I would characterize my experience during the last seven years with adversity. I have experienced the insecurity of life in a foreign land; uncertainty, in the face of sickness and ill-health without the assurance of medical care; uncertainty of employment and means of support; lacking leisure and vacation, or just time to be; without having to worry about the next day. It is what I call life on the precipice, afraid that any moment there could be a fall down the cliff. Yet, if I wasn't writing about it here, you'd never guess there was such an experience. Who hasn't faced affliction and adversity anyway? The big story is really, the aftermath. I could say with St. Paul (to the Christians of Corinth, "hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed" (2 Cor. 4: 8-9). The big story is BUT. I am here, telling the story. In the midst of affliction and adversity, I found my strength, I found authentic power: Faith, Hope, Abundance/Relationships, Perseverance, Gratitude, and Humility.