in my notebook, but I’m not going to inflict all 70+ items on myself & everyone else in a huge unwieldy list, fun though that might be in some ways. Instead I’ll break it up into segments & post them over the next few days.
This set consists of transformations AND centeredness in the lives of people I love.
31. My father’s story, how his conversion in his late teens turned his life completely around.
32. My mother’s example of faith in hardship, especially through years of suffering with rheumatoid arthritis.
33. My mother’s initiative in opening our family’s home, after her children all grew up, to 8-15 Colombian foster children at a time. Over a period of 8 years, my parents & their small staff cared for more than 200 children. Some of them would not have survived without that care. Nearly all of them were placed for adoption, some within Colombia, others by families in North America & Europe.
34. The way G., after years of unhealthy behavior that made his family suffer, turned to faith in Christ & made his way to a much more wholesome lifestyle.
35. The dignity of my friend T. as he fights cancer & faces his mortality.
36. Remembering how J., one hot July morning, climbed onto the leaky roof of a low-income family with a bunch of Christian friends . . . They worked all day, & he doesn’t know exactly how/when it happened, only that by the time he climbed down the ladder that afternoon he had become a Christ-follower.
37. J.’s long faithfulness since that conversion nearly 35 years ago.
38. My children’s eagerness to make a difference in the world.
39. D.’s recovery from depression.
