A Bit Depressed...

I’ve been down the last couple days.  Some tough stuff has been going on.  

Monday morning I got word that a pastor I know died.  I didn’t know Kyle well.  We had met a couple of times.  I wasn’t involved at UBC, but my friend Mark was and some other friends.  When it happened my mind went to Craig.  Craig and I aren’t the best of friends either.  We know each other.  We were in Jason’s wedding together.  Craig was great friends with Kyle.  Craig often kept Kyle’s three children.  Craig loves those kids.  Craig loves UBC.  Craig loved Kyle.  I’ve been depressed the last day or two thinking about Craig and Kyle’s family, and UBC.

From what I understand, Kyle was about to baptize in his church of probably over 90% Baylor students.  It was Baylor’s homecoming so the numbers were greater.  Apparently a microphone shocked him somehow and electrocuted him to death as he stood in the water.  

How do things like this happen?  How does a 31 year old guy die?  How does a man who is passionate about reaching college students die in the midst of a worship service?  The questions are more prevalent that the answers.  It hurts.  I trust God, but I don’t quite understand this and probably never will.

Monday night I lost another friend.  She didn’t pass away but she left.  She is a national here.  She is 22 or 23 and a beautiful girl.  Most the women here are beautiful by the way.  Yemi left for Dubai.  She continuously ran into road blocks here with school and work.  She saw no way to improve her life here so she left.  She has a responsibility to provide for her family.  She has gone to Dubai to be a house worker for a man there.  He is 29 and single.  He is pretty demanding as I understand.  Typically the people that step into these situations have a few guarantees:  they will be paid little.  They will likely be abused…physically, emotionally, verbally, and probably sexually.

The thoughts of this girl being abused devastate me.  She is moving towards faith.  She isn’t quite there, but she is asking great questions.  She is even getting some persecution from her family because of her questions.  Now she is headed to the Muslim world.  

The hope is that miracles will happen.  The hope is that she will be safe.  The hope is that she will meet the master in that place.  Join with me in lifting her up.

To add to troubles, today is psycho.  Riots have started again.  They began yesterday.  According to CNN.com 8 were killed yesterday 40 or more were injured.  There was more shooting today.  The American Embassy is telling us to stay away from some areas of town (one is actually my neighborhood).  We are all safe and holed up in our homes, but it is crushing.  

The city is in an uproar.  We long for peace.  We hope for wisdom as compromises are reached among different parties.  We don’t have the news sources that most of you are used to.  Therefore we don’t know much.  We don’t know where trouble is.  We don’t see video clips of what is going on.  We don’t have newspapers to read about the problems.  We merely sit and wait for things to return to normal.

Approach the throne with me.