Journal

Tag: World/International

Into the Tragic Underknown

“For years, Burma’s plight was one of the most under-reported tragedies in the second half the twentieth century.” Benedict Rogers, Burma: A Nation at the Crossroads I’ve been aware of just how little I know about Burma as the days before entering near.  The world is...

With Half of the World

We arrived after a full day’s journey from Washington to Singapore, 28 hours from door to door via Tokyo, Japan.  Flying over Southeast Asia, the little flight map on the plane showed us the cities that lay sleeping below…Taipei, Taiwan; Manila and the cyclone...
Blogging Burma and Southeast Asia

Blogging Burma and Southeast Asia

Dear friends and fellow-pilgrims…In a week’s time, I’ll be traveling to Burma and Singapore, and writing about it on our blog, and I hope you’ll come along for the journey!  Following the pattern of mission reports from Congo and South Sudan, and Israel and...
Thanksgiving: Another Way of Living

Thanksgiving: Another Way of Living

Thanksgiving is probably one of my favorite holidays because it is not over-saturated with commercialism (like most other holidays) and it seems like a day set aside for pure family time. I use this holiday to count my blessings, and reflect on the way I live. On a...

In Thailand

Something Coracle seems to specialize in is being able to walk with those whose lives are on the front lines of seeing some of the worst that a broken world can throw, whether poverty, injustice, violence, and all sorts of disillusionment. Last week, I was grateful to...

‘There and Back Again’

We’ve made it, home.   After 28 hours of travel from Kigali to Entebbe to Addis to Rome to Dulles to Corhaven, home. I’m deeply aware and grateful for the prayers of so many folks for us, they were all answered, in more abundance and gentility that we would have...

Dawn In Congo (Why I Love ARDF)

It’s dawn in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 6am on Sunday morning in the lakeside town of Bukavu.  It lives up to its reputation as the most beautiful city in Congo, sitting on the southern shore of Lake Kivu.  We are here to meet with Archbishop Henri Isengoma,...

Carpenters Following The Carpenter

We began our journey in eastern Congo (DRC) in Aru, a place spared much (though not all) of the violence that is so typical of this country. Anglican Relief and Development Fund helped establish a project in this diocese that we had the chance to see and evaluate, and...

Congo

In the northeast corner of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), The Bishop of the diocese of Aru was the first to say what we’ve heard several times since in the last two days since we arrived, “When you visit us, we know we are in your hearts, when you visit Congo...

The Cradle of South Sudan and Her Christianity

Today (Wednesday) we flew from Maridi to what is perhaps the most important symbolic town in South Sudan: Bor, in the eastern part of the country. It was here in 1983 that the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) first took up arms against those from the north that...

“The Kingdom of God Is Like a Mustard Seed”

Critical to the success of the new South Sudan, according to Archbishop Daniel Deng, are three things:  agriculture, education, and health-care.  Without these the people will not flourish or develop, and if the people don’t, the country won’t. And so, in the last 24...

So It (really) Begins

In any country, there’s always a big difference between the city and the country.  In Africa, multiply that by ten, or maybe twenty. In some of the regions of South Sudan, according to Archbishop Deng, there are those who still live “as they did when God...

What Suffering Can Create

Of course, in South Sudan, there are all the challenges you expect to see in Africa:  poverty, corruption, infrastructure yet to be developed and the roads to prove it, economic disparity, HIV and AIDS.  And yet…and yet, our introduction to this land has so far...

Into Africa…Again. Lord Have Mercy.

I’ve been to Africa more times now than I can remember.   And getting ready to go again brings back a familiar feeling, of a heavy dread mixed with a lot of hope.  Ten years ago, almost to the day, Tara and I were about to arrive for six weeks in Nairobi, and...