Saturday, August 18, 2012

Update as Fall Approaches

I haven't blogged for almost 1.5 months. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the nature of my doctoral work has shifted so that my reading is a little more focused, a little less broad. However, the explanation for my 1.5 month delay is really that I haven't put much into my degree work at all as of late, having had a brutal summer of emotional toil. Here is what I wrote today to my doctoral mentor and good friend Steven Garber. I think the explanation sums up things fairly well:

"I spent 10 days up in Portland, Seattle, Vancouver which was a nice reprieve from things. Otherwise, a hard summer: buried a 28-yr.-old, a 86-yr.-old, and my 30something cousin, mother of a newborn as well as 3-yr.-old is on life support currently because of a terrible condition called interstitial lung disease. It’s pretty desperate. Good friends of ours who have raised two Nigerian girls for most of their lives (the girls are 9 & 7) lost a court case in late June for custody of the girls- the father came into the picture recently, sought custody and was awarded it; the 9-yr.-old girl is my daughter’s closest friend and the 7-yr.-old is pretty good friends with my middle son, so my kids have been broken by much of this as well. My daughter hasn’t seen her friend for three weeks now (they were used to seeing one another multiple times every week and every Sunday; just got a message today where the 9-yr.-old was reminding her “mama” to make sure and take care of her friend, my daughter, since they can’t be together right now). I haven’t blogged since early July and am just trying to stir up a little juice for our fall project. Overall, very tired and overcome by sorrow."

So prayers are appreciated. I love writing, blogging and reading, so pray for the joy (and ability) to return, for my cousin Gloria on life support and her husband Chad and family. Pray for all those grieving all around us and for Thy Kingdom to Come.

Blessings,

Mike

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