Friends

This blog is not about the baby, but I thought I'd throw in a picture just to grab you. I've been talking to friends who winter in Florida who are interested in seeing pictures of Ella, so I posted this one tonight.

Actually, I just wanted to mention some of the acquaintances that have come my way through blogging. Gordon Cloud is a pastor in Cairo, Georgia. I asked him in a comment on his blog to request prayer of his congregation for Ella. He e-mailed me that after the service a young woman came to him in tears and told him that she has CF. I talked with her yesterday. Now 21, she was diagnosed at 3 months of age. She told me that she weighed 6 pounds at birth, and she did not thrive. The authorities came after her mother for neglect, and it was then that she found out that she had the disease.

On Gordon's blog a couple of days ago, he spoke about how happy he is that fall is approaching. The reason? Hunting and football. There were lots of comments there, and one of them was from a young woman whose name I hadn't seen before. I clicked on her profile and found out that she is a missionary with Worldteam in Australia. When I was 26, I went to Haiti with West Indies Mission. When the work of the mission went beyond the West Indies, the name was changed to World Team. The motto was "doing together what we can't do alone." The years went on and World Team merged with Regions Beyond Missionary Union, and Worldteam became the new name. I commented on her blog and have since e-mailed her, telling her about my time in Haiti.

One day, while reading Michael Fay's blog, he mentioned Sketchpad Warrior Kris is part of the Marines. His job is to draw portraits of soldiers. You can see some of his work and a description of it on his site. When I first went to his blog, he talked about working in Haiti at Fermathe, and he had written the title of his post in Creole. I couldn't believe my eyes. Before I went to Haiti as a missionary, I spent three weeks one summer at Fermathe in Hait. We have conversed a little back and forth in Creole in the comment section.

Another person that I've gotten to know is Tom. Tom is a young pastor who has had many physical difficulties. If you go to his blog and read down through some of his archives, you'll be amazed at what he is able to do today. He is an ardent Cubs fan and a great fan of the Indiana University basketball team. In one of his archives he spoke of traveling in Florida and seeing some strange names. One of them was Rifle Range Baptist Church. I just about dropped my teeth. When I was in high school and university, my friend's dad was pastor of that very church in Winter Haven, Florida.

When I came home from Haiti in 1972, missionaries were beginning to come to the field with microwave ovens and VCR's, and we wondered what on earth the world was coming to. Well, we've had a glimpse, haven't we. Computers and the internet have been wonderful developments in our world, bringing us together. We do truly have a global village.