What an incredible gift it is to experience family. In the time that I have spent here with Cathrin, her mother Maria, and brother Andre I have never once felt like an unwelcome stranger. Rather, I have been welcomed as though a member of their family and they have shown consistent interest in knowing about my friends and family in Phoenix. Last night the four of us ate dinner together as we have many times since my arrival and I was reminded of the joy of that experience. It is such a wonderful way to end the day to be able to sit with others who care about you and share about your life and to hear about their lives also.

It is so easy the way societies operate today to neglect this type of connection with others. Families around the world now have traded intimacy for television, or a microwaveable dinner, or staying busy around the clock, or sometimes people have so little interest in the lives of others that this type of interaction sounds like torture. It is no wonder now that millions of young people, single adults, and even married people now have no idea how to really connect with other people. Many have never had the opportunity to share a meal and truly connect with those around them. They are instead limited to trying to connect by talking about the weather, or movies they recently watched, or the size of their car's chassis, or a whole host of other essentially meaningless topics. Long term connnections are not built on conversations about such things but only when the truth of people's hearts and lives are shared.

I am blessed that in my life I have experienced this joy in sharing myself with others and so whenever I have the opportunity I relish it. I would not trade precious moments of intimacy for any material thing this world has on offer. My family in Phoenix has been such an incredible influence on my life through the love and encouragement I have been given. In the last years I have spent so much time together with them and that impacted in so many ways my desire to start my own family in the future. Some may think that because they have never learned to do this or never experienced this that it is not possible for them. The truth is that all it really takes is first of all making time for it (the most difficult step in modern society) and secondly being open to both give and receive in your time with others. Not every person I have met desires this but I have found that as I am diligent in searching (I won't give up looking because it means so much) I will find others with the same desire for intimacy. When I leave here next week I know that I now have made friends for life and that reminds me just how important it is that I did not miss this opportunity by letting other "things" get in the way. The pictures are from dinner last night. I got to make dinner for them which is something I had missed doing since I left Phoenix.