¡Gracias!

I finished reading When Invisible Children Sing, and came across this book, ¡Gracias! on Amazon, which purportedly was by Henri Nouwen and his travels in Peru and Bolivia.

I was thrown off by the cartoonish front cover and was wondering if this was actually the same Henri Nouwen that I knew about.  uhhh, surely this was someone else who happened to have the same name.

But nope.  It is.  My first encounter with his writing (as far as I was aware that I was reading his work) was an article on community that Jeff gave to me to read that I immensely enjoyed.  Next was Bill Henson talking at HCC and providing some quotes from him.  And finally it was in Washed and Waiting, where Wesley Hill found that Henri Nouwen also had same-sex attractions but wasn't open about them except to a few very close friends. Being a Catholic priest and having taken a vow of celibacy, he was also celibate.  But he struggled intensely with loneliness and companionship nonetheless, and Wesley noted that reading his writing in light of his struggles with his attractions just gave an even deeper level to them.

So to see that he also wrote a book on his travels to Peru and Bolivia, where he was trying to discern if this was where God wanted him to live in the future, was like God was just further placing role models in my lap.  Not to mention that in the end, although he didn't stay in Latin America, he did go to be the pastor of the L'Arche Daybreak Community in Toronto, Canada, working with and living with the adults with intellectual disabilities there.

oh hey.  Similar much?

And interestingly, this book was published in 1983.  The same year as the birth of my sister, my mentor, my staff member on my ASB this year, and one of my close gay friend's boyfriend.  Hm. 

Anyway, Nouwen lives in Cochabamba, Bolivia (oh hey, that's where I'm going...) for three months, taking language courses.  Then he goes to Lima, Peru (oh hey, that's where Caleb's going for his Loewenstern, and hey, Jeff is going to Peru too [although not Lima] this summer) for three months to work at the Maryknoll Society there, which is committed to working with and helping the poor.

oh hey.  There could hardly be a more perfect book for me after having read Dr. Huang's When Invisible Children Sing, with him being the Harvard med student raised in Texas having gone to A&M, and also Houston for his sister's cancer, working at two orphanages during the day (I realized recently that I'll be volunteering at two orphanages for a 7 - 8 hour weekday, one with children with special needs and one with children without special needs) and Bolivian street children at night.

I just find it kinda amazing that these things are falling into place more than I could have ever expected.  I wonder what conclusions and thoughts Nouwen will encounter as he tries to see if this is where God wants him in the future.  After all, I have the same questions of whether or not Bolivia/some Latin American country will be my home for a decade or two (or more) in the future.

Man, just blown away by God's provision.

A couple of things I've gleaned so far from the book to come.