FGC Gathering, Sunday Evening

Got Poodledoc, Jr out of bed and made it to breakfast-----a minor feat. Then, I dropped him off at the “Justice” group and almost ran across to my workshop “Worship with Attention to Healing and Laughter”. There were about 20 people there, we introduced ourselves and the leader, Richard explained some of what we were going to do, told some stories of George Fox’s “miracles” where he performed healing on different folks over the years. I enjoyed myself, even though my cold is laying me low. As usual, its an interesting collection of people. The leader placed a variety of stuffed animals around the room for our enjoyment. He told us we could take them to our rooms, take them home, whatever. I noted that I had Gumby holding and “I love you” sign behind me plus two of the Seven Dwarves. I’m not sure which ones. Probably Dopey and Grumpy, the way I was feeling.

Had lunch and that was tiring. Waited in line for what seemed like hours. Very noisy. Feeling tired. So I went into the silent dining room. Very refreshing. Went to my room and took a nap. Then Tristan and his friend Alex returned from a rousing game of “Capture the Flag” and woke me up. So we sat around for a couple hours telling jokes and eating “healthy” snacks. We practiced telling tall tales----each trying to outdo the other and make theirs more ridiculous but still believable. It was fun. I felt refreshed. Off to dinner.

Dropped Poodledoc, Jr off at his evening activities. I bought him a cell phone so we could communicate over this larger-than-expected campus. That’s worked fine. What hasn’t worked fine is his strong tendency to play the games included on the phone. So he has been asked not to play the games outside of our room.

Off to a talk by Cecile Nyiramana in the field house. The theme of this Gathering is from the good Samaritan story in Luke………”but who is my neighbor”. Cecile is from Rwanda and works in reconciliation in the wake of the genocide. She started “Women in Dialogue”. Conversations between Tutsi survivors and Hutu “suspects”. Bringing enemies together. The genocide started in 1994. Hutu friends(I believe she is Tutsi) hid her under a bed during the 100 days of genocide while she was pregnant with their first child. During that 100 days, one million people were slaughtered. Men, women and children. Rwanda then. Darfur now. These events seem so over whelming. How can a benevolent God allow this to happen? Is this part of God's plan? How can God help us to halt and heal the genocide? I see God working through Cecile. Her dream is to build a “Village of Healing and Hope”, primarily for the widows and their children from both tribes.. What about hope? What about us? What does God want US to do?

At dinner tonight, I heard my son’s friend say “If global warming get so bad, we’ll all just kill ourselves, right?” I didn’t know how to answer him. Where do we find hope in a scary world? The speech has ended and I feel there is hope. How do I pass on this hope to my son? And others?