Red

I'll call her "Red" ... it's actually what she calls herself. When I think of the name Red, I think of my grandmother. It's her nickname. My gran is the best gran there is. I don't call her Red, though. Only my granddad does (he's also the best).

Anyway, Red (not my gran - because she doesn't live here...and I don't call her Red, I call her Gran) took me to eat last weekend at a restaurant I'd not been to (I've not been to a lot of restaurants). She ordered, and we talked while we waited for the food to come. There was a hole in the middle of the table with a burner underneath. The waitress brought a bowl that fit into the space, filled it with water, and turned on the burner for the water to boil. Next came the raw vegetables. I thought - you know, this is a great idea....and then the meat came. It was raw too. I looked down to my left and was a bit surprised to see a pig's brain the size of a softball. I "enjoyed" it along with many other delightful entrees. I wished I'd had my bike after we left. Taxi's were few and buses were full. I managed, however.

Red wants to give her life...

I am thrilled. Hours of conversation after weeks of meeting. Conversations full of stories. I think she's really starting to understand His great big love. I am amazed to see Him work in her heart as she is changed by the truth. 

Think about her this week...Red.

PS - she's the one in the picture below with the yellow shirt.

One of my best friends here...

Remembering

Today, the ETWC song reels in my heart..."I will not remember what I cannot forget..."

In the day to day sounds, sights, and smells of this country, I find what was once shocking and out of the ordinary beginning to rest and settle commonplace. I am no longer phased by men who carry dead pigs on their backs, women in their 80's lugging heavy bags of plastic bottles to be recycled, chicken feet...or brains...or hearts served for dinner, twenty to fifty story buildings towering on every street corner like tall angry monsters, fumes from the buses I race on my bike barreling from exhaust pipes and rolling across my face...the list could fill books.

Yesterday, I sat on my favorite blue couch thinking of how the astonishing and exciting can so quickly become mundane. The beauty of countries, cultures, languages...and even HIS beauty slips through the fingers of familiarity and is lost somewhere. I am steadily directed back to being shocked, mesmerized, and moved to tears - even by the simplest of things.

He challenges me today to remember. I want this song's line to be true for me...that "I cannot remember what I will not forget."

Coffee Dates