Faithful

This is random and personal but it's worth sharing in my opinion. Below is a snippet from an email my mom sent me which instigated this whole post. She is a faithful prayer warrior and avid missions supporter. In fact, I still remember the missions notebook on the den coffee table with a map of the world and all the missionaries alphabetized and filed every time their newsletters came in. Some of the best reading I did as a child and teenager. I also happen to think Mom is fascinating! Throughout my college years she would read what books I brought home and left between semesters. Thus, we were able to "keep up" in a sense better than what I heard a lot of other students struggle with. When my theology of the Holy Spirit got blown open, she was there reading the same. When I started realizing, hey, why are women silent in the Church, she was also there reading. And when I fell in love again with philosophy, she also took interest. (Never have been able to get her hooked on politics though. :) ) As I have naturally added social justice to my list of passions and pursuits, she is always there with stories from work about how she has made a push for bi-lingual documents, how she's confronted an educator who couldn't speak Spanish to find someone who could so that equal care could be delivered, how she enrolled in a Spanish class so she could at least communicate basics herself, and she amazes me at how quickly she sees and serves "the least of these", from the voiceless premature babies to Spanish-speaking parents to Waco's poor and young single moms which frequent her hospital more than the other in town. Currently she likes to say "As a supporter of the ministry in France, it would be helpful to know/understand/pray, etc." She has helped me understand the relationship between the sending and the sent in the church so I can refine what and how I communicate. As well she has inherited all my books since I departed for France which fill an entire shelf unit to the ceiling and five boxes. So, she's taken to reading beyond her own equally large collection my Simone Weil reader in snippets and Augustine as of late...apparently. Anyway, just thought I'd pass this on.

So Sunday, as I walk into church and sit down, the service begins by the opening of a window to the baptistry alcove, where a mother and father together are sharing and participating in the baptizing and prayer blessing of their two children. I consider my prayers for you and Lauren, how a mother prays for her children day and night.....as I have been reading in II Timothy, that Paul did for his son in the Lord.....as I have been reading in "The Autobiography of George Muller", that he did for the orphans.......as I have been reading in "Confessions", that Monnica did for Augustine.