I’m continuing my “fast” from regular posting to devote this time to my dear wife, who will be leaving this weekend to spend a month in Maine assisting with the birth of our fifth grandchild. During this time I’m bringing back some “old school” Sacred Journey posts you may not have seen the first time [...]

From April 2004:
…and I don’t want to work outside.
That line from an old Derek Webb song (Stupid Kid) has been all too literally true for me. I hate yard work. To me, it is sheer drudgery. I hate being sweaty and dirty. I dislike the smell and feel of dirt. Men who seem to live [...]

I met the Reverend Andrew after church this past Sunday. I wasn’t trying to meet him. To be honest, I was trying my best not to meet him. But in the ebb and flow of conversation groups after the benediction, a small eddy rippled and I found myself coffee cup to coffee cup with the [...]

Like a shooting star but gripping the earth, I hurtle into the darkness. The roaring, crunching, screaming of plastic on ice beneath me melds into the experience of sheer speed. With my face only inches from the snow-coated pavement, in this moment there is nothing in the cosmos but my child-sized sled, the wind tearing [...]

The following is a piece I wrote as a guest blogger for my friend Michaela’s blog This Beautiful Mess:
As the tragedy and chaos that has been the aftermath of Katrina unfolded on my TV screen these past two weeks, it made me reflect on what it means to stare death in [...]

The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl’d.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
- Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach”
The following is my [...]

SUNDAY IN YEI: WORSHIP AND A TOWN TOUR
Pictures in this post courtesy of Basic Ministries Sudan Project
It was good to arrive by noon on Saturday, a full half day before any of our scheduled activities. We all got in a good jet lag nap and felt refreshed by dinner. Some of us did have trouble [...]

THE EPC COMPOUND: YEI’S EQUIVALENT OF THE HILTON
Pictures in this post courtesy of Basic Ministries Sudan Project (except room photo by Karyn Traphagen)
As we entered town, we passed the compound of Christ the King Catholic Church, with its church building the largest and most modern edifice we saw in Yei. Just after passing Christ the [...]

YEI FIRST IMPRESSIONS: SWERVING AND FOOTING
Yei airport has no terminal, other than a couple of thatch-roofed shelters constructed by our host’s construction company to provide a place for passengers to get out of the rain or sun. When we arrived, direct host, Bishop Elias Taban, founder of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Sudan (EPC), was [...]

The Traphagens are back from New Sudan.
Before proceeding with my own account, let me invite you to visit my wife’s blog, where she has posted some initial news about our return from southern (New) Sudan, along with the first of many pictures. She’s also just added a post with a sound clip from some field [...]