Good Blood

Reports from the blood count show that all is well. Some are a bit below normal and some a bit high, but there's nothing alarming. I thank the Lord for his protection of my life and wellbeing, and I thank you for your prayers and interest.

As often happens after we take an interest in a particular cause, it begins to show up everywhere. Ever since that letter from an SIM worker alerted me to the slavery underlying the availability of chocolate, almost daily I've heard or read something about the pervasive horrors of worldwide slavery. It's easy to think, "But I can't do anything." Yesterday I read this on stevecookie.blogspot.com -- quoting John Prendergast: "Early on, I had been a bit incredulous as to the real possibilities of citizen action in moving governments to act. Then, as I saw student and religious groups and others really responding and mobilizing to these different crises, and as I started to see policy change, I began to believe in the power of ordinary people to make a difference. Perhaps it is too much to hope, but if these students and thousands of other new activists on behalf of the defenseless have their way, the first genocide of the 21st century might also be the last, or at least the last one that doesn't provoke an appropriately strong response." Well, I'd certainly like to see an appropriately strong response against slavery in Sudan, India, China, Burma (Myanmar), and in fact right here in the USA. My voice is small, maybe weaker than ever, but I'll keep looking for ways to raise it against This Immoral Trade (the title of the book I've just finished reading, by Baroness Caroline Cox and Dr. John Marks).

I haven't stopped fighting my cancer; I simply want that fight to be part of the background routine in the daily living of a full and meaningful life. The other day I read in Psalm 118:17, "I will not die, but I will live to tell what the Lord has done." I would like "what he has done" to be the topic of my conversations today.

Blessings,
Carol