Cameroon

7/13
I arrived in Winnipeg this afternoon for Triennial. It was a long drive, but it was absolutely beautiful! That probably seems crazy to a lot of people, but as I drove north through Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota, I was reminded repeatedly that I am a child of the prairies! How beautiful they are! My parents and I have discussed many times the difference in perspective of those raised in different geographic settings, specifically those surrounded by trees vs. those surrounded by space. Only a few short weeks ago I was in New York State. Houghton, New York is remote and rural by anyone’s standards but in a completely different way. There your neighbor could be 100 feet away or miles away and you would never know because of the surrounding trees. On the prairies, your neighbors are likely further away, but you KNOW they are there, you can see them. To me, looking across the prairies is a tremendous reminder of the vastness of God. THERE ‘as far as the east is from the west’ mean something! Many people look at my prairies and say they see emptiness, nothingness, the absence of anything. In the vastness of the prairies, I see the tiniest glimpse of the fullness of Christ, a minuscule glance of the depth and height and width of his Love, and a momentary hug of One far greater than I can begin to comprehend. He is more. He is bigger. He is greater. He cannot be contained, even in the vastness of my prairies! Even there, I am surrounded by Him . . . as far as the eye can see and beyond!