In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonheoffer, a young German pastor and theologian in the 1930s and 40s, spoke to the concept of “cheap grace.”  The situation in Germany after Hitler came to power was one where the tentacles of the Nazi regime sought to influence all aspects of society, including the church.  The liberal German Protestant Church had for a long time been devaluing the divinity of Jesus Christ.  For the Protestant church, grace was both cheaply given and cheaply received, so when the newly appointed Nazi Bishop of the combined German Church began promoting “German Christians” as the archetype of what the new church should espouse, they found a willing or at worse passive audience among the Germans. 

As some of you may have noticed, I have lost some weight over the summer, and I just wanted to share a little bit about how and why.  Over the last year, every time I had to get on a plane, I noticed that the seats seemed to be getting steadily a lot smaller, and the belts a lot shorter.  Therefore, I wasn’t looking forward to the long plane ride to Kenya, where I could only imagine how uncomfortable it might be.  Fortunately, the Air Emirates seats were a little wider and the belts a little longer, so it wasn’t that much of a problem.  However, when I arrived in Kenya, and then proceeded to Ichuga village, Scott Fahringer, Pattianne Heizler, and me were asked to do visitation in and around the village.