Missionary Midnight (9 PM)

I'm up way too late. Lives and loves and deaths and hates have passed in front of me today. All I can think about is relationship.

I can only imagine the feelings of the 9-year-old who was raped by a relative and must undergo a month of HIV prophylaxis after surgical repair of her vagina. I can only imagine the worry of a mama whose 4-year-old is still in a malarial coma. And I can only imagine the relief of a wife who will take her 92-year-old husband, the sub-chief of their village, home tomorrow, after a successful prostatectomy.

The reading for March 2nd in my Forward Day by Day is Mark 3: 19b-35: "A crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, 'Your mother and your brothers and your sisters are outside, asking for you.' And he replied, 'Who are my mother and my brothers?' And looking at those who sat around him, he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.'"

Whoever is reading this late-night message is my own brother and sister and mother. Thank you for knowing, caring, loving and praying for us all in Maseno -- as we do for you this Lenten night.