as a great contribution to a better culture and better USA, even though it acknowledged that Hefner in some interview early in his career of promoting his infamous magazine and the objectification of women admitted that women are objects (for the pleasure of men.)..................................................................................................................................... Then what struck me as so hypocritical of the media was their present obsession with and condemnation of Harvey Weinstein and how he has used so many actresses for satisfying his own addiction. I ask: is there any essential difference between Hugh Hefner and Harvey Weinstein?? Why is one so praised by the media and the other so heavily condemned? Is it that one is supposed to look and fantasize but never touch?? I ask that cynically! This moral rot is killing many spiritual lives, destroying people in their hearts to indulge their ego-centric passions and live without any intent to keep any promise or vow that would inconvenience them. They lie to themselves, helped by the media, when they claim that living this way is the new freedom, is the way out of repression and joyless living. Yet when you see the fruits, the results of their choices and lifestyles, the fury of people who counted on their being faithful and trustworthy, you say, "how can that be freedom?" I have had to listen to too many people who bemoan their addiction to pornography and their loss of freedom (yes, there is that word again) and enslavement to habits of lust. Such is the legacy of Hugh Hefner and others like him; I am sure Harvey Weinstein fed his fantasy life with the garbage that Hugh Hefner and others like him dumped on America from the early 1950s till our day. ................................................................................................................................................... With the ugliness of lust there is closely connected violence and rage, like the attitude shown in Steven Paddock, infamous forever for his murdering so many people in Las Vegas. Along with his successful gambling and spending money and time with the whores of that city he indulged his furious, bitterly angry attitude toward who knows what. Sex and violence together make for a never ending source of fascination. twisted curiosity, and perverse entertainment. (I have learned that getting hooked especially on porn makes people hide from God, hide from their true selves, and often lie to others close to them, also to stay at a pretty superficial, self-focused level of life.) Too many people in our nation are expressing their contempt and fury at someone (e.g., two years ago toward little children in a Connecticut school) by turning guns made for military combat on them. ..................................................................................................................................... Why am I so interested in this area of what troubles our nation? Because I anticipate spending the last years of what is left of my life helping teens and their parents look at their lives as a gift from God to do something God needs from them, something that will make their lives really meaningful, rooted in love and friendship with Christ and His Father, and contribute to the betterment of other people, to find their joy and fulfillment in living out of these values and cares. To think first in terms of living out a call from God rather than thinking first and foremost of choosing a career to become financially well-off (One is focused on God, the other on self): I want to give the rest of my life to precisely this and to confront the powers of evil and twisted values fostered by ex-Christians and unbelievers of other backgrounds like Hugh Hefner and other egocentric failures of our society. ......................................................................................................................................... Please pray for Kenya. We face a national election next October 26. Right now on this 15th day of October, things are very fluid. It seems the election will go forward, but who knows what will happen soon after it? I have three friends coming from the States a week after the election. We are staying in safe places, not going downtown Nairobi, and will be going to the famous game park, Masai Mara, a six hours drive west of here (on November 6-9) to see the lions, giraffes, antelope, hippos, water buffaloes, crocodiles, leopards, etc. Ironically, it will be more secure to be with the animals and some of the violent people who live in the big cities of this country!!................................................................................................................................... All for now! God bless America! May God raise up some truly great Christians in our land to live the Christian faith and be the leaven in a new dough God will create to regenerate our nation. We need a new politics, a new dedication to the family and to fidelity in marriage; we need men and women who will come not to be served but to serve and give their lives out of gratitude to Him who laid down His life for each of us, Christian and non-Christian, with no exceptions. See the second letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 8, verse 9 and his letter to the Galatians, chapter 2, verses 19 and 20. Bernie Owens