Bangkok's Lumpini Park at dawn
© 2008 The Gospel of Father Joe: Revolutions & Revelations in the Slums of Bangkok
For Literary Reference group: Author, Greg Barrett. Publisher, Wiley Books. ISBN: 0470258632
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Excerpted from Chapter 8:
Father Joe typically arrived for our interviews at Lumpini Park around four o’clock in the morning. That way he could unload his bag of worries and jog alone before I intruded.
I always arrived at a quarter to five, fifteen minutes early, just to impress. (I’m not sure he ever knew.) Sitting and waiting on a park bench wearing blue jeans or khakis with a collared button-down shirt and a work satchel strapped across one shoulder, I must’ve
looked oddly out of place. Predawn joggers would eye me curiously, and I’d immediately scribble drivel in my wallet-sized notebook, as if that somehow explained who I was and what I was doing in the park at that ungodly hour, dressed for work rather than exercise.
At the precise appointed time, Father Joe would emerge from a park lamp’s yellowish glare, and he’d look at me oddly, too, his face slightly strained, unable to force a smile. He looked like a man arriving for a dentist’s appointment. Following our perfunctory “good morning” and “howdy-do,” I’d stick an iPod-thin recorder into his sweaty front pocket. He’d wince, as if it were intravenous, then grit his teeth and soldier on. A devout introvert, Father Joe is great with kids and a charismatic speaker and fundraiser when needed or called upon, but he avoids the topic that pains him most: his own life.
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If interested, you may search the book on Amazon HERE.
You may download Chapter 1 on publisher's website HERE
For more information on Father Joe's work and chairty visit the Mercy Centre website or its USA tax-deductible equivalent here
Bangkok's Lumpini Park at dawn
© 2008 The Gospel of Father Joe: Revolutions & Revelations in the Slums of Bangkok
For Literary Reference group: Author, Greg Barrett. Publisher, Wiley Books. ISBN: 0470258632
--
Excerpted from Chapter 8:
Father Joe typically arrived for our interviews at Lumpini Park around four o’clock in the morning. That way he could unload his bag of worries and jog alone before I intruded.
I always arrived at a quarter to five, fifteen minutes early, just to impress. (I’m not sure he ever knew.) Sitting and waiting on a park bench wearing blue jeans or khakis with a collared button-down shirt and a work satchel strapped across one shoulder, I must’ve
looked oddly out of place. Predawn joggers would eye me curiously, and I’d immediately scribble drivel in my wallet-sized notebook, as if that somehow explained who I was and what I was doing in the park at that ungodly hour, dressed for work rather than exercise.
At the precise appointed time, Father Joe would emerge from a park lamp’s yellowish glare, and he’d look at me oddly, too, his face slightly strained, unable to force a smile. He looked like a man arriving for a dentist’s appointment. Following our perfunctory “good morning” and “howdy-do,” I’d stick an iPod-thin recorder into his sweaty front pocket. He’d wince, as if it were intravenous, then grit his teeth and soldier on. A devout introvert, Father Joe is great with kids and a charismatic speaker and fundraiser when needed or called upon, but he avoids the topic that pains him most: his own life.
--
If interested, you may search the book on Amazon HERE.
You may download Chapter 1 on publisher's website HERE
For more information on Father Joe's work and chairty visit the Mercy Centre website or its USA tax-deductible equivalent here