Word Made Flesh is a contemplative community. One of the ways that we contemplate what God is doing in the world and in our lives is through the reflection articles that we write. We invite you to read, learn, and celebrate with us.
The Cry for Submission: Letter from the Editor by Emily Fales
One thing
Writing something about simplicity initially felt absurdly daunting and complicated to me. My mind clambered and raced over boulders of complex rhetoric. Ironically, attempting to clarify the nature of simplicity actually revealed within me the kind of breathless, nonsimplistic scrambling to which our culture is prone. Our schedules are exhausting, our lives are full to…
Making a home
Lately I’ve been thinking about home. Recent circumstances have prevented my family from settling into one place. We have lived in five places in seven months, and this all at a time when my already strong nesting instincts were in overdrive as we welcomed a baby into our family. This has also been a challenge…
The Cry Vol 16 No 1 . 1
Reserved: A simple, open space Although many, we might even say most, strangers in this world become easily the victim of a fearful hostility, it is possible for men and women and obligatory for Christians to offer an open and hospitable space where strangers can cast off their strangeness and become our fellow human beings.1…
Confessions of confusion
I have been finding simplicity anything but simple recently. Starry-eyed and romantic, I left my good-paying job, excellent benefits and a promising retirement plan in a feeble attempt to “give up everything and come follow Jesus.” That was six years ago. To many of my friends in the U.S., my life in Sierra Leone is…
The Cry Vol 16 No 1 . 2
Through the branches It was Oct. 25, and I was driving from Bloomfield, Neb. (my hometown), to Omaha. I took an alternate route to avoid interstate construction and hopefully make the trip in less than three hours. Oddly enough, Highway 275 was a source of revelation for me. On the drive, I became more aware…
Letter from the editor, farewell from Daphne
Rereading the words that follow in this issue, I am humbled again by the hearts of my fellow staff members. It seems we all struggle to truly understand “simplicity.” See, we don’t take a vow of poverty here at Word Made Flesh. Rather, we commit to celebrate simplicity with our lives. We all strive to…
March Update
Dear Friends, Thank you for sustaining us with prayer and encouragement over the past weeks. They have been full and fruitful. In the beginning of February, we received visitors from our US office – Chris and Phileena Heuertz, the directors of WMF, and Liz Ivkovich, the director of administration. We had a good time sharing…
Logo Love
Our staff in Peru sent us some photos of how the logo looks in Lima! These pictures are taken around the ministry center. First image: Door carving is on their front door at the ministry center. Second image: Painting with Andean influence by Kimberly Bergman.
Every landscape
In every landscape, the point of astonishment is the meeting of the sky and the earth… the stars at night swoop down over the brownest, homeliest common. The difference between landscape and landscape is small, but there is great difference in the beholders. …Nature cannot be surprised undressed. Beauty breaks in everywhere. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)…
April '10 Thada Prayer Letter
Dear friends and family, “Recuerda que eres polvo, y a polvo volverás.” These are the words Father Walter used on Ash Wednesday as he smeared an earthen cross on our foreheads. “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” During Lent, we prepare for Pascua (Resurrection Sunday) by humbly recognizing that we…