OCT-A-8

MESSAGES THAT SEEM TO HAVE MIRACULOUSLY CROSSED IN THE MAILS!

KATE JONES AND I PLAN RENDEZVOUSES TO DISCUSS

MEDICAL MISSION TRIPS

AND TRAINING FOR THEM

From: Glenn Geelhoed

To: "kjones@justpeaceumc.org".IA4GW.Harper

Date: 10/9/02 4:33PM

Subject: Re: Trip to India, Del Rio

Could it be coincidence, psychic wave bands, or providence?

Our emails probably crossed in the ether, as I had prepared for you a message on email, including many details of this coming‑‑‑and future trips in which I would love to have you join‑‑and even a second message I had promised, and then sent to your Gin to edit or send on!

I have already bragged about you to the TV documentary videographer who wanted to do a profile of each of us, and I told hm about your "training" very literally, and suggested we can all get together soon. When are you in DC?

One of the hazards of my life and travel schedule is that I leave next week Oct 17 to a brief visit with my sister (the other woman seminary graduate in my life) who with her ordained husband (the other Presbyterian seminary graduate in my life) are rehabbing a church in Denver‑‑‑before I go off, characteristically, to climb Capital Peak, a "Fourteener" in the White River National Forest near Aspen, before returning Saturday night Oct 26 to get up early to run the 27th Running of the Marine Corps Marathon on the 27th.

I have forwarded my deepest secrets to a TV broadcaster, so I do not see why I should not send them to you now! Attached please find the note I had sent forward to Virginia to send or edit as she saw appropriate. At least your bio is more accurate coming from you!

Yes, "bride burning" is a very unpleasant byproduct of arranged marriage and the dowry system in India‑‑more common among the Hindi‑speaking culture (it is "scriptural", after all, and the woman "becomes a "Sati!") than in the nearly pure Buddhist culture you will be dealing with. The purest form of Tibetan Buddhism is now in the remote parts of Ladakh, not in the sacrilegious hegemony of the Chinese state suppressing Tibet, where the pristine ancient Gompas you will see preserved in remote places in Himalayan India have been destroyed in Tibet. You will have a "field day!"

"Dispossession" is an AIDS‑related tragedy in Southern Africa which relates to your battered women interest, and that is grist for your subsequent milling!

Congratulations on your rigorous disciplined "training program!" You will be ready to carry me!

Yes, I will be ready to see you in Illinois‑‑or, if at a time I am here‑‑in DC (it will make carrying the stunning pictures in large volumes to get you further psyched up for this adventure!)

I had prepared a large volume of stuff for you to post. If you wish I will still do so. It contains not only the complete Lingshed Log, but also the advance information you can use to further pump up Virginia on her "third to next trip" and her first) "African safari!"

If you would like to have something even more fun to read than the conference materials on return on the plane, I will save the packet and give it to you while we are here‑‑if the DC times coincide‑‑and carry your shoes and we will do a couple of my favorite Mall Runs!

Both of us remain, forever, in training...

Cheers

GWG

>>> "kjones" <kjones@justpeaceumc.org> 10/09/02 03:01PM >>>

Glenn,

I am delighted about the prospect of going on a mission trip to India

next year. I do have an undergraduate degree in Asian Studies, although

I took a regional specialization in Japan‑which is a very different sort

of place. My interests do include Buddhism. My graduate degrees are in

divinity, law and pastoral care and counseling. I am also a trained

mediator. Next week I'll be in DC helping to lead a conference on

Churches as Centers for Peacebuilding. Another interest is in domestic

violence, which I suppose is a worldwide problem with extremely complex

cultural implications. I am curious if this subject has impact upon

you're your among the poorest of the poor (who almost never have access

to courts, shelters, medical attention, etc.). Currently, I work in

church conflict resolution half time and I serve a church half time.

Next spring I will be a teaching assistant in the Religion Department at

Northwestern University.

Gin says the trip will be physically challenging. Please know that I am

preparing for that challenge. ( I suspect it may be spiritually and

emotionally challenging as well).

Please let me know what I need to do to formalize my application for

this trip.

Hopefully we can connect again before the trip, perhaps at Del Rio, or

in Chicago, if not next week in DC.

Grace & Peace,

Kate Jones

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