Just a few rambling thoughts about the trip from a jet-lagged mind at 3:00 am:

Nobody should have to die because they don’t have enough food to eat. To quote Bono, “Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die.”

Today, a little girl named Lilly, like my Lilly, dies on a mat in a dirt floor with flies all over her face and insect eggs in a small bowl of water sitting next to her.

Nobody should ever have to die from AIDS alone, ashamed, and in hiding in a shanty town room that’s over 100 degrees.

Children should never have to grow up at 4 years old or be forced to have sex in order to eat.

A baby born with the AIDS virus ought to have had the chance to be AIDS free from a $5 medication.

Jesus is the starving, He is Lilly, He is the man dying of AIDS, He is the child, He is the baby.

Today is the beginning of Lent. A time of fasting, prayer and reflection in order to examine our lives and contemplate the death of our savior on a cross. As I think about my poverty today, my heart is full with the real poverty my friends in Africa deal with on a daily basis. Lord have mercy.