Steve and Barnabas in Tanzania

What oh what should I write about this week.  I know what I don't want to write about because I have spent so much time trying to explain the election system, media, why people are rioting and why it is wrong that I am exhausted from the conversation.   Yesterday was Veterans day.  It was a different one for me this year.  It was first very hard to be proud of my service as I read messages on facebook after the election that were from all sides of the election and filled with hate.  A great quote from G.K. Chesterton sums up why that is so important:  "The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him." This year's celebration has also been different because I have been contacted by voices I have not heard from in many years.  Most of the people I served with and all my closest brothers have died.  So when I heard from some of the support staff from my days in service I was shock...

When bringing teams over to Tanzania, they always want to take pictures of the baobab tree (I have sometimes called it the balboa tree because that is how many locals pronounce it).  Various species can grow to be 98 feet tall and 112 feet in diameter and they have been carbon dated at 1275 years old.  They are so distinctive that it is a reference point for things like bus stops (my bus stop is at one of these trees before you start up the mountain).  They are known as great water sources and food for elephants, Bee Hives and monkeys love to live inside of the hollow center. What I have always loved most about these trees is the folklore surrounding them.  My favorite story is about how it used to be the most beautiful tree in all the world.  But it lorded it's beauty over all the other plants and tree. It even lorded it beauty over the animals and did not allow them shelter or water or to eat it's leaves.  This angered God because He had made this ...