  "Evening Light" Streets of Cotonou, Benin - Carley Rae This is the picture for December in on the Mercy Ships Calender in our Dining Room. Been thinking about the picture all week, partly because I was in Benin with the organisation for some time when I was 18 so felt like this was I place I knew.
The picture speaks to me on another level. It would be easy to see Benin, through my western christian eyes as a dark place. Voodoo was for many years the main religion there and the country has suffered much under French Colonists and then a Communist Regime. But this picture seems to show a different story, one of vibrancy and light as well as (I imagine) need. People are in the picture are busy with their own living and only one person seems to have noticed they are being watched.
She (the child on the right) seems just as transfixed by the taker as I am by the picture. At this time of year this is a picture that challanges and encourages me. I challenges me of my narrowmindedness. As I look I am reminded that a white God being born into a snowy, rural English landscape? Rather the contrast of lights in the night draws on a common imagery of light ad dark. It reminds me that the nativity story at the heart of this season is a universal story of light in darkness and of God coming alongside his people, sharing their lives, their triumphs and their tragedies.
God, the illuminator. Mercy Ships are the excellent Nautical wing of YWAM and send large ships to the less developed world with equipped with medical supplies and surgeries, relief and development teams and evangelism groups. If you haven't heard of them before then check out their urlLink website . They Rock 
