Freedom

Happy Fourth of July!
We had the visiting missionary priest over for supper tonight and learned a thing or two about "real" freedom. Fr. Andrew is from Uganda, and Meggar's flag cheesecake was used to celebrate his 17th anniversary of Ordination (today coincidentally)! He is the only one of his 8 siblings to go to school past the 7th grade - because of poverty. He told stories about his high school, where he is now the principal. He lost 3 students last year to malaria, because they could not afford medicine/medical care. As my homeschool children listened, I hope they were thinking and about their own shelves and shelves of books. I was thinking we probably spent more on fireworks than most of his families earn in a year. (Everyone's favorite was shooting off the "Brouhaha" about 10:30 pm.)

Captain had a different view of freedom tonight, without fireworks. He walked over to Red Square for some photos with his co-pilots this afternoon. "It is a little tense over here on the streets with people watching every move you make," he wrote in today's email. "I brought some dark clothes to blend in and it has worked, to some degree, as a couple of waitresses asked for my order in Russian!" The cold war is long over by 2008, but the chilling truth is that Russia is not as westernized as our daily comforts that spoil us. Thank God for our freedom of education; our freedom of religion; and our freedom to vote. We are blessed to live and work in a democractic first-world country.