Yesterday in the nunnery one sister asked how old I was. When I told another sister said, "Oh, you're the same age as our Superior General." (the boss-nun) She sounded very surprised at this bit of news. She said¸ "It's not because you look older." (Does she mean I do look older or I don't look older?) She said, "OH! That didn't sound right, it's just the maturity level isn't the same . . . no that's not right either really I mean . . . I'll just stop talking, that's better."

So am I to interpret that as I'm old an immature? From a nun? Nuns don't lie.

In other new- my travel companion told an environmentalist today that she didn't care about the state of our rivers and lakes because she was more concerned about his relationship with God. When the environmentalist said he has a relationship with God my traveler said, "that's good, but a relationship with God is free (while the saving the lakes and rivers required cash.) I'm not going to ask for any money and you can have this (tract)." He took the "Bridge of Life" and said, "Yeah, that's great, unfortunately, saving our environment requires getting the attention of politicians and big business, which requires funds." My companion: "I don't care about that, this world is not eternal." The environmentalist smiled and said thank you.

I sort of felt like apologizing for the attack of the world killing Christian.

He did better than I would have in his situation. I'm for spreading the Word- not for making people feel attacked, not for discounting things that should be important to us, not for neglecting to listen and make relationship with people before we start discussing life altering believe systems, values and life styles, not for shoving little booklets at people and expecting them to care.

This is why I wasn't a good missionary. I'm for building relationship and trust. I'm for asking before lecturing. I'm for listening. I'm for talking about life, religion, ecology, economy or whatever another believes in to understand more about how to proceed. I'm for the long term.

I gave a Bible to one of my students this Christmas. I've known her for more than a year. We've talked about everything. Maybe she will read it. Maybe she won't. I don't know. If she has questions, she knows she can ask me.

If I were that environmentalist standing on a cold windy street corner asking for money from strangers and somebody verbally attacked me, told me (when you get right down to it) my cause was worthless, shoved a tract at me and not listened when I said I was already in relationship, I would have given the tract back, reminded that person of the responsibility we have been given to be good stewards, and been pissed off the rest of the day. Not that that last bit would do any good for anyone, including God.

I didn't say anything. I still have four more days to be with this person- I don't need any conflict.