It's been a series of months of intense work, of deep joys, of difficult tangles. Yes, the stress count was pretty high. So Glenn and I have taken a few days of rest in Abidjan, eight hours by road from home in Ferke. We stay with missionary friends who share their home with us, a courtyard in a suburb where few people know us. And this time we even took three days at the beach. We will soon be celebrating our 39th anniversary and both of our birthdays; this was our party.

I often…

Ahhhh . . . Africa!

salt waves pummeling your beaches

high winds whipping up the sand

rainstorms thundering on tin roofs

sunbeams bouncing off flat land

bulbuls signalling the sunrise

lean dogs howling to the moon

bat calls beeping in the darkness

cattle moaning at high noon

hand plows scooping out a corn field

pestels pounding grain to flour

axes felling scrub and forests

hammers…

I’m only dust

Photo credit: Nemo.H





HYMN 7





"In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength." -- Isaiah 30:15.





With a heart full of anxious request,



Which my Father in heaven bestowed,



I wandered alone, and distressed,



In search of a quiet abode.



Astray…

Photo credit: "Sunrise Gate" by dujarandille





If I could shut the gate against my thoughts



And keep out sorrow from this room within,



Or memory could cancel all the notes



Of my misdeeds, and I unthink my sin:



How free, how clear, how clean my soul should lie,



Discharged of such a loathsome…

Photo credit: .Andrew Dunn.





With beauty decked the morn ascends,



And all the earth is bright;



And lo, the sun the darkness rends,



And floods the sky with light.





All hail, Thou Sun of Righteousness,



Upon our night arisen!



May sin no more our souls oppress,



And bind in darksome…