Diakonia

With all of my blathering on this blog, I tend to forget to update whoever reads this about actual significant things going on. Namely, this month, the Diakonia came out.

Diakonia is JRS Asia Pacific's publication that's been coming out since 1982.

But this one in particular is fantastic. Why, might you ask? Because I got to redesign it! Too much fun. God bless inDesign and (why not) Johann Gutenberg.

You can look at the pretty little PDF here.

But more than getting to design the thing, I got to contribute to it. Designing is fun, but writing is why I get up in the morning.

My favorite story wrote is this one. It's about Sri Lankan people, some living in hiding, others living behind bars, who are trying to be resettled to new countries. It was one of the first stories I wrote when I got here. I visited the Immigration Detention Center and visited the home of a Sri Lankan family. And when I sat down to write it, I just thought, "Whoa. This is what being a refugee is. Ok. I am on board." So perhaps you can read a little of my amazement between the lines of the story. Or maybe you can't.

My favorite story, experience-wise, was this one. Ollie and I traveled outside the city to see JRS's largest project in the country. It was first time in a refugee camp. Like for real. Like soldiers patrolling the boarder. Like bamboo houses. Like people fleeing real conflict. Like jungle. So that, of course, like every story I have written so far, was an eye-opener.

I dig this gig.