My next audio book adventure, Shantaram, contains 39 CDs! It's an epic-style story roughly based on a true story of a New Zealand prison escapee who finds India a source of new life and belonging. I probably wouldn't recommend the book for a reading club at church, but there are moments of cultural revelations, insights into other worlds, and passages worthy of underlining for repeat reading. He leaves the city of Bombay to travel with his guide to his hometown far into the countryside. In this remote village the people had never seen a tourist from another country. They could not understand how he could travel all alone, without any family at all. That night, the townspeople gathered around him in a circle to watch over him as he slept. At first he didn't think he could sleep with so many people watching and talking in quiet undertones, but soon he drifted into an unparallel sleep of comfort and rest.
My prayer for the congregation?
Dear God, you encircle us in your loving care. In a world in which so many people live solitary and independent lives, let us welcome them to our village, our church, and treat them as honored guests. Let us invite those who have no church home into our community, and watch over them and support them as they discover rest in your arms that matches no peace they have ever known. Amen.
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