the Glocal Trekker Blog

In about 3 hours I get on a train with our delegation to head to the NorthWest provinces. We'll visit key government leaders in Sapa as well as church leaders. It's exciting how things are moving. I'm optimistic that the government here in Hanoi is really trying to facilitate more openness. They have results--not just promises to show for it. Is everything perfect? No, but it's definitely moving in a healthy direction. It's like crossing a river slowly with a lot of weight--you make sure each foot is placed firmly--you don't do it fast but steady. If you stay consistent you get to the other side.

We wound up in DaNang a couple of days ago. We went to marble mountain. Nikki, Ben, Jill, and I had been there a few years back. You can get life-sized marble carvings there. As we were going through the place, they had all these Catholic saints. I saw one that was either Joseph and baby Jesus or St. Christohper and baby Jesus (no ricky bobby pun intended). I don't know my Catholic saints that well--looked all over for a Catholic to help me but couldn't find one. Where's that Father when you really need him! So we went up to the Internet and I found the oldest painting of St. Christopher--it's in St. Catherine's at Mount Sinai--it's Eastern Orthodox. We printed it off, took it down stairs, and, Whala! They're going to do a life-size statue of St. Christopher with baby Jesus up on his shoulder!!!!!!!! NorthWooder's you know the story, the meaning, and what we do with that! I can't wait. Mark, I got it cheap. Don't worry. If it's a problem, Nikki would love it in our family room!!!! She really gets into stuff like that!!!