read this, and afterwards thought to myself, wow, i can connect with this. i have these daily experiences! what a blessing it is. i must be in the right place.
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We Are All God's Children
Soon after moving into my two-room, mud-brick house in the village of Piela in Brukina Faso where I was serving as a Peace Corps volunteer, I realized that I had moved into the section of town where many of the women who worked as prostitutes were also living. They were mostly foreigners like me. Despite this fact, a lot of neighborhood kids would often come and visit me.
One day I started to play Frisbee with a young boy who had stopped by for a visit. While we were playing, one of the young women who worked in a bar as a prostitute started watching us. After a little while, I threw the Frisbee to her, and she joined in with our fun. Then a little while later, an old man came walking by and started watching us play. Pretty soon the young woman threw the Frisbee to him. He dropped the Frisbee and his cane too, but then clumsily picked it back up and threw it to the young boy.
And there we were, the most unlikely mix of people in a little African village: an old man, a prostitute, a little boy, and a foreigner,, all standing together in a circle, throwing a Frisbee, and having fun together. When I reflected on this experience later, I realized that I had received a vision of what the reign of God is all about: love, equality,, beauty, and enjoyment with no one excluded or left out.
- Dennis Moorman, MM, from Why Not Be a Missioner? - edited by MIchael Leach and Susan Perry (taken from A Maryknoll Book of Inspiration by Michael Leach and Doris Goodnough)
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