A sad first.

Today was a sad first.  The security guard (who is always there) scanned my items and myself, along with Joel and the children, with a security wand.  At the gate cars were stopped and their undercarriages were checked with mirrors.  This, friends, was going to church.

It was such a sad reality after the Nairobi mall bombing and the church attack in Pakistan.  I don't know how these events have impacted Americans, or if it was barely a blip on your radar.  For us, its quite a bit more.  In one of the first pictures released from Nairobi there are bodies in a cafe.  Joel was sitting at "that" table-- Tuesday-- 3 days before the attack.  His quick visit to Nairobi for a 2 day visit with the Canadian Embassy to get a little girl her visa has put us closer to this tragedy.  We have friends- in Nairobi- who can see the mall from their house.  We have a lot of friends in Kenya who frequent Nairobi and this mall.

We pray for people like we wouldn't have before.  We ache for them like we didn't before.  Ironically, as we've crossed the ocean and seen how big this world is, its gotten smaller and things are closer.

Today at church there was a "Name that Airline" children's game during the "children's sermon" time.  There were 4 boys- all 10-14 years old, who competed against each other in how fast they could name "The airline that serves the flight from Entebbe to New York via Amsterdam" (KLM, in case you wanted to know) or "Entebbe to Washington DC via Addis Ababa" (Ethiopian Air).  The children of our church are world wide jet-setters.  They've been all over.  They're from all over.  They know- all over.  "How cool" I thought.  "Our kids will be that way one day soon.   They'll know the difference between British Air and Ethiopian Air.  They'll know off the top of their heads the flight from Entebbe to Mombassa like those boys".  The world is closer.  Its a good thing.  And at the same time, its scarier.  I feel like the world is forever changed but, of course, its not the world.  Its me.

Pray for us as we are dealing with new perspectives on life.  Even more, pray for those who were there at the mall that day and at the church in Pakistan.  Pray for those who are there now, cleaning it up and dealing with it.  Pray for those who lost people.  Pray for those who were apart of the attacks.  And, pray for the future.  Todays first won't be the last.