COVID Christmas

 

We are healthy. Perhaps that is enough to say in a year as full of excess deaths and loss as this has been. Though members of our family have crossed the bar, my sister in March, my cousin's husband in October, and several others, none of them were directly related to the novel coronavirus. We have sacrificed any hopes of visiting family in Korea, and probably any likelihood we will be present for the birth of grandchild number 10 in February, but we have found other ways to connect and build family culture and memories either virtually, or by enduring frenetic driving trips, preceded by COVID testing and some combination of quarantine, and social distancing. Thus we can begin to count some blessings that have come from this experience of pandemic. Here are several:

    The switch to virtual sacrament meetings via zoom enabled us to join in worship again with many friends in Vietnam as their sacrament services were 12 hours in advance of ours. That was sweet.

    Moving to virtual teaching in pathology sparked a major foray into video production of short and some longer teaching videos on pathology topics. While initiated for our own program residents, it is now evident that the value to both trainees and public far beyond our program is not insignificant. And that has led to the consideration of how the cumulative efforts of many peers in doing the same might be turned to solve a major public health problem looming down the road as cancer incidence in the developing world accelerates, even as we curtail infectious and communicable disease (or think we have.) Most of these video releases have been announced via our Facebook group devoted to promoting pathology development in Vietnam and other developing countries, an effort that was an early launch when we began giving lectures at the Vietnamese National Cancer Institute. (For the curious, here are the links to the channel https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCSlhvdzIe8AXLKb-dWO8jhg/videos/upload?filter=%5B%5D&sort=%7B%22columnType%22%3A%22date%22%2C%22sortOrder%22%3A%22DESCENDING%22%7D 
and the Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/568498066621912 )

    We have been able to give equal time and attention to our missionaries as they approach marriage. Our commitment and mantra to "Do it right from the beginning" that we taught and emphasized over and over again when speaking about how we build branches seems even more apt as we contemplate their looming task of building a family founded on the gospel. But sweet Zoom sessions with as many as will accept have made the relationships richer and compensated for our inability to witness sealing ceremonies or participate in celebrations.

    We have seen our hearts stretched as we have ministered to others within our own ward and stake. While often the 80/20 rule means that a Relief Society president will spend the bulk of her time attending to problems among an often recalcitrant 20% of her sisters, the efforts over the first 10 months of her service have seen several reasons to rejoice, both in terms of training and modeling offered to her counselors (several have already gone on to other callings better prepared) and in the signs of progress among the sisters in struggles. Hooray for small victories! 

    We have missed singing, or at least I have, even though my voice is showing its age. While listening to others raise a joyful noise is good, and we can resonate inside with their efforts, there is something wonderful about exulting or mourning or praising in one's own voice, and in harmonizing and synchronizing with others, whether for a funeral, or wedding or just a weekly worship service. And that brings me to the backdrop for this year's Christmas carol. It expresses this need to sing when the news is as good as Christmas is to me, and I hope to you. I'm not a composer with accomplishments or much in the way of training. But once I started this and the words were beginning, the mournful beginning in a minor key had to be resolved with a change in mode to major as the good news of Christ's birth and His plan is affirmed. Perhaps you will hear the quote or allusion in the first line to the tune for "There is a balm in Gilead" (not done consciously I will add) which likewise comforts with His message. 

May you be well and whole. May music of praise and thanksgiving and joy fill your heart in this most different of years. And may a COVID Christmas come to mean more than loneliness or isolation as you come to see what God has done in your life this year.

For those who may not wish to struggle with my notation, you can get an idea of the carol by listening to me sing it through. Blogger won't support the mp3 file upload for some reason, so contact me if you want me to send it directly.. (Not ready for the recording studio yet, I know.) But here are the words, so you don't need to squint.

Will there be no carols sung this season? 

No choirs to tune their voice as one?  

Will only solos sung in isolation. 

Tell the birth of Him, God’s only Son? 

Will only dirges played to mourn the dying

Pierce our ears and speak of only sorrows?

Is all the joy we had false and beguiling,

Drain'd hope today from each of our tomorrows?

Not so for me! Not so for you! 

Angels His birth announced!  

Disciples Saw Him Rise,  

And He will come again. 

This Hope is Sure! 

So I will sing my carol bright this season!

With choirs above tune notes to seem as one,

Thus will my carol sung midst isolation

Sing praise to Him, God’s new born Son!

Sing hope for those who’re lost or dying!

Sing joy for all who’ve suffered sorrows!

Sing Truth and Grace defeating all beguiling!

Sing Christ our hope for now and all tomorrows.

'Tis so for me! ‘Tis so for you!

Angels His birth announced!

Disciples saw Him rise,

And He will come again.

This Hope is Sure!

    

Thắp Sáng Thế Gian

 It wasn’t exactly the splash of the “Ice Bucket Challenge,” but the first foray of an “official” church entry into the prevalent social media world of Vietnamese culture did reach remarkably large audiences and demonstrated the value that social media could add to missionary efforts and to public esteem for the Church. It started when the mission was given approval  (thank you Hong Kong Public Affairs) to launch a group or page under the above title during the Christmas public affairs efforts of 2017. The page would be the landing page for the daily videos released by the church in the campaign. Elders Michael Williams and Kevin Huy Phan were charged to build a plan to bring meaningful messages and traffic to the page to help spread the message of #LightTheWorld for Vietnamese saints and their friends. They produced a few video clips in Vietnamese illustrating how they were following the theme of the campaign, and then they challenged a few people to do likewise, and again share their efforts and challenge more of their friends to engage in the social media sweep. Perhaps because the demographics of their friends was that of a highly social media conscious young adult group, the results and engagement from members in both the North and the South, was remarkable.

The success of this effort in building a community and an audience interested in using social media to share gospel concepts was significant for individuals and the church. President Hoang Van Tung of the District Presidency, and Chairman of the legal entity charged with representing the church to the government, had been regularly sharing images and messages about the church, ranging from pictures of temples, to inspirational messages from Church leaders, intent on raising the standing and awareness of the Church and its value to Vietnamese society. I felt that the value of the community created could be enhanced by extending the concept of a social media campaign into the traditional season of celebrations in Vietnamese (and East Asian) culture surrounding the lunar new year, Tết Nguyên Dân. So with some help from the Communications Committee and other members, we identified gospel truths that were embodied in traditional practices associated with that holiday. Then each of these were developed into short posts with traditional photos of the practice. The campaign was headed under the hashtag #lẽthâttrongtruyềnthống, or #TruthsinTraditions. The posts were popular and often got a significant (for the church population size) number of shares and likes, with an estimated reach of several thousand viewers. One such was this about the tradition of giving "lucky money" or Ly Xi at the new year.

#lẽthậttrongtruyềnthống
Chuẩn bị cho hoặc nhận được lì xì:

Truyền thống tuyệt vời này là một cách thức để các người cha mẹ có thể ban phước cho các con cái, để các ông bà có thể bày tỏ những cảm giác và ước mong cho các thế hệ về sau, và nói chung để những người lớn tuổi có thể trình bày các ước mong đó một cách hữu hình cho năm mới. Thông thường tiền này được cho trong một phong bì nhỏ màu đỏ, để nhấn mạnh màu sắc đỏ mang sự may mắn đến xã hội này. Nó được cho một cách vô điều kiện, một biểu tượng về một tình yêu thương vô điều kiển nên phải là gì. Phúc âm của Chúa Giê Su Ky Tô dạy chúng ta rằng “chúng ta yêu mến Ngài, vì Ngài yêu mền chúng ta trước” hay để nói một cách khác, lòng yêu mến của Thượng Đế mà được biểu tượng một cách hữu hình bởi máu cứu chuộc của Dấng Cứu Rỗi, đã được ban cho chúng ta mặc dù chúng ta đã không được hưởng. “Thương Đế yêu thương thế giới [chúng ta] đến nỗi Ngài đã gửi Con Trai Độc Sinh của Ngài.”

Prior to the 2017 Christmas media effort, Vietnamese had still been a minor language, so efforts to employ the graphics, video materials and other campaign items arrived late, or were not translated at all. In 2016, the first season following creation of the mission, the plan had been to utilize materials translated for the 2015 campaign, since they could be available from the beginning of the month. This worked to some degree, but the phase delay made it a bit confusing for bilingual members, or to English-speakers living in the Vietnamese branches. As 2017 approached we felt confident in that approach given that the hashtag theme had not changed, and people would likely not remember or the number who would would be small compared to the new eyes we hoped would see the campaign. But in the interim, translation had sped up and the videos were simplified so that translation was feasible in the short time frame.

As I observe the subsequent similar media campaigns, it is evident that the decision to retain the #LightTheWorld hashtag has been helpful in gaining "brand status" for the holiday among members and their friends. And seeing ever increasing numbers of members respond to the encouragement to share and document their celebration of the season in the public eye of social media is encouraging. In Hanoi in 2019, members were included in a public singing performance at a high visibility venue. In 2020, with COVID mostly excluded from the country, Hanoi members were involved with a charity booth during a special event highlighting giving held at the JW Marriott Hotel in Hanoi. At that site, the Thắp  Sáng Thế Gian theme was highly visible, and the personal engagement by members was meaningful. The Church is emerging from obscurity, and indeed becoming a light to the world.

It is evident that the early experience with using social media in 2017 and early 2018 was helpful so that when missionary work moved to a more virtual environment in 2020 with the onset of the pandemic, there was a base of experience, and a population of supportive church members. When a church executive responsible for media visited Hanoi in early 2018 and interviewed missionaries and members, his report to me was that it was clear that a great deal of potential existed in Vietnam in that realm, but that many more materials were needed than then available. Much more is available now than when the first purchase of Times Square space was made for the holiday campaigns years ago, but with a populace that is young and highly engaged on social media, and primarily on a single platform (Facebook), I believe the Light has the potential to spread very quickly. The curve is shifting.

Interludes and Inter-“missions”

 The story isn’t over for those who have followed the events and thoughts in “Along the Hong River” just as it isn’t for us in our renewed life along the Oklahoma River. It is now a full two years since we emptied the storage unit which held our earthly belongings, thinning again our possessions,  before reassembling the puzzle into the space of our home on Northwest 17th Street. A lot of the content of our daily activity is not terribly different than it was while we lived in Hanoi, while some things are decidedly different.

We still rise early (the 5:30 am alarm is mostly redundant since the biologic clock is quite firmly set it would seem) and engage in morning exercise and gospel study. We use that study period to seek guidance and revelatory ideas that will help us lift and serve those whom we may meet or connect with during that day and days ahead. My friend and missionary department proselyting guru David Weidman counseled me to inquire of the Lord each day as to which of our elders or sisters may need an emotional touch of some sort that day. More often than not, when I have done that, the resulting experience has been rich and tender. The lesson for me is that the endowment of love for our fellow missionaries, and for the saints and friends that came into our lives there, carries with it the responsibility and opportunity to continue to minister and grow with them.

It wasn’t very long after we had been home that I realized how treacherous the period of  life following a mission was for most returning missionaries. So many critical decisions were to be made, that would lock them into patterns and positions that would work powerfully for their good, or for ill. Selecting the right spouse seemed to me the most potent of these decisions. So for many months now, I have prayed and fasted for them in that regard, sometimes as a whole, and sometimes for particular ones. The readily obtained answers to these pleadings are beginning to accrue. This month, four new families were founded in the Holy Temples, and lives full of hope and anticipation have been launched together with able and worthy spouses. If the ultimate measure of our efforts is to be measured in the character and devotion of the grandchildren of those missionaries, then we have reason to hope for good inasmuch as so many have begun well, taking to heart the admonition to “do it right from the beginning.” We rejoice in their joy, and hope in their hope.

 

Similarly, as the number of offspring from these marriages begins to grow and these young fresh spirits make their entrance onto the stage of life, we feel great anticipation and excitement. Mission grandchildren, as we have come to refer to these offspring, are a big part of our joy as well. We only regret that limitations on time, resources, and the current travel restrictions have cut off direct contact with these joys, as well as our own biologic grandchildren. 

In another aspect of the heritage of these genealogies, we have the on-going opportunity to see many of the new converts and even former investigators of our time in Vietnam stepping forward to serve full-time missions. For many of these Pioneers, this is not a trivial decision, nor even entirely their own. Our dear friend L was baptized in 2017, the only member of her family, of course. As a young woman who had entered the workforce following school, her family’s next expectation was for her to marry and begin a family. But to make matters more complicated, a sibling was pursuing a career in the Public Security arm of the government. As is well known to all in that division, a primary responsibility is to oversee potentially seditious religious organizations, and therefore any officer with personal OR family connections to religious organizations is black-marked to not advance into increased duties. Hence that same sibling looked upon L as blocking their ability to move up in the security apparatus, and as the oldest child, he easily recruited both parents into opposing L’s participation, attendance, and support for the Church. 

But Wonder of Wonders, Miracle of Miracles, after much counsel, prayer, fasting, and gentle persuasion, God did make a wall fall down. What tremendous joy we felt when the text came from L detailing with ebullient joy that both parents had granted permission for L to serve a mission. To make matters even sweeter, we know a certain returned missionary who will be waiting for the completion of that service. So our fasting for L and L’s parents, also meant fasting for a future spouse of infinite worth and high commitment and faith. It was two for one!

And so the rivers flow and we shall both watch from the banks, and at times follow the currents.

Memorials and “Final” chapters

What we hope most to have accomplished in the few months we have lived, loved and wandered among the peoples of Vietnam is to have embodied in some way the example and teachings of Jesus Christ. Looking backwards as we now can on the paths we have taken in this journey, and more especially on the lives of the people we have met, loved and served, we see so many interesting stories, and so much of the sorrows, sadness and struggles of life, mixed wonderfully with moments of joy, happiness and fulfillment. As in Vietnamese cuisine, the sweet, spicy, salty, hot and savory, together with flavors and sensations not well described in English, come together to make a marvelous fusion of experiences that intensify and reinforce the feeling of satisfaction and fulness. So is life as a servant of God on a mission to bless his children. There are many flavors, textures and sensations that enrich us.

But unlike a meal which comes to a pleasing climax and resolves with a little “mouth decoration” as desserts here are termed, in a mission with real people and real lives, the course is often not finished and fulfilled by just one person. We are forced to put aside many books seemingly in mid-sentence, still hanging on what verb will dominate the remainder of the story and which object will be the consummation of the phrase. We know there are yet many chapters still to be written, twists and turns in plot and theme before the grand story is revealed and the Author’s mind and will are revealed.

We first met Brother Sharp two years ago on one of our first visits to the Mekong. We stayed in the village hotel, with it’s hard bed and the geckos prowling the walls for any insects that ventured in. We met him and his daughter at the head of the dirt path that lead in a kilometer or so to their home on the edge of the rice paddies. Flat and green, yet soured by a dry season that meant salt intrusion, those fields seemed in some ways a metaphor for their lives. He and members of his family had joined the church while living in Cambodia and had felt unity with the saints they met. They weren’t looking for “the true church” per se, but enjoyed the fellowship and accepted the doctrines. But when they moved back to Vietnam to resume work as the opportunities improved, they were far from the pleasures of that fellowship, and the dry ground invited other influences into their lives that soured the crop a bit.

So while they welcomed our visit, they had a different perspective on their spiritual needs at that time, and their affiliation with the larger international church didn’t seem essential to what they sought day to day. They prayed, they sang, they gathered together from time to time, security forces willing, and that was enough.

Our path took us back to their province 18 months later. Sudden losses had entered the family when a son-in-law had passed away suddenly, as though hit by lightening, and their daughter was now struggling to keep that arm of the  family going. As we shared their sorrows and thought about the blessings of being able to bear up the burdens placed on us, we invited them to consider whether temple worship might not offer them strength and comfort. Again we were warmly welcomed as friends, but understanding and hunger for the full plate of gospel blessings was still not evident. I had thought it unlikely following that visit that we would see them again. But circumstances can change.

While planning our trip for the Mission Branch conference this past weekend, word arrived that Brother Sharp had himself passed away and would be buried the following day. We couldn’t make the five hour trip for that, but determined to include a visit there in advance of the branch conference.

The last kilometer of the trip to the blue and white house was now paved in concrete, but the sun was still hot and much  of the path very exposed. The rice was again planted, now just showing sprouts for the first rainy season crop, the paddy partially flooded already from the first week of rain. We found the house, where now were two graves, one still in the final stages of construction, and the other completed but not fully adorned as a more prosperous setting might have required.

As we hugged, and held hands, shared faith and offered comfort a renewed sense of unity and a deeper desire seemed to arise in the hearts of not just the widow or her children, but also in the hearts and minds of their many friends to whom Bro Sharp had been the group minister, ex officio and pro tempore. “Will you come and bring us into the fold, we who have been cast out, and forbidden from meeting” by those in authority or of greater means, was the plea both spoken and implicit as we talked.

I had not ever dedicated a grave before, not in English, much less Vietnamese, but the blessing of comfort and hope from the ministering of authorized servants with priesthood keys, seemed clearly to have brought us there for that purpose, and through the accomplishment of that end, the beginning of a new chapter.

I have wondered how the spirit led early missionaries to Benbow farm where so many were waiting to receive the gospel and who became a vital infusion of strength and faith into the developing church. And I have wondered how missionaries found my ancestors living and working the farmland many, many miles from Stockholm or Uppsala. It is less a mystery to me now, as I see how farmboys from tiny villages in Nghe An become missionaries and then branch presidents, how the children of officers and magnates from distant towns and counties receive the gospel and rise up to bless their fellows and families as Zion is established. And I can see how the congregations of the faithful, through their prayers and entreaties, also bring the servants of God to their doors to minister, and comfort, and teach. It is only the beginning of course, and the many chapters and sequels yet to be written will no doubt be even more engaging and marvelous, but it is a tide of gathering, of refining, of building, that will not be turned back. And it will metaphorically turn the intrusion of salt that sterilizes the land into a salting of the earth that redeems and seasons the abundant harvest.

Wheat fields ready for harvest Simtuna, Sweden- Quê ngoại của tôi

Conference Season

In Vietnam the dry season has a particular meaning for rest, rejuvenation and preparation. In some areas the more lax work schedule meant also that certain vices like drunkenness and abuse might creep in. Once the rains begin however, the workload shifts into higher gear though, and signals it is time to put away idle mischief and wrong-doing. 

Growing up as a boy in Utah with a good number of relatives on various sides of the family, I became used to the “reunion season” that came in conjunction with summertime each year, and on occasional other days of note. I had a lot of cousins, most of whom seemed so much older than I and whose names I could never recall, given that we only saw each other one time each year in many instances. But it was evident to me that the older aunts and uncles really thrived on being together and seeing the changes in the rising generation of nieces, nephews, children and grandchildren. Getting together with those same cousins now continues to be joyful, and one aspect of life we have missed while serving far from any of them. Yet in another sense, we have become more united with them as we have read and shared in their missions to far flung corners of the world that we are unlikely to ever visit. (See http://belgiancaldwells.blogspot.com/ and TrinidadThackerays.blogspot.com/, for example.)

The gathering of Latter-Day Saints for conferences is a habit instituted from the earliest beginnings of the church, but I believe has even more ancient origins in Old Testament festivals and holy days, the Passover in spring, the days of atonement and new year in the fall, with lesser festivals in between. For modern Latter-Day Saints, these are similar times of reunion, a true gathering of brothers and sisters in a wonderful extended gospel family. There is the same joyful renewal of acquaintance I witnessed among my older cousins, aunts and uncles as a boy. And there is also the same marveling at the growth of the younger ones among us, new additions to the family, new skills and experiences gained, and new responsibilities taken on.

Mission presidents have the opportunity to preside over the conferences of nascent church units each year and that has been our privilege with the first conferences of the recently formed districts in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. In Hanoi the shared sense of becoming something significant was evident as the District had to rent a hotel ballroom in order to accommodate all those who wished to attend, and the number attending this signal event exceeded by 10% the average attendance at Sacrament meetings of the three (now four) branches included in the District. And of course, any reunion has not truly happened unless it is recorded in countless photo groups of family members!

The experience for the southern saints was no less singular. Instead of using a hotel however, they crowded into all the rooms of the villa in Thu Duc now serving the new branch by the same name. The chapel space and large classrooms were each filled to capacity with saints, some of whom were seeing the new space for the first time. Video and audio feeds from the chapel were broadcast in the entire building so all could feel and see the spirit of the Lord. And then after the conference sessions were over they spilled onto the covered portico and grassy grounds to celebrate with a shared meal while the concluding business of ordinations and settings apart needed to complete the goal of more fully “establishing the church” were carried out.

The road map was laid out for the next six months of District growth and development, along with a view of the longer term organizational and personal development needed, which include matching the District Leadership to the branch training and support needs, as well as continuing to sustain a similar path of organizational development as the smaller branches migrate from being very basic units to more “adolescent” branches, and ultimately mature branches yearning to be wards. From the early 2017 division that created the Quan Sau branch for example, the growth in missionary work and strengthening and finding members has seen them grow from a very small unit to one that can now support and sustain a three-hour meeting schedule, and are ready to organize a small primary for the rambunctious boys who come with parents and relatives each week. Like time-lapse photography, the conferences allow us to see dramatic changes in the church from a few hours of meeting together twice a year.

For our missionaries, particularly our senior missionaries who serve quite far apart and can often feel isolated or disconnected from each other and the greater good they are part of, we have found it useful to organize semi-annual reunions or conferences as well. The most recent one, nestled tightly in between the two District Conferences, was held in the highlands of Vietnam, about 40 km from Buon Ma Thuot on Lak Lake. The setting was quiet and restful, and the landscape and views across the lake and valley were beautiful, particularly in the still of the early mornings. We learned a lot from being together, and the conversations over meals and on outings were as important in building comraderie and esprit de corps as the updates on our efforts and fine-tuning our mission culture.

In some areas there is always harvesting to do

The day's work quickly threshed

I enjoyed seeing more into a sub-culture of Vietnam in the area, which is populated by many M’Nong and Ede people, among others. Their characteristic “long houses” are extended family homes which do not feature the traditional “ban tho” or ancestral shrine seen in most traditional Vietnamese homes. It was also remarkable to see the prevalence of Christianity among these groups. Christian churches by my rough observations easily outnumbered Buddhist shrines along the routes we traveled.

Men and Women enter separately traditionally

Feed corn put out to dry- the wandering cow liked it until the slingshot-wielding boy on the porch got to him!

Christian Burying ground- note the number of small infant plots

Zone Conferences are also wonderful reunions as well for us. The three zones all held day-long conferences following their respective District Conference. While coming far more frequently than most other conferences, they also serve to establish the church more firmly, not through sustaining new leaders, but by giving young leaders the chance to practice training others, by providing spiritual uplift and renewal of friendships and ties with other missionaries. We discovered in one for example, that we had almost an entire MTC group of nine missionaries serving together in different capacities in one Zone. They loved being together again, and some were entreating me to make them companions again!

Although we plan and prepare these in counsel with the zone leaders and sister training leaders, I am always pleased when new things come out of them. Sometimes in order to really learn, we need to be standing and speaking. Then revelation comes. The “aha!” light comes on in our minds and important answers are given. That has been the most important lesson we have learned, and tried to impress on our fellow-servants. Christ leads his church and instructs his saints, and he does so particularly when they gather together in one accord, in conferences.

For example, we talked a lot about the ritual of baptism, and why we need to experience a ritual rather than just signing our name on a form to enter the church. The connection to our covenant in being baptized to “always remember him” then became apparent. I can’t recall how many times I have signed my name to something- reports, checks (back in the paper check days), receipts, invoices, deeds and who knows what else. But I can clearly remember the experience of being baptized by my father at age 8. It is indelibly etched into my memory, and helps me to always remember Him.

Passing by, my new friend invited me in!

We also talked and thought a lot about Christ’s atonement, by which I mean his willingness to personally assume the pain and suffering for sins (our own or those of others, such as Adam) that would separate us from God, our Heavenly Father, thus allowing us again to enter His presence, in complete purity and wholeness. It’s a concept that can be difficult to grasp. But as my assistants demonstrated teaching this, they likened it to an everyday experience here, a rice cooker. The hard grains are ultimately made delicious by the addition of water and controlled heat, and so our lives are changed and made delicious when we allow the Savior’s love (“living water”) to surround us and enlarge our souls. Don’t see it that way? Well, it made sense at the time.

I thought of how much of my life I have dealt with cancer- diagnosis and treatment. Then I saw that Christ offers us both the correct means of diagnosis, as he lovingly guides us through the spirit to recognize our sins and weaknesses, and then to the complete and total healing that can come as we bring those burdens to him who carries “healing in his wings.” It is the quintessence of “personalized medicine” for the soul. We don’t have to look very far in our lives to find “types” of Christ, things that teach us what he is like, what his sacrifice means, and how we can begin to bring it into our lives, whether to soften us up and make us more “delicious” or to heal the gaping wounds in our spirit, both those that are self-inflicted through our own folly, or those that are imposed because we were a bystander, or even an intended victim.

I’ve become a fan of conferences, these marvelous times of renewal of relationships, of strengthening one another, of being edified and bolstered, of receiving revelation and insight. Thankfully there are still a few more such experiences ahead in my life.