last evening in DR

Hard to believe we're all packing up to go home. I could easily stay another week, I've been standing on the roof looking out over the neighborhood at all the people living below. It reminds me of my neighbor's stories of growing up in Brooklyn and how everybody knew everybody, and families stayed in the same neighborhood and developed a real sense of community. Now that our group has developed such a strong bond it is very hard to think of losing it. It is always such a challenge to "keep the fire" whether it is an Emmaus or Chrysalis walk, marriage, relationship with Christ, etc. I think one of the keys is intentionalily which often gets lost for whatever reason. My prayer for tonight is to try to be more intentional about relationships and to go beyond "friendly" and make an effort to let my guard down and be more open-hearted. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be here with my brothers and sisters in Christ and I look forward to bringing some of this back to St. John. It's hard to describe exactly what it is but it's what we all need. Shari