I've been enjoying my stay in San Antonio with my friend Casey... we've explored the city quite thoroughly by now, from art galleries on First Friday in the Alamo District to Mariachi Mass at the historic San Jose Mission. I also had a great time last night with the Presbyterian campus ministry at the University of Texas last night. I preached on Mary Magdalene for worship last night and met with a leader of Sisters in Spirit, an NNPCW-affiliated campus group at UT. Plus, I topped it all off with a Cadbury Creme Egg-- my second favorite thing about Easter :).

A sobering experience this morning, though... Casey is a Jesuit Volunteer, as I may have mentioned, who specifically works with her parish's social services program. Every morning, Monday through Friday, people come into her office asking the church to give them emergency money to prevent their utilities from being shut off. This morning, a woman came in who is literally going to have her baby via C-section tomorrow. She needed money to pay her electric bill, but the church had already given her more than their maximum, and she couldn't go to the other agencies in town to ask for help because she is giving birth tomorrow. Think of that-- worrying about coming up with money for the electric bill today when you're going to welcome new life into the world tomorrow.

Casey ended up working things out for her, so she should be able to keep her power. As I was walking back here, though, I thought of the Virgin Mary and Joseph, who were told when they went to Bethlehem that there was "no room in the inn." And I thought of a woman, bulging with child, told that her power was going to be shut off because she couldn't pay her bill.

"About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”–which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" --Matthew 27:46

Kelsey