Beginning in 2002 I constructed annual Lenten meditations composed of materials found during the season of Lent. Toward Holy Week, I assembled them into a meditation on that season.
Lent in South Arica (2002)
This first plaque contains chips of broken mirror glass from a parking lot in Cape Town, along with other materials from one of our stays in South Africa.
Ancient Brokenness: Baghdad to Richland Creek (2003)
Our friend, Ken Sehested, founding president of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, went to Iraq in the winter of 2003 to try to stop the US invasion from happening. He brought back shards of pottery from an ancient ziggurat. Placed on a board taken from nearby Richland Creek, they form a testimony to the broken commandments of our warfare and deceit.
Stations of the Cross (2004)
Stand in Awe (2005)
Watch and Wait (2006)
Earth Memory (2007)
Middle Eastern Icon (2008)
Uncommon Treasures (2009)
This plaque contains in its center chips from prehistoric tool-making, rubbles from mosaics, and early Roman pottery, all part of our travels in the eastern Mediterranean.
If He Should Die (2010)
Steve DeGruchy, son of our dear friends John and Isobel, died in a tragic rafting accident in South Africa in February, 2010. This place commemorates his life with reference to Shakespeare’s words in Romeo and Juliet:
“And, if he should die, take him and cut him out in little stars and he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world would be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun.”