Jill Carroll

The after-effect for Jill Carroll

Apparently the aftermath of a traumatic situation can be difficult, sometimes more than the event itself. Sometimes simply the culture shock for people coming back to the U. S. after living for months or years in different countries, can be challenging, even though everything was positive. It doesn't matter whether it's a developed country or not, the differences in people's attitudes, the pace of life, even the grocery stores, can be startling.

For example, I've known missionaries who, a year after returning will suddenly have a week or so of living and sleeping as if in a different time zone. At 7:00 p.m. they suddenly want to get up. At 7:00 a.m. they want dinner, not breakfast. This is just a small example and obviously not a traumatic one. But we can imagine the effect on someone who has had an experience like Jill Carroll did.

Now that we know a little more about her release and that the initial video recorded at the Islamic Party headquarters was a condition of her freedom, it's understandable that her statements were made under duress.

Today I saw news video of her disembarking from the military plane that brought her to Germany. Wow - what a difference, mainly because she was wearing western clothing: jeans, sweater, and sneakers! How wonderful!

BTW, if you go to http://www.csmonitor.com/specials/carroll/carroll_update.html, The Christian Science Monitor has updates about Jill throughout these 80+ days of her captivity. After you click on, you can scroll down to where there's a link called:"Photo Gallery: Reactions to Jill's Release." The very first photo is a beautiful one of her taken by the Monitor's correspondent in Baghdad, Scott Peterson. Compared to so many we've seen lately, this one shows her as happy and beautiful.

Tomorrow, late in the morning she'll arrive in Boston. Hooray!!

My prayers now are along the lines of Psalm 40, verse 2: He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
I love thinking, knowing, affirming that God will establish her "goings" as she moves forward from her captivity.