Today I realized again, the limited scope of our national news and our general unawareness of the world we live in. Our discussion also gave me a deep sense of gratitude for the experience, knowledge, and personal engagement of the people in the group.
Today, our discussion was to be led today by one of our members who is on one of the Greek islands working with refugees. Another member stepped in expanding her previous discussion and experience she had in McClellan, Texas on the Southern border. She helped us understand some of the eighty criteria under which asylum seekers are evaluated, assignment of court dates that could be anywhere in the States, and the qualifications and authority of border patrol agents.
This led to a discussion of the historic causes of violence in central America by yet another member of our group bringing in stories from Honduras and El Salvador. To understand Central America, Century of the Wind, the third book in the Memory of Fire Trilogy, written my Eduardo Galeano, was highly recommended. A comment was made that this border “crisis” is of long standing and is impossible to fix but we can and should do what we can. From that arose a discussion and plan for visiting the border …and actually doing something.
We talked about the third wave of the Corona Virus shutting down South Africa and Uganda and the implications of this for people who live day to day. A better word is “Lock down” because there are no public gatherings, no travel, required masks everywhere, and serious penalties for non-compliance. Just an aside: How is it that one third of our nation refuses vaccination and in other countries there is no vaccine and people are dying, some of whom I know personally?
During our time together the countries of Turkey, Myanmar, Guatemala, Mexico, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia were mentioned in passing. We are a part of all God’s people…suffering, thriving, struggling, praising, and opening our eyes and hearts to what God sees. Next week we will be led by our South African member talking about faith in the rough and tumble world of business and industry.
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