katchup

Today I've been sick, and that's about all I have to report. I'll be fine, I'm mostly feeling better - I just had a headache and I threw up once. But...I didn't have a chance to put up an update for last Thur/Fri, and I wanted to, so now I'm backtracking.
Thursday was another outreach night. There's been alot of foreign groups coming through to see NightLight and such...so on Thursday night there was like 20 people to go out. I didn't just want to wander around with them, so I decided to post in a Starbucks which had an upstairs corner view of things...just to be able to observe. I would rather observe just sitting outside somewhere, but things are a little different here. There are so many people around, and as a foriegner I feel like I'm always watched - it's kinda impossible to be discreet. All along the sidewalks are street vendors either selling tourist stuff or food things. And the street set-up here kinda makes me feel in continual chaos...I don't know how anyone ever finds their way around!
But anyways, so I sat and watched and prayed. A quote kept coming to my head from The Brothers Karamazov (at least I think...I'm just getting this from memory) "Beauty is mysterious. God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man." True beauty comes from God - but there are alot of attractive things out there in which true beauty has been twisted just a bit...they can appear beautiful, but they're really not. It's not beauty when hurt, selfishness, and destruction is involved. Only in God are things made beautiful and whole. I think of my 'kingdom come' tattoo(and it's a good reminder for me)...and that's why I got it...so many things in this world seem hopeless, we live in a way that is less then what it should be...but I have a God that fills me with hope and love...and one day his kingdom will come...the hurts of this world will disappear...and we will be whole.

Well- tomorrow there's a guy here who is doing a health survey of prostitutes...I'm really excited about that, he'll be here for the week. And I have to finish that grant (not quite as excited...but will be when it's done!)