Spirit Light My Fire in Colombia

Moving

2010-02-14T15:52:00.000-08:00

I am retiring this blog and am moving permanently to: lauracatherine.tumblr.com

I already have many new posts and pictures!! See ya there.

Colombia Talk/Sermon Jan 24

2010-02-01T16:32:00.000-08:00

In my experience to get to know what the Spirit is all about takes highlighting where the Spirit is mentioned in scripture and just setting aside time to meditate with this mysterious part of the Triune God on a personal one on one bases, because the Spirit is non-tangible and a hard concept to grasp, even a bit more so, in my opinion, than the Father God and Christ. For this I find that it is easy to skim over such references to the Spirit, but this is one of the equally vital members of the Triune. Not too long from now we are going to start talking about Lent and Easter. It is by way of the death, resurrection and ultimate ascension of Christ that we have access to the Counselor. Christ says to his disciples that he has to leave them in order to give them this gift and upon the ascension this gift was made accessible to the entire world. It is because of the Spirit and only by way of the Spirit that we may be ‘guided into all truth’, understand Scripture, have the ability to hear what God is saying to us and have faith in this mind bending, life changing, transformative Triune God. That’s Huge! It is also by the Holy Spirit that God has given us our place in the body of Christ, our place in the world of the Heavenly Kingdom, our homework.

Christ refers to the presence of the Spirit as evidence of a holy anointing. This anointing of the Holy Spirit calls the recipient to act on the Lord God’s behalf. Because we have been seated at the right hand of Christ since his ascension we receive the same anointing when we ask the Holy Spirit into our hearts. “’The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor’.” Period. Then it describes what this means. Preaching good news to the poor, that is the poor in Spirit, is the act that brings sight to the blind (physical blindness and spiritually blind), release for the oppressed (from all forms of oppression) and freedom to the prisoner (spiritual and unjust imprisonment). These actions speak to the gifts held by members of the faith. The thing is that these gifts aren’t always light up in neon lights announcing there presence in the person. We all share in the same work of Christ. What he was called to do, we are called to. What he was able to do, because of the ascension, we are able to do and more. It just takes time and patience to follow in his steps.

While in Colombia I came across many personalities. I discovered that each had his or her way about them. The experience that most marked my time in Colombia was my work with the Bosa mission. Some of you may know about this mission through my blog. So the story with Bosa starts when I met the priests who were starting up the mission Father Alberto and Father Alejandro. They had such passion for the neighborhood and held such deep convictions to servitude. It was wholly refreshing and energizing. It was radical and spoke to where I mentally and spiritually was at that time.

Audra and I were the first missionaries in 30 years in the Diocese of Colombia and the very first young adult missionaries. Seems like this would be an exciting time, actually it was quite boring for the first number of months. The bishop just didn’t know how to use us. It is easier to find a niche for a professional, but official professionals we are not and so we were left in the office doing busy work much more than I was comfortable with. I actually starting to go stir-crazy. So to come across this opportunity to get involved with from the get-go was exactly what my under stimulated brain was yearning for. Audra was counting down her final weeks in Colombia and didn’t want to get involved in a new project she wouldn’t be able to contribute to for much time, so I took the reins on Mission Operation Rescue. From the beginning we all just hit it off very well. Audra and I agreed that there was just something different with the kids in Bosa that was lacking in our work in Libratadores.

So, I am here sharing with you some of the details of this time in Colombia. This is now my warning that it was not at all easy nor straight forward and it is covered in cultural frustrations, however the good news is that I am still very much in love with mission work and Colombia.

As I am prone to, I dove head first into this mission. At first I was working 6 days a week about 13 hours a day including commuting time. I started off by simply taking care of the kids, keeping them entertained and at times, many times, serving as referee to break up fights. Then as Father Alberto’s focus shifted to fundraising efforts I took over cooking duties. There were many an occasion I wanted to string the kids up for being just ridiculous about eating vegetables. The worse was when I made homemade tomato soup from fresh tomatoes!! First I almost had a riot on my hand then I had to put myself in time-out to not go absolutely berserk; these are the joys of working with children. Hahahaha. It took me a while to realize it, but I finally began to question if father Alejandro just might not be coming back around; As Father Alberto and I were trying to figure out how to work our schedules and run the mission between the two of us my suspicions rose.

During this time I attended a service with Father Alejandro at another parish. On our way to the church I asked him if her were still working in Bosa. He assured me he was and would be returning the following week. That next week, he didn’t show up and I finally asked Alberto what this was all about. He finally filled me in that he and Alejandro had had a falling out from the very beginning and had basically kicked him out of the mission. I was floored. First Alejandro had lied to me (just trust me on that one) second Alberto fired our only go-to guy. It damaged my trust, but also gave me a bit of understanding into the culture. I had to start taking such revelations with a Colombian stride.

So to speed up this story: I continued to put my all into the future sustainability of this mission. With the help of a Colombian friend I started to write up a business plan, looked for grants and alternative funding opportunities and started rubbing elbows with local companies. Basically, from waking to sleeping my mind was consumed with figuring out how to make this thing not only work but be an example success story to repeat for all of the missions in the Episcopal diocese.

Unfortunately getting Father Alberto and the important people of the diocese to understand what I was doing proved to be the greatest hurtle that I never was able to clear in the time I had left. The mission died away quickly. I was disheartened and brokenhearted.

Father Edgar, a dear confidant, who I had been discussing the work in Bosa with, was a wonderful shoulder to turn to when I needed my spirit lifted. I am hoping that between Edgar and Diego I can turn over my plans for the mission to them to take the lead on a revolution of transformation for the missions.

So I have been meditating on all of this for a while. What I have decided, after passing through ALL the stages of grief, for loss of the mission, from denial to anger and finally, thanks be to God, left with hope, I realize that it all boils down to everyone is a vital member of the Body of Christ. Each has some gift of great value to contribute to the family. Alberto though not at all who I would turn to for organizational skills is exactly who I would need to get a spiritual pep talk. Father Alejandro’s gift is not necessarily being the most responsible but he has a way of motivating anyone to very real action. Edgar has a shinning gift for communication and Audra has deep insight into a persons being.

Once I got over my own judgments and began releasing people from my own expectations, including the expectations I have for myself, I began to see their hearts and my heart as God sees them. Seeing how the Spirit is moving through them and how irreplaceable each is.

I think that in my misunderstanding and judgment I was inadvertently trying to make an elbow into an index finger or a little toe into a kneecap if you get my drift.

How things get don for the Heavenly Kingdom may not fit into our limited vision and our plans but it does all eventually happen with God leading the way.

I have arrived from Colombia with more patience a great deal more flexibility in the flow of life and a driving force to discover my place in the Body of Christ. April 2^nd I will be moving down to Fort Myers Florida to start a two-year internship with ECHO where I will learn about sustainable agriculture in missions. It involves one year in Florida and then an international mission trip with them. I will continue to share my experiences through a blog and group email. Thank you to everyone who took part in my experience by keeping up with my blog, and special thanks to those who I interacted with. I hope to take more people along with me as I continue forward.

In the Name of the Father God, Christ the Son and that fantastic Holy Spirit I pray, Amen

Despedidas/Going away parties

2010-01-25T12:37:00.000-08:00

Started off as a dinner and soon we were all being kidnaped to visit the Granja in Choachi.

It was a spontaneous overnight Going away extravaganza that included a live Meriachi Concert

and a beautiful lake. What more can a gringa ask for on her last week!!

Thanks Guys.

oops forgot to post this one

2010-01-25T12:36:00.000-08:00

5 days and counting; I must admit it is a disconcerting feeling. I think of all I still want to do and what I realistically have time for and I have to pause for a moment to take a deep breath. It is not easy to leave Colombia. I am in love with this country. I am comfortable here. I have some favorite restaurants and local foods. I still have so much to see. Oh, and then there is the thermal park, most likely my favorite place in the world. I am dearly fond of the people I interact with day in and day out, leaving friends is always difficult. I see how I could easily make a good life for myself here. Unfortunately this path would require teaching English as my primary work, which is not what I aspire to. So, as a HUGE blessing from God, I have the ECHO internship to set my eyes. This is what I aspire to: sustainable agricultural practices, bringing healing to our brothers and sisters and Christ. That is what the ECHO internship is all about.

It will be wonderful and a bit difficult to reunite with family and friends. Just as a heads up, please don’t ask me to sum up a years of experience in one meeting. That’s just not going to happen. Yet I will share with you what I can and the rest will come with time…and the reading of the blogs, hehehe.

I am already pulling plans together for my return visit that will be in two or three years.

Things to be excited about: I will be getting off the plane in Atlanta to have some much needed sisterly bonding time, I so look forward to having Sunday morning breakfast with my dad at Continental Bakery, tea and cooking dinner with my dear girlfriends, I hope to get in a football game with my Aunt and Uncle and visit Mississippi, returning to Camp McDowell for 6 weeks and a bit of trail running. Between work and before ECHO I will be retiring this blog to open up a new one that will hopefully follow me through all of my travels and experiences, including the internship. I will let you know when that happens.

In the mean time I am just having fun in Bogotá with Lucho , Kate and Brittany. I don’t actually plan on getting into the office much before I leave, I prefer to work in the apartment or still-off to a coffee shop. I will send out at least one more message before my return flight, the 13 of December. I will be back in Birmingham by the 21^st +/-. Much Love, much to anticiate, please send many prayers.

Medellin - Zoom

2009-12-28T14:52:00.000-08:00

Lots-o-fun. I set off for Medellin 10pm Friday night on bus. The trip was smooth

except for when a car rear-ended us. Everyone was fin…as far as I knew. I slept through all of the waiting and well, through the entire night. So as I arrived to the terminal there was some scattered phone tag going on as the phone number I had for Rev. Ernesto was incorrect and the one he had for me was also incorrect. So between Lucho and Deacon Edgar Everyone got hold of the right person in time to be picked upfrom the transportation terminal by Rev. Ernesto at 10:15 am. My stay was short but rewarding. I had the opportunity to attend the Sunday service, participate in the children’s catechumenate and teach the bible study. I had such a lovely time at Rev. Ernesto’s home getting to have lively discussions with family members including Luz Elena, his wife and Yovanni, his son. It was a wonderful time for me to have fun and catch up on some reading, I even got in three days of running and a day at the gym. Sunday night a big group of us went to walk River Medellin where there was at least two or three miles of lights and fountains. Lot’s of pictures:

Monday Alejandro, a friend I had met during the convention, took me out to get the best out of Medellin. We road the Metro to both extremes of the city, this included the tele-cable carts that took us up down and around the mountainsides. Our day was rounded out with amazing strawberry juice. The next day we met up at 10:30am to catch the planetarium show. We then had hours of fun in the

discovery zone. We walked through the aquarium and spent hours hoping, jumping, pulling and squealing in the interactive center. Theday carried into evening when we walked through the botanical gardens to watch the lighting of the Christmas decorations as it became dark. We rounded off the day with some much-anticipated cappuccinos in the bare-foot park. The intention of this park, as its name suggests, is to go about bare-foot between foot pampering textures including a segment of pebbles (like a foot massage) and water. Hey, anywhere I am encouraged to go around bare-foot becomes a favorite. I was exhausted and totally satisfied with the day.

A little about Medellin. First if you haven’t seen the episode check out Anthony Bordain’s food show in Colombia on Youtube. Less than ten years ago Medellin was considered the most dangerous city in the world….IN THE WORLD, with some 3500 murder at the height of the Medellin Cartel reign. This city was the epicenter of the South American drug cartels, with its oh so infamous Medellin Cartel ring-leader Pablo Escabar. Now, Medellin is known for having some of the happiest people on the earth and is called the land of the eternal spring because the weather rarely changes and is always a perfect 65-78. Although the irony is that the locals always seem to be complaining about the heat or the cold. Just have to laugh that one off. This is a culture, like all of the Colombian cities, distinct with a flavor of it’s own. The main food of choice is pork, principly the fattiest portions. People are simply very pleasant. Generous and not afraid to be children at heart….well, my view of Medellin was built around the discovery play zone, hehehe. The metro is clean and efficient. The metro alone made me think about moving there.

what a great weekend

2009-12-01T08:20:00.001-08:00

Saturday the girls, Kate’s father and I went to Usme to work on the side lot and visit a couple family members who’s children were graduating from their Catechumenate class. This also marks the time for their first communion. Yep, like the Roman Catholics, the Episcopal Church in Latin America practices this tradition. The interviews with the families were enlightening and delightful. Even getting caught in the rain as we made our way up, around and through slipper, hedgy trails to get to their houses, our spirits were not dampened. As I sat down and spoke with Sandra, 25 year old, oldest daughter of 7, I was very conscious and felt very blessed to have acquired the language capability I now manage. Sandra and I spoke; well, I listened and asked questions as she spoke.

The story of Sandra’s family

7 siblings ages 9 – 25. Father died a year ago from a heart attack while up in the mountains. The father was a control freak and very closed minded to the point where he didn’t allow the children to go to school for many years, he only wanted them to say in the house! Their mother, through arguments, finally won her children the right to attend school. For Sandra and the boys this came too late. By the time their father died the sons had to give up on the hope of formal education in order to obtain work and help support the family and Sandra was Married (by age 15). This meant that they had to go through a gov. program that completes all 12 years of school in one year. The end result is you get a piece of paper that you must have in order to obtain work and a lousy education (Sandra’s sentiments). All of the younger one’s began to go to school three to four years ago. That means that the 14 year old is in 4^th grade. She is discouraged by the age difference. They all struggle to get by yet they have a wonderful working relationship. Sandra, who has a 6-year-old daughter, also takes care of her four youngest siblings plus three children down the street. She is a very busy lady with a huge heart. We got along splendidly. I really hope to spend some time with her. Thanks be to God, the mother has recently acquired work at a bakery and so their will be a bit more money to help ease the stress. The children, perhaps the mother, attend Divino Salvador, the church we work at in Usme, every Sunday. The four youngest children have been attending the catechumenate lessons and are now preparing for their first communion. It is great to see such community participation.

We also interviewed a single mother and her son. She is separated from her husband and has 6 children, two of whom live with her; actually, she and the younger boy live with the elder brother. She, like the great majority of the community, she has had no steady work in a long time and the rest of her children are in as difficult situation as she is, so cannot help her, the tragic and unjust cycle of poverty. She also, by the grace of God, has recently obtained a tiny bit of work in the church helping to clean. It is not enough to live off, but it is better than nothing. What was interesting about this interview was the change of energy that took place. I entered the home goofing with the young son and the mother seemed quite stand-offish. I was already in such a good mood from talking with Sandra (although at this point quite chilly). I think it was around the third question as I helped Kate with a bit of the questioning that the ice was broken. I guess to see us make mistakes and be really human brought us down to the ground level for her. She opened up and told us about her relationship with the church, smiled and I think I even remember a bit of laughter. We also discussed how her son could get extra help for math and English. Schools here do not have the same resources I was BLESSED to have in my school system…I am now much more grateful for the Homewood school system.

Sunday was lovely as I volunteered to teach the bible study to the 10-13 year-olds. I love this group of kids; we click well. This time I spoke about ‘el camino de Dios’… something like the God’s life path for each of us. In this we discussed the characteristics of God which translated into the characteristics of this ‘path’. I really felt the Holy Spirit lead me in this discussion. Again the gospel lesson was obtuse…at least to translate to this age group. It was a marvelous experience as I was in front of the kids with my – oh so well - drawn-out lesson plan only to have the Spirit push me into the psalms. I got to touch on the Trinity again and how Christ is 100% man AND 100% God. I know this is a deep topic, but if I include a bit at a time each class, it might start making some sense, in that acceptance of the mystery way, hehehehe.

Thanksgiving Blog - Part 2 the remembering

2009-11-30T14:16:00.000-08:00

Colombian Thanksgiving Blog – Part 2: the remembering

THANKS BE TO GOD!!! Our Colombian Thanksgiving was a huge success! Once again God proves to me that He is listening to prayers….continual praying for this event started when we bought the turkey, with the frequency of prayers steadily increasing as the Friday night dinner approached. So, the Turkey did de-thaw in time. By Thursday night it was in a pot of salty-sugary water. I think Martha Stewart and Norman Rockwell would have been equally impressed between the fresh herbs, garlic and oranges and a bird that came out of the oven dark golden brown and juicy. No surprise that there is none left. Kate, Brittany and I had a full afternoon of chopping, stirring and dressing up – all pretty. The gusts started to arrive 15 till 7pm, just in time for us to send them out on errands to come back with more plates and plastic utensils. The group ended up numbering 15. Kate had the brilliant idea of inviting a couple extra friends from the Cathedral that was the cherry on top of the whole event. The three of us put on our dresses, pretty shoes and made ourselves up.

Hey, I will find anyexcuse to where heals, hehehe =.).

Once everyone was gathered we all stood around the table to share what we are thankful for and/or give a prayer. It was a humbling experience as many expressed thanks for our presence and work. The highlight was Sara, an 8 year old who is so very smart and well spoken who gave thanks for us, the generosity of the cathedral and the goodness in her life. Even before we had sat downfor the salads tears were welling up for many. What I was so very proud of, besides the Turkey and brownies (high altitude baking can be tricky), was that the menu involved more vegies than Colombians normally eat at any given meal…yah vegies! By the time everyone cleared out we were left with one dinner plate and a little extra mashed potatoes. Between Brittany’s confidence that we had enough and more than a fewprayers about the feeding of the 5,000, we fed everyone well and weren’t stuck with a tone of leftovers.

First Corse Green Salad and Fruite Salad

The main course

Turkey dressing greenbeens and then some

And this is the beautiful turkey!

A sea of Children

2009-11-27T08:57:00.000-08:00

November 21 and 22 was quite the learning experience and event as the Cathedral hosted a workshop on Saturday and all of the participating community members were coming to the 11am service wich would include a bible study time for the children. The prior Thursday and Friday I was in the office trying to figure out what a children’s communication workshop and bible study for some 60-75 children was to look like. I have never taught a workshop nor bible school before especially not with a range of children from 1years old to 12 years old. It was a dynamic learning experience and I was so motivated I actually stayed focused in the office those two days, a small miracle. Well, as things go in Latin Amercia, even with a 2.5 hour meeting on Friday night the communication workshop on Saturday didn’t have a set plan, not as I would consider it. Working in such a fashion really highlights my US upbringing with deadlines, high expectations and solid planning and agendas...this is so not the case here. So as the folks were filling the pews on Saturday afternoon, I sit down with Father Diego and ask him (yet again) ‘ok, what is the plan? How do you see this coming about?’....Well the workshop ended up being with Father Diego in the sanctuary with all the adults and children older than 12 giving his communication discussion while Kate, Brittany and I took all of the some 75 children and split them into three teams. Kate got the little ones, Brittany the middle ones and I took charge of the older group. So I was bound and determined to use some of the work I had done to lead children into a communication workshop. After playing a full round of charades I lead the kids in communication skits. They were great! All through charades and then they blossomed during the skits, especially the group that was being the most difficult. They were dynamically involved whether performing the skits or as the audience, which included a bad communication example followed by a good example. Each of the mini skits was intermingled with the children who were watching answering questions about the situation. It kept them on their toes and made them feel apart of the skit. Unfortunately I didn’t time it well and we only were able to perform one skit, but a good start. The bummer and highlight was when the trouble group transformed into the most energetic and eager team as they came up with their own skit theme, family violence, with it’s bad and good examples only to run out of time. But I was so very proud of them. The bible study went very similarly as all the children went into the salon and I separated the oldest to discuss the gospel lesson. Despite having to share the room with 60+ other children under 10 the discussion was still successful. Most of the children didn’t have a real concept or understanding of Christ (10-14 year olds). I am not even sure if I had a concept of Christ at that age….Dad fill me in on that please. So the discussion was more about making the connections between Christ as God, Christ as human and what it mean to choose Christ as your Lord. The gospel lesson was Pilot asking Christ if he was king of the Jews. I concentrated the kids on “’y kingdom is not of this world’”. I personally had a lot of fun with it. We defined kingdom, king and we also discussed that the kingdom of Christ is in Heaven and earth. I look forward to this coming Sunday and Hope I have the opportunity to teach the Bible study again.

Thanksgiving Blog - Part 1 the preperation

2009-11-27T08:55:00.000-08:00

The three things I am grateful for: 1) The supreme grace and love of the Lord who has mercifully called me to His service!! 2) My dear loved ones, friends around the world and family. 3) (inspired by my dad) The supreme beauty of the creation, the natural world, people and experiences, that inspires my soul and surprises my heart.

So far I have received eight emails for the ‘What are you grateful for?’ – 3 blessings request. Thank you very much for those responses….now being that my email list is over 100, I am still missing quite a few. If that is you, please go ahead and write up those 3 things you are grateful for and send them on.

Also I was thinking about all the many traditions that families have as the girls and I are making our own Colombian traditions. I want to share in your traditions. So for you guys Thanksgiving has come and gone and now many of you are feasting on leftovers, while for us, the turkey was put in the oven at 10am and we are preparing for a 7pm celebration with some of our comrades. Devoting times for such requests may seem trivial, however it is important to me. In the Spirit of the season, indulge me. Write me about your Thanksgiving, where did you go, who were (are) you with, etc., ALONG WITH the three things you are most grateful for.

So this is the first time I am cooking a turkey, which involves a cookie sheet and a tinfoil boat….Yikes. So far my day has been blessed with a turkey that did successfully de-thaw, what (after an hour of cooking) appears to be a tinfoil boat that has not sprung a leek and a lovely time getting to chat with Brittany. Thanks be to God!

Next on the agenda: stuffing, mashed potatoes and a number of salads.

Prayers are much appreciated as the turkey roasts and the meal finalized.

Be blessed, in the peace of the Lord and full of joy!!

LauraCatherine

a reflection

2009-11-18T09:41:00.000-08:00

So I have often had an issue with how I have heard the parable of the raven preached. Luke 12: 24-25 “Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!” - I kept hearing about how God will not let us go hungry or without shelter, basic needs stuff. At least that is what my ears took in. Yet I was acutely aware of the very real suffering and hunger in the world. Now I know that is not God’s will. So up until the other day I would respond defensively to this passage.

While listening to the Daily Audio Bible reading (Luke 12) I finally heard another understanding of this passage. It was revealed to me within the Chapter as a whole. For me, the key was in the passages preceding and following the raven. 12: 16-21First there is a parable about a rich man who had a wealth of a harvest and was storing it up for himself. God renounces this by saying “‘you fool!” pretty harsh. It says that you have all this stuff stored up, but guess what, you will die this very night and what do you think will happen to all of it? This is saying that those of us who are blessed may be focusing on what we are gaining and the amount in our savings accounts or portfolios not remembering the needs of the poor and forgetting that we are not promised even tomorrow. Those who only think of what they can gain for themselves and put greater values in such things are not preparing themselves for eternity with God. It is shortsightedness.

For us, those who do not have all the answers, definitely me, the world we live in seems much more real than the Spiritual world. Yet the truth is that the world we walk in is only a reflected shadow in comparison to the reality of the Spiritual world / the heavenly kingdom. So to us, who are blessed to have, it is so very difficult to see beyond the grocery list, the shopping, the car and house. We feel a since that we deserve this comfort because we have worked so hard for it. We do not have perspective to understand true suffering in comparison to the bounty of our riches.

So who are we as Christians? Who are our neighbors, our brothers and sisters? I say that these are every member of the human race, Christian or non-Christian. Our neighbors, whom we are to love as we love ourselves, are those who are poor of spirit, of basic physical needs, of love, etc. How many of us have felt the Spirit of the Lord tugging at our heart when we see suffering and think to ourselves “I am going to do something,” but never do anything because we forget about it, don’t have time or latter decide it isn’t that big of a problem. Why do we hesitate? Believe me when I say that I am speaking to myself as much as to anyone else.

What will we say to God when he asks how we lived? We are being asked that very question within this passage. How are we living? For whom are we living? What we are promised is not food and comfort in this world. What we are promised is that if we acknowledge Christ before others in our hearts and in our lives we will be given the Kingdom of God. God knows that we all need food and basic needs, but he has given us charge over the recourses to supply these needs to everyone. To spread our blessings to those who lack. I know that I am very blessed. I am comfortable, even too comfortable. God calls us to make ourselves a little uncomfortable to relieve the great suffering of the mass majority of the world.

James 2: 15-17 “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”

This was such an important revelation for me. It filled my heart with great conviction and turned me to God, as I had become distracted recently. I propose that you also read through Luke 12, and give James 2 a look. I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on these passages.

Los Llanos, Yopal...and a Wedding

2009-11-18T08:39:00.000-08:00

Los Llanos is the planes region of Colombia.

It is as distict in culture and environment as the Amazons or the Coast.

I was invited as a guest to attend a family wedding this past weekend.

Los Llanos is marked with its own accent, music, cultural flare,

warm hearted and inviting people and lots and lots of Meat.

I loved it all. Thanks to all for the kindness and

enormous generasoty I was shown.

A halmark of this great family.

YOPAL

Bride and Groom

It was a wedding to confirm the

long comited relationship they have been sharring

over the past couple of decades

HOROPO

It is the distinct music of los Llanos

I like it even better than Vallanato

It has a feeling of bluegrass meats folk, but different

Hehehe

Some family Pics

A beautiful visit to a beautiful river.

This is the season for the river to be low.

The Llanos is marked with a

traditional cowboy culture. With its

proficent horse handling, enormous numbers of cows.

The land of a Man's Man

This is a cousin, Oscar, 14 years old

I was very impressed with his riding

It inspired me to get back on a horse.

So, its been ten years +/- since I've last been on a horse.

I now am on the hunt for a way to ride before

I get started with ECHO when I am back in the States.

I loved it

A trip to the Farm

2009-11-04T09:54:00.000-08:00

Four Days in the Farm

Orchids

Me in front of the House

Some Chickens..The little one in the center

has a bit of a Napoleon Complex

I'm milking a cow...not the first time

Akwardly Poseing

Wood burning Oven

The Hands of the Grandmother

They are beautiful, soft and she never uses

pot holder. Her hands are a marvel of having

a life of cooking for 9 children and all their family.

The look of love after some 50 years

How beautiful

This is the families daily routine

Milking the cows

Grandfather taking a rest

Everyone freaks out when I pick-up a lizard or

worm. It made me a bit of a legend, even in Farm Country

Some beautiful views

Reminds me of Dr.Seuss' "the lorax"

Bit by bit I'm getting better at light control with my camera

Hope you enjoyed the trip....

a smattering of random photos...Yah Photos!!

2009-10-29T14:00:00.000-07:00

Trip to the Hot Springs

I have now got four or five times

and have to return a couple more times

Set in beautiful countryside

All the pools are quite warm to very very hot

Its simply delicous

with a cold water fountain to dunk yourself under

when you need to cool off. It also serves as a nice

hot cold therapy

The walk down to the park

You can be there just for the day

Stay over in a room in this house

or camp

I've done it all

A beautiful surprise hike around the Property

A new friend

Dad I still want a parrot

(but maybe one not so large)

A Trip to a huge market

So far only have pics of the flowers

but I do go there every so often so

there is a good chance I will have more shots latter on

MERCADO PALO QUEMAU

Flower market at 6am

I always think of my grandmother when I see SunFlowers

Night sceens from the rooftop

A good photo is a mix of luck and patience

times they are 'a changen - ME

2009-10-29T11:09:00.001-07:00

Living in the moment while having to make plans for the states, a bummer but a blessing reminding me how much I have been transformed to live for the day and not take for granted the present moments. So as I receive an invitation from Maggie Johnston to return and work for the McDowell Environmental Center for a month, between returning to the states and starting the ECHO internship, I realize how rooted I have become in the day to day progression of life.

It started last week or so as I was finalizing my return flight when plans started to be made for my return. Things such as who will pick me up, what will the weekend plan be and where will I live before the internship. It is a bit of a mind bender to catapult my mind into jan, feb and march. I have been having a lot of fun just waiting to see what the next day brings. Nothing huge has happened but nice little surprises pop up such as a family barbeque, walking in the rain to a fruit bar, an impromptu trip to the movie theater to enjoy ice cream and popcorn.

So to understand what this means to me you need to understand who I was. Well, I suppose they are my still present tendencies to over plan, over organize and be too wound-up to be on my schedule and routine. I would have to plan a week in advance (minimum) to mentally prepare myself to go out and do anything, and if plans didn’t work out I was a mess and not at all happy.

Ha! A routine!? Barley exists here. Not for me anyway. The first number of months this was very difficult for me. In the states I thrived on routine and expectations, neither of which are easy to come by here.

I now love the freedom I have been introduced to. I still make plans a few days in advance but just as an outline. If it doesn’t work out, the plans are changed and my day is just as lovely, if not better, than what we would have done previously. I feel like I am seeing and experiencing far more than I would have hand-cuffed to my own expectations.

Releasing ones expectations has been, for me, a release of pride. Think about it, who am I to dictate my every moment? Who knows better what will bring me fulfillment than the Lord God. I like to think in my new flexibility I am listening more to God and enjoying the moments of life I am gifted. The future is not guaranteed and I definitely can not add an hour to my life through fretting ( so says scripture). So I won’t fret, I will live.

Thankfully this doesn’t mean I have to give up planning all together, life still takes organizing and forming goals. It gives me something to move towards, but in the mean time I will enjoy the journey.

Remember I always appreciate hearing from you, don’t be a stranger. Be blessed, at peace and laugh out Loud!

LauraCatherine Conville

I love strangers

2009-10-20T13:38:00.001-07:00

Just a quick note about my day. As I was coming back from cooking lunch in Bosa I had to travel from to calle 100 to go by the DAS building to ask about visa stuff. This is a long ride. Normaly I get off at calle 51 Marley. As I road along it began to rain. This began in the south section so I was thinking surley it'll ease up by the time I get to 100. I was also regretting leaving my umbrella in the apartment, this after having been warned to take it with me today. So as the rain continued and grew heavyer I longed to have my umbrella in hand and wondered how wet I would be at the end of the 20+/- block walk I had between the Transmilenio and the DAS building.

Wouldn't you know it. Just as I exited the terminal a kind man walked up behind me and gave me a gentle nudge to get my attention as he offered to walk with me and share the shelter of his umbrella. What a world we live in, when a perfect stranger litteraly reaches out to help another perfect stranger. He walked with me almost the entire way as we chatted about our lives. The first question he asked was..."where are you from". I supose as he had caught me talking on my phone my accent gave me away. So along the way I explained what I was doing here, he told me about his work and his brother who married a mexican woman who turns out to have prefered to live in mexico with their children while he works as a doctor in Bogota - an interesting discourse of the state of marriage progressed from there.

It was nice to arrive at DAS not nearly as wet as I would have without this kind offer and I was in a very good mood having had shared in plesant conversations with a kind gentlman.

Life can be surprising and so very lovely. Don't be afraid to strike up conversation with a stranger, people really can make a good day better.

Blessings

The hope of prayer

2009-10-19T08:22:00.000-07:00

It has been a difficult day and I now am faced with reevaluating the hopes and goals I had set for myself before I leave Colombia. This morning (Fri. Oct.16) I had a meeting with Father Alberto and Bishop Duke. It did not proceed as I had hoped. What I am left with, along with a few tears of frustration, is the comfort that I know God had it all under control. Not even meaning that everything that passed was God’s will, but that God will make something beautiful out of it all. If it is only my personal/spiritual growth.

The day before in a day of fasting it was placed on my heart to pray for the Holy Spirit to be present and facilitate communication during this meeting, even before I knew that the meeting was to be this morning (I now see why I was to pray; the Spirit really does move, neat). At the beginning of the meeting, to cover my bases, I prayed quietly again that the Spirit be upon us to facilitate the meeting. The result was that the Spirit was fully with me reminding me to keep my patience (breath deep and bite my tongue), when to keep my mouth shut and when to talk, thankfully keeping me from crying in front of the Bishop, Alberto and the treasurer (well, that was either the Spirit or my pride...humm, something else to reflect on).

Instead of focusing on this conversation I want to focus my sight on where God is in all of this. Over the past couple of weeks I have listened to an ipod workshop called “the hope of prayer”. Prayer has been a subject of curiosity and study for me over the past year(s). Just trying to understand how it work, how to do it and what God and Christ have to say about it. It has helped to refocus my energies and set me into a consistent prayer routine. That alone has made life more pleasant.

Having read about the troubles facing so many thousands of people here in Colombia, the abject poverty in the Philippines, the Sudan and South Africa, Haiti (only to name a few) I wonder where my frustrations fit into God’s to-do list, do I even have a right to get upset when I am living so comfortably and am so very blessed to have all of my need and the great majority of my wants met.

I have heard that hurt and suffering are objective. I am blessed beyond measure to be present to the truth of this world; the ugliness, the pain and suffering as well as the magnificent glory that we live in. My frustrations, pains and tears matter to God and whatever joys and sorrows your going through truly matter to the Lord. God loves us each with the fulness of His love, there is nothing we could do to deserve God, He just loves us, each one and is offering us His fulness every moment of every day. It is up to us if we will take hold of this offering. Through these children, women and men who live in undignified conditions, who are dying of hunger and disease, who are so heartbreakingly lonely is an invitation to take hold of all of God as we seek to humbly bring healing and comfort. It is good to keep our comfort in check and be willing to be a bit uncomfortable for the sake of our neighbors.
I have decided that God does not have a “to-do list”. Scripture promises us that God hears the prayers of all of his faithful followers if we would but pray without doubt, nothing will be denied us through prayer and fasting. It comes about that if we are followers of Christ seeking to do the will of God, the Lord works through us with the Holy Spirit to put prayers on our hearts. Praying without doubt is taking a moment to ask God if he wants me to pray for this or for that and really be open to the answer. I am finally learning to not talk quite so much, take a bit of time to listen....and ya’ know the difference has been remarkable. It is a beautiful thing to know the voice of God, even if it is a simple yes or no it brings me more comfort than anything I could buy or come up with on my own.
The prime message of “the hope of prayer” is that the ultimate objective of prayer is to bring us into oneness with the Lord God.
That is an Alpha - Omega message if I have ever heard one. The first and last objective of prayer is to be one with the Lord. Amen.
Remember I always appreciate hearing from you, don’t be a stranger. Be blessed, at peace and laugh out Loud!

LauraCatherine Conville

The mission....an orphanage?

2009-09-30T10:24:00.000-07:00

I have recently received some wonderful emails / comments about the work in Bosa. The interesting theme running through these messages is calling the mission an orphanage. I was struck at how this title could have been interpreted. I first thought that I had unintentionally manipulated the function of Mission Operation Rescue. But then I began to process what it means to be an orphan, reflecting on the condition of our children.

What does Christ mean when he calls us to care for the orphans along with the widows. I believe that an orphan, and at that a widow, is someone who is not being fully loved nor fully provided for. The parents of this community don’t know how to show love for their children. I don’t doubt that the parents do love their children, the tragedy is that their children don’t know that. I have had a few conversations with some kids where I asked if they knew that their parents loved them. The responses were between ‘I don’t know” or “I don’t think so”.

These children face home lives where their parents work long hours, don’t have the money to provide everything for their children, their may be alcohol abuse and their is definitely physical abuse and phycological abuse of one degree or another. These children come to the mission starving for love and affection more than anything. They are in desperate need of mature, Christ centered guidance.

So the mission is not an actual orphanage, because all the children at least have one parent and a home to go to in the evenings. Yet, these children need us during the day just as an orphan needs a home to go to at night.

I am understanding God’s call to service a bit more. What it means to live out the faith fully and loudly. As faithful followers of the Lord everything we do is to bring Him glory and healing to our brothers and sisters. We are not the jobs we perform it is who we serve. I will deeply try to live out a life of service to you and those around me. Keep me accountable and we will grow together.

I caught up on the blog of a fellow missionary Robin Denney and HIGHLY suggest that you read her incredible account of the tragedies, trills and blessing facing the Sudan. I ask you at least read her latest 2 posts. I have taken her up as a mentor and she encourages my walk as a missionary <redenney@gmail.com>

Be blessed, be at peace and laugh out loud!

LauraCatherine Conville

God will provide

2009-09-29T15:56:00.000-07:00

I can’t believe that it’s practically October and I haven’t written since the 9th. I guess I’ve been a bit distracted/busy. Forgive my neglectfulness. I will do the best I can to catch every one up to date.

First to share fantastic news with all of you that I have been accepted to the ECHO internship that will be for the year 2010. I am stoked. Sometime soon they will let me know if I will be starting in Jan or April and what my concentration/job will actually be.

However, as I have mentioned to a few of you already, I am still very much focused on the here and now. Yet, that has meant a lot more office time and a HUGE learning curve. So as of now I am doing research on grants and searching for benefactors by way of Colombian foundations and businesses. All of which I have never done before. I am also negotiating a new work schedule that ends with less immediately rewarding results as I found while working with the children. When I am with the children I can give hugs, break-up a fight and have heart-to-heart talks with the children. So I would end a day feeling as though I accomplished something. Office life is not so cut and dry.

As of two weeks ago it became frustrating to be at the mission. I was at the mission and Sandra was setting up to prepare the lunch when we realized we had $3,000 pesos ($1.50) and a cupboard practically bare and I was told that even more children were being pulled out. I was completely overwhelmed and felt terribly helpless. I sank into a self-pitty party for a bit as my mind raced with the question...”what do I do?”. I was given some great perspective that this is a situation that many business owners go through when they struggle to pay there employees (whole families depend on this income). I also was advised to figure out what I could do that very day. I realized to do anything to change this situation I would have to leave early and get to my computer. That very evening I sent out the SOS Operation Rescue letter.

Father Alberto called a

meeting for all of the parents of the children to discuss the Operation Rescate. At that time we had some 20 children. Four mothers representing 9 children showed up, we were grateful for these four. The meet

ing went well, all had only positive stories to report. One family said that her son was much more calm, less aggressive, and helping out around the house. Another mother said her daughter had improved 100% in school and she had just received a call of congratulations from her teacher. Yet another mother said that her son was actually sitting down to talk with her, sharing what was going on in his life, which had not been the case before. My heart was overwhelmed with such wonderful news. All were enthusiastic to encourage Father Alberto to keep the mission operating. Yet not a week later all but three of the children were taken out, either for lack of money or lack of children. It is such a disheartening way to return to work with few and fewer children to tend.

As children are being pulled out because their parents can’t pay and we don’t even have money to serve a proper lunch I realized my time and energy are more valuable seeking out the $, resources and know-how. This is a hard decision and makes for more tiresome frustrating days (although I don’t have to wake up as early hehehehe). I have only been with the children three times in the past two + weeks. One of the days I was there, one of the boys who was so attached to me, said to me, ‘you don’t help me, only Estefania helps me’.... and he didn’t approach me the rest of the day. It broke my heart. I understand that he feels that I have abandoned him, but how do I explain to a 9 year old what I am doing to really help him; well, I don’t and just pray that God blesses this effort.

I have A LOT to learn and it will take time. Time is such a luxury. I am staring down the barrel of my last few months here. I wonder what expectations can I hold for myself and the mission; how do I get myself out of the position of being depended upon; even the simple mystery of how to prioritize my day to get the most out of each hour (don’t feel I have figured that out yet).

Everything in God's perfect timing

we are praying hard with pray-full fasting.

As we waite for what God is working on to become clear

Please pray with us...we need help

I am energized to work harder for Operation Rescue when I travel to the mission. I see children who’s parents can’t afford breakfast. As I ride to Bosa I see the homeless and the prostitutes along the streets. I think that if there is anything that can be done to improve these children’s quality of life, preventing them from ending up on the streets or in the same situation as their parents, it must be done and done well.

One early evening as I was returning from Bosa I took note of a roundabout sculpture park. It is a circle where there are some 12 sets of nude greek-like female statues each with four women facing out and some sort of light post coming up from their midst. There beautiful statues. As I was pondering greek sculpture just about 10 minuets latter we were driving through the sector that seems to be the red-light district, there is a prostitute house on every corner. All of my senses were interrupted when I saw a woman dressed in black mesh, a thong and nothing else calling attention to a man passing on the side walk, she went so far as to give a how-to example. She was terribly beautiful and a vulgar site. She was like a vulgar greek sculpture. For the rest of the ride I prayed for her and the prostitutes I saw and wondered what she must have been like as a little girl, what lead to her life-style and what could have been done to have prevented this. I also remembered a sting song that always caught my attention that tells of the life of a prostitute ...“don’t judge me, you could be me in another life, in another set of circumstances. Don’t judge me, I just have to take my chances”

One Chapter closses another begins

2009-09-09T12:07:00.000-07:00

Today is Audra's last day as a YASC missionary in Colombia. She flies out at 4pm. This time had to come sometime, but it comes with mixed emotions and some tears. The reality of this dear person no longer being a room away will hit me soon, but for now I am trying not to think about it. We have had amazing adventures, experiences, food (amazingly bad and amazingly good) and laughing fits that threatened to exfixiate us both. But we all know that Colombia hasn't seen the last of Audra Mari Krislock, nor have I. I love that girl dearly and I know we will be great friends from here on out.

As of two weeks ago Kate arrived to begin her year in Colombia as a YASC missionary. For the first 4-6weeks she will be living with a parish family. It is the same family that hosted Audra for four months and me for a week.

They are great people and they are really help

ing get Kate going in this n

ew country with its language, currency, food and all. I am trying to help her the best I can establish a stable and fulfilling work schedule. She is pre-med and we have hopes of her working in Soacha with the community there, get hooked up with Doctors without Boarders and help get the AIDS and HIV mission up and going. Until we can get that squared away she is putting in time in Libratadores and Bosa. She is a sweet and charming young adult and I look forward to getting to know her all the better when it is time for her to move into the apartment.

We are expecting Brittany the final missionary to arrive late this month. She to will have a home-stay with a member of the parish. So I will have alone time in the apartment at least until the end of September and b

y November there will be three ladies in this quaint sea-foam green apartment.

I realize I haven't intentionally been without roommates since moving out of my parents house. It might be a bit strange, but with my new work schedule and friends I haven't actually found myself in the apartment all that often, except to sleep and watch the occasional movie.

As for Bosa. We keep chugging along. I am loving my new position more and more. One of my climbing friends has taken it upon himself to help me with the mission. We are in the process of writing out a business plan. It it we are gathering data for a Monthly, weekly, daily food budget. This involves hunting out the best prices and methods. This has been made more simple by the weekly menu that I made out a month. WIth this we can plan ahead for meal preparations and have a regular inventory of exactly what is needed each week/month. We are also writing up a letter called "SOS Operacion Rescate" which wich will be used in Spanish and English to call to arms the need for monetary donations. Along with this I am setting up a meeting with Fr. Edgar who is the technical website guy for the diocese and will be helping us get a Operacion Rescate website. I hope to come away with some great knowledge there. Once the Business plan is finished I will be able to set up dates to meet with a lot of fancy people who are looking for a good cause to donate to such as embassies, owners of large and small businesses, bank vice-president, etc.

So I now find myself in this grass-roots, project coordinating, business planing work schedule and I have never been more fulfilled in a job before. Well Camp McDowell comes very very close. It is just that next step I needed.

I was wondering where that put me in the way of my future plans. I am still in love with sustainable agriculture and want that to be a part of my future, but I now see what I am capable of and want to take advantage of this ability and drive. Matt St. John for Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) came down for another visit. He was first here in March. I went with him, Fr. Alberto and Fr. Antonis to visit Bosa. Along the ride I asked him how I might combine these talents and desires. He confirmed that I could do most anything along this line with a masters in public health. The only thing is that I need to figure out my concentration before I get into the program. Thankfully I have a while before I have to make that decision. In the mean time if you have any suggestions don't be shy! Really!

This Saturday there will be a small health fair for the children in Bosa. It will include a couple of doctors from the Cathedral and some doctors, specialist, phsycologist, etc. who are available to put in some time. Fr. Alberto will not be their so I get to help organize this event. I plan to take my camera and Kate so that I can come back with some photos.

Remember to take notice of the beauty and blessings that are surrounding you at this moment. Don't let a day go by without appreciating your life, friends and loved ones. And be sure to make up any excuse to laugh out loud!!

Blessings, Peace, Love and Laughter,

LauraCatherine Conville

Kate is on the right

Photos of Bosa

2009-09-08T14:29:00.000-07:00

WELCOME to BOSA!!

This is our Humble Home

This is the lot we are hoping to buy

to make our new humble Home

so far we lack the $$

Inside view of our humble little chaple

We share chairs with the mission

and they are brought in before each service

The outside view of the chaple.

The holes in the walls have grown

large enough for small children and dogs

to crawl through

I supose its time to patch them up Heehehe

The view out from the second floor window

The park where the kids play is to the centerish leftish

The street I walk that gets me to and from the Mission

I finaly wrote up the house rules

along side are the consecuenses for

breaking the rules

It has worked quite well

Settling down for lunch

Some days this is easyer than others

Because it has been requested

I have included a few photos with me in the frame.

Enjoy

This is the kitchen

(actually as of yesterday the fridge in the background

burned out and we had to replace it with another doner fridge)

The young women by the table is Estefania who has been helping

out every day as a volunteer

The family in the morning

Photos from Quibdo

2009-08-27T07:40:00.000-07:00

Looking through my eyes while I was in Quibdo

This is father Edison

The towns big Catholic cathedral

Our first evening in Quibdo there was an amazing

storm that brewed as we wandered around the center.

This picture was taken in a dark street at night just as

lightning flashed iluminating this photo.

Way cool.

These next few photos are from the program

that Father Edison leads.

It is a program of integral education where

the kids learn sports, chess, how to behave and

work in a team and group, etc.

I photographed many a foul.

Father Edison gathering the group for

a serious talk.

The kids have big personalities

and great smiles

Photo out of order:

The street side market place

A child preparing to leave after

a long hot day of soccer.

A view of the town is in the background

The street side market where you can

buy platano, chopiduros, dried fish

and all sorts of other colorful, delicious

tropical fruits and vegies

Long boats bringing in the Platanos

This is the popular form of transportation.

Costs 500 pesos = $.25

She's recieving change

Platanos are a principal element of the

food here

A colorful display of a particular variety of mango,

they are about the size of one's palm.

Champiduros.

I have a lot of photos of this fruit

because they are so beautiful

Washing the limes

A bunch of dried fish

The long boats that bring the havests

from accross the river

Chompiduros

A georgeous display of the goodness

the earth gifts us with

The Parking Lot

Cooling off the platano?

Flash Dance Style

The Cornacopia of Quibdo

Photos from Bucaramanga

2009-08-26T09:28:00.001-07:00

Friends, Fun and Sites of a whirl-wind tour of Bucaramanga

Padre Jorge Chowing-down on some Goat...It was really Good

Taking a break in a local café

Love these doors from a Catholic Church

Colombia's Independence day parade in front of the Episcopal Church/ home

The mission up the hill

Bible School with the youth group

Local friends

Youth Group Bible Study Singing

Here we are all together in the humbly constructed Church

The Church Kitchen

Youth Group

Service

A view of the Mission Comunity

a chick in a bird cage...I found it humerous

The president of the Comunity who is responsible for the electricity, recent wave of construction and the begining stages of a school whith the latest pride and joy...school desks

From left to right Father Fernando, a member of the parrish, the president of the community and Deacon Eduin

Future site of the constructed church, housing and school

Evening mass

The main church and where Father Jorge and his wife live

The street in front of the Church/home

In Quibdo

2009-08-12T11:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I am now in Quibdo for the next two weeks to visit with Father Edison. As I write this his 12 year old daughter is being entertained by my computer and the foreignness of the language. Audra and I arrived yesterday around 2pm after a one hour flight from Bogotá. After a lunch of bean soup (one of my favorite foods in the world), fried fish, rice and salad we changed our cloths and Edison took us on a world-wind tour of Quibdo on foot. One of the stops included a university where we met with an anthropologist/lenguist and talked with him for about an hour. A this university he and his team are compiling anthropological records of the history of Choco and Quibdo which include books, poetry, singers, athletes, musicians, etc. This information will be shared with V.... University and is funded through England. It has been a long time that I have had to concentrate so hard to understand a conversation. I caught about two-thirds. I started to pick up more when the conversation turned to linguistics and the Pelenque (which means walled city). I was investigating Choco, Quibdo just the other day to investigate the local music. The professor has invited us to join him in a visit to Pelenque which is the last remaining slave settlment. Here, half of the citizens speak a spanish-franco creole that can not be understood by spanish speakers. This city has preserved its native african roots for hundreds of years. It would make my trip if I got to visit this city. After this meeting I was exhausted. Yet we did keep going at least for a few more hours. I think we got back to the house around 8pm. We will be staying with Edison and his family for the duration of our stay here. Along our visit we were inundated with students and professors clamoring to practice there English with us. Others might handle such a situation better than I do. However for me, it just gets overwhelming. Especially when I am already tiered and there are intense personalities demanding of your attention. A group of university students just dropped by wanting an impromptu English class. We will have to talk to Father Edison to help us organize something so that Audra and I can help but we are not taxed.
The life style here is very humble. Maybe half or better of the streets are paved. The houses are sturdily constructed and many are colorful. I am reminded that the very same resources are more comfortable in a cooler climate. Audra and I went to bed last night sticky from the heat and humidity. The humidity is what takes the cake here. It is almost always at 100% and it rains practically every day. Then the heavens opened up. All that evening as we were walking around we got to enjoy the distant lightning and thunderclaps that I have missed so much from Alabama thunderstorms. Around 6:30 Edison took us to Rio Calive and Rio Quito that merged together to form Rio Atrato. Because of the storm forming we were blessed with a fresh cool breeze. The river smells alive and fresh. With the constant breeze and the scent my mind was transported to the beach fishing with my dad. ( It made me miss my dad and the beach back home, but in the good memory way.) Thankfully the rain held off yesterday until we were back in the house. It poured even as we were going settling down to sleep, sticky and all. However I did sleep very well and much needed.
After having lunch with Edison this morning we were told that we would be teaching English to a school group in the morning and at a government college in the afternoons. I´ll be sure to let you know how that goes.

2009-08-12T11:12:00.000-07:00

It seems like each day that I am in Bosa I grow closer to God and fall more and more in love with this mission. Everyone has a gift that God intends to use for a specific purpose if we are only willing to take the time to listen. My time in Bucaramanga was that very time of meditation and quite that I needed to discern God's voice. In the short two weeks in Bosa I have gotten to know most of the in's and out's of the children, business side, personalities, needs and pains of this place.
I have found myself serving more as a fellow companion in this mission along side Father Alberto and Mauricio and not just someone to teach English. Although this is still a rocky transition that is going to take patience and time. Monday, Sandra, who is to be the cook while I am away was there. This gave me time to take inventory on what food stuffs we have and make a list of what the mission will need per-month, week and day. I was also able to make out a menu from Monday to Saturday that is nutritionally complete. This included teaching Sandra about how to combine whole grains and legumes to create a complete protein. I was sure to include many of their local favorites. Sandra seems willing to follow the menu and make sure that everyone eats all of their vegetables.
Father Alberto is a bit overly cautious about my work schedule and we are now discussing the fact that when I am there I want to be the one to cook, clean and care for the children so that he doesn't have to pay someone to help. The discussion is still more of him letting me talk and then going ahead with the ideas he previously had in his mind. I am reminded constantly that I must rely upon God for patience. My friend Lucho and I are energized to help Alberto get the mission organized and supplied with the needed resources. While Alberto and Mauricio have the heart and are endearingly idealistic, it will take experience, organization and a dose of reality to see this program to sustainable success. I am really learning what it takes to make a mission successful from the ground up. This is an invaluable experience. I am going to be taking advantage of the resources around me to learn the basics of business that can be applied to missions, such as accounting, negotiation, etc.
Along with the parrish and mission where I work, Alberto is also working with an elderly care home located under his apartment, he has a service mission in another location at 4pm on Saturdays and another location at 7pm on Mondays. The very little time I thought he might have had to at least take a nap and see his family he has covered up in travel and even move work. Mauricio, his brother-in-law, who is Alberto's right hand man has thoughts of moving away to start his own mission. I am trying earnestly to convince the both of them that God calls us to rest one day out of the week. My tactic is just to repeat myself time and again until I am blue in the face and then keep repeating it until they take a day off each week. A sick or burned out priest seven days a week is of no use to anyone but a healthy energized priest six days a week is a recipe for spiritual growth and a prosperous community.
As I get to speak to some of the members of the parish, neighborhood and friends of the mission I am now charging them with homework to help me convince him to rest. Along with the issue of rest is the issue of spreading oneself too thin. With so many other fledgling missions in the work Father Alberto can not put the energy into the mission and parish of Bosa that is needed and if Mauricio decides to jet we would be down an extra pair of eyes and hands. In my opinion both are detrimental to the success of this mission. I am hoping that we can come to an agreement to focus on getting Bosa to be self sustaining before moving on to another project, with the understanding that this will take years.
Monday I was made even more acutely aware of the needs of this area. There is a tiny three/four year old boy who lives in the same building as most of my kids and is beloved by many. Roland absolutely adores him. They were playing and laughing for a good half-hour or hour until all of a sudden the little boy went very quiet and long in the face. Roland brought him over to me and I sat him in my lap and hugged on him. The kids told me that both his parents were working and had left him and his older sister in the street with no lunch. Roland at one point was kind-of playing a game asking him if his father hit him often and hard; it is just so a part of the life here. He had such a despondent look on his face. The kids also told me that he was sick. I carried him into the house with a group of the kids trailing behind to give him a bit of lunch. It is so funny that even when a child is hungary he still doesn't like carrots or tomatoes. After a bit of food and drink and time to warm up to me he started to show off his strong personality leading us into laughter.
This is why this mission is here. If we could get the money we could provide scholarships for such children. No child should be neglected or wonder if anyone in the world cares about him or her. Our eyes have been opened now the responsibility is upon us to act.
Again if you feel called to support a child in this mission or what ever means of financial support, including donating computers (we need at least four), cloths, reading books in Spanish,etc. please write me. There is an official bank account being set up for Bosa through the Episcopal church where 100% will get to where it needs to go.

Hit the ground running. It's what feeds me.

2009-08-03T20:04:00.000-07:00

So since writing the blog about Bosa I was supercharged to take full advantage of the experiences and memories that the mission could offer. I returned from Bucaramanga early thursday morning having slept through most of an eight hour bus ride. Thursday night I lucked up being in the office at just the right time to be invited to a private Eucharist that was held in the little chapel of the Cathedral. In attendance were all but one of the priest of the Bogota area. This included Facatativa and Bosa. Also in attendance were two Episcopal Franciscan Monks. One from NY and the other from San Francisco who I had actually met just a few days earlier in Bucaramanga. It was the intimate parting ceremony in honor of Rt. Rev. Luis Fernando. Who as of Sunday August 2nd is officially the Bishop of the Northern Provence of Ecuador. It was a lovely ceremony in its warmth and tenderness. It is always a special moment when you can look around a room and every face is a friend and a dear soul.

I had planned on attending the ceremony. Unfortunately plans were changing from a car ride that would cost next to nothing, to a bus ride that cost a couple hundred to a plane ticket that would cost a few to many hundreds. I elected to sit tight in Bogota.

In the mean time I was able to devote myself to work. Since beginning I have learned had to manage the mission, some of the economics, many of the psychological and emotional issues that plague the children and I can now rock a kitchen that is equipped with four gas burning eyes and a humble selection of pots, a couple of pans and one decent knife. One of my greatest joy is when they ask for seconds. I have discovered that handling the cooking and the kids is too much for just one person.

The few times I have found myself juggling this alone I realize there just isn't enough of one person to care for the kids as they need to be cared for. Not to mention the little tricks of life that occur. Today, for example, just as Esefania had to run out to deal with a responsibility my name began to be called out emphatically; it was something about the upstairs commode overflowing. After getting to a moment I could step away from the kitchen I climbed the stairs and turned the corner to see a small flood of back-up water. It's little things like this that make the job a bit more interesting and defiantly unpredictable.

I moved myself into a leadership position with Father Alberto to the extent I kicked him out of the mission two days out of every week I am in Bogota. I got a solid taste of what his life had been like over the past three weeks. Seven days a week at the mission, six days with the kids from 7:30am to 5:30pm. On top of that he gives services tuesday through saturday at 7pm. Last week I slipped my feet into his shoes for three days, this included celebrating holy eucharist. By Wednesday night I entered the apartment and straight into bed. My mission is now to help Father Alberto get consistent reliable help from the diocese, especially when I will be out traveling. He's on the fast track to burning out if he doesn't get some balance into his life.

I really don't know exactly what it is about Bosa that makes me so content. It must be the dynamics the kids and I have. They feed me and energize me. I end up looking forward to spending time with them even as I am waking up at 5am. That says something I think.

Be Blessed

May God´s will, not my own be done

2009-07-22T12:07:00.000-07:00

One of the memories that will stay with me for the rest of my life from my time in Bucaramanga began when Fr. Jorge invited me to be present during a spiritual ministry meeting. Fr. Jorge invited me so that I could have an experience in spiritual counseling and get a clearer view of his work. A young man, 18 years old, had come in with his mother, family and friends. After excusing everyone else from the room the young man explained his situation to me and the father. Since 11 years-old he had been bumming around the streets to escape his parent´s bickering and fighting. On the street he started using marijuana, then got into snuffing and progressed into the other drugs (not mentioned specifically). He found himself in street fights and one night was responsible for a terrible act. This act was told in confession and will not be spoken of outside of the father, myself and the young man. In this session of spiritual counseling the young man expressed that he had experienced the presence of Christ and a desire to be freed of this life style. His intentions seemed sincere as tears streamed down when the Father brought up the act on that unfortunate night.
Father Jorge put the young man in contact with Jaime who gives painting classes in the church building. Jaime offered him a grant to attend the classes free of charge on the condition that he is truly striving to turn his life around. Jaime himself as a youth had been caught on the streets into drugs and it was art and the Lord Christ that pulled him out. Jaime´s son also fell into the same pit as well as a number of other young men who have been freed of this life style through the ministry of Jaime in the name of Christ and the healing nature of art. Father Jorge also got the young man in touch with a fellow, Luis Fernando, who once worked in a young men`s half-way house, where he counseled hundreds of young men in the same condition. So the father offered this young man an arsenal of tools to help him along his way. One can only pray that he will use them. The father discovered that the young man had never received his first communion and so the date was set for the following Sunday to officially bring him into the shared communion. Along with Father Jorge, Jaime and Luis Fernando the young man´s family and friends were brought in to help keep him accountable to his new direction. I would never wish for such a responsibility, it is one that gets thrust upon you.
The days past and we had not heard news, good or bad, about the young man. However Saturday night the father received a call at 3am. It was the young man. He said that he had fallen back into drugs and was cold and hungry on the streets. This was a situation that the father felt could not be brought into his home because he fears the young man is capable, in his present condition, of doing some kind of harm if given the opportunity. The following day, Sunday, our hope was dim that the young man would come to the church. A lovely surprise was that a girl, one of his friends, showed up wanting to take her first communion. It struck me how generous God is, that even if this young man chose to not take advantage of the resources the father offered, the Lord was presenting another soul who was drawn in through the ministering of her friend. As I spoke to this girl about the church, Christ and what the Holy Communion means I continued to pray that the young man would still show up. Blessed is the Lord that he did come, just before the Holy Communion. The young man and girl were presented to the congregation and received their first communion, brining them into the community of the church. It is up to them if they choose to enter into the body of Christ. After communion Father Jorge offered a healing service. He laid his hands on the young man and the girl.
If I have not mentioned before, Father Jorge has the gift of healing. Once a month he goes to Cucuta for a massive healing ceremony where people come from all around wait for hours to have Father Jorge pray over them. Cancers have been cured, tumors have healed, demons have been cast out all in the name of the Lord Christ. If you doubt, I invite you to follow the Father around for a couple of months and read in Scripture of the very real truth of such events that passed by Christ and his disciples.
I was so very grateful that the young man showed up. I took that to be a sign that God was really at work in him and that though it was going to be a long and bumpy road to recovery, he was willing and determined. Well, in the course of life and miracles some things are not so cut and dry. The bumpy road analogy just doesn´t express it fully. Over the preceding days up through this past Sunday this boy was turning his world, and the world of those around him, upside down. Father Jorge and Luis Fernando were more and more skeptical that the young man was seeking transformation more than manipulatively seeking sanctuary from those who are trying to kill him. I was struggling with wondering if his tears and please for help had been sincere or manipulation. He was calling the father at all hours or attempting to rob from his own father, even making moves to kill his father. He was out of the house and on the street and then finally back in the house. He says he found a job and staid in the house an entire week and came to church Sunday. This young man is seethed in rage, drugs and pride and he is a skillful manipulator. If he does truly want to fight on, he has a long hard battle ahead of him. Only God knows how this young man´s story will play out. I pray that he has been touch with the healing power of the Spirit to be transformed.

still in Bucaramanga...at least untill 10pm

2009-07-22T12:04:00.000-07:00

I extended my Bucaramanga visit by a day to take advantage of generous hospitality. This has been a socially, culturally and spiritually fulfilling trip. As of last Thursday the house was filled with visitors. At one point there were six guests for Esmeralda and Fr. Jorge. Now our numbers are down to four visitors and I will be leaving tonight on the night bus to take me to Bogota. The other five visitors are family and friends of Jorge and Esmeralda. They are down to earth, zesty and full of coastal flair. This brings with it a coastal accent that left me befuddled a number of times as to the theme on the discussion block. I am not sure if I have made any progress in my Spanish skills or if I´ve regressed. The generosity of my host and their friends revealed to me Christ`s face of generosity. I found myself meditating on scriptures that command us to give generously and to serve the stranger in the land. I found my joy in washing dishes to serve a need and hopefully express my sincere gratitude for all that they have done to make my stay so pleasant and enjoyable.
So far my plans once I arrive back in Bogota are up in the air. There was a plan to ride down to Quito with friends from the cathedral to attend the ordination of Bishop Luis Fernando. Unfortunately my friends had come down with the flue about three weeks ago and I haven´t heard from them yet. The plus side of canceling this car trip is that I get to delve into a super veggie diet for a while. After two weeks of local food I am going crazy to get a steady supply of greens and oats into my body. I am considering, seriously, a return to vegetarianism when I get back to the states. However, I would not trade the opportunity to share in the culture through their food. It has served me well in every home I have entered.
This past Sunday I had the opportunity to visit one of the missions in Bucaramanga. Out of a strata 0-6 this is somewhere between 1 and 2. They have electricity, but no water and the houses seem well constructed out of brinks and or cement blocks. It is set up a large hill, perhaps it is actually a small mountain. It looks as though the top of a mountain had been cut off revealing a rocky dirt environment. Father Ernesto took me with him in his car. This looks like a rinky-dink of a car but man it bumped, swayed and danced its way up through the stony dusty hills and chugged up some steep terrain. Everyone was impressed that the car made it up. As soon as I get into Bogota I will have the ability to post the pictures.
This is a very humble mission. It is attended by an ordained priest every other week. They are already in the building faze of their program where they have intentions of building a sanctuary, a school and apartments to house serving missionaries. They have great expectations that our missionary team will reside in the community. This is a fledgling community lead by one driven man who was named the president. It is through his ingenuity and drive that they have electricity, school desks, the plans for the school and that the Episcopal Church is their spiritual leadership. That morning the children gathered under a tin roof held up with pilings as the priests wife lead them in studying the days Gospel lesson. She is a skilled teacher by trade and her gift showed through as she interacted with the children. I was certainly inspired to take back her energy and knowhow to the children I work with. As the service began, it was clear that the community sees the churches present as a thing for the kids as the child to adult ratio something like three to one.
As I prepare to leave I am evaluating how Young Adult Service Corp missionaries could serve this community. I have greatly enjoyed my time here. I could invision myself serving here for a while. There are a lot of open possibilities. All of us will have to pray and discern on our own part where God is leading us. I have a lot to think about… Bosa, the mission in the South, all of the other parishes I still have not visited, etc.
Unfortunately, due to the Latinness of Latin America I was never able to make it back to the Elderly mission house. That is a hard lesson for me to never go anywhere without my camera, if at all possible.

a need for encouragment

2009-07-14T10:28:00.000-07:00

The other day I had the opportunity to have a lengthy conversation with Eduin, one of the deacons who serves in this area. Eduin is in his 70s. He does not look nor act his age as he emotes an air of charm and gentility. We had apparently met during the diocesan convention. I have to take his word on that. I met a lot of folks that weekend. Thanks to this earlier encounter Eduin greeted me with the enthusiasm and energy of coming across a long lost friend. I hope I was equally welcoming.
The conversation that followed, though at first an awkward negotiation of what subject could be broached, shifted into two similar minds feeding off of the others ideas and energy. The greater focus was on the subject of the diocese, its strengths and more to its weaknesses. We each carry the same concern and drive to see the church (the greater body of Christ in general as well as the Episcopal diocese of Colombia) grow and prosper.
Eduin gives thanksgiving for the present congregation but also recognizes a greater need to reach out to serve the immediate surrounding community. At present the congregation is primarily comprised of commuters. The obvious issue here is that the surrounding neighborhood is not being served by the presence of the church as it should or could be. Another issue is the inconsistency of attendance due to the inconvenience of busses, traffic and weather (e.g. the folks just don´t show up when it is raining).
During the conversation I expressed my humble opinions I have formed over my past six months. One of my greater desires is to see the Cathedral (in Bogota) prosper. As I have mentioned before, I believe the Cathedral has almost limitless opportunities to grow into something amazing. It is centrally located along the western mountain range in a middle income neighborhood between the higher economic area and the poorer – poor neighborhoods with easy accessibility to transportation by way of bus or Transmelinio. The only thing missing are church leaders to devote their energies full-time. I have observed Father Rafael in Cartagena, Father Jose Romero in Bogota´s southern mission and Father Jorge. All of whom are sustained by their congregations in areas with fewer resources.
Talking with Eduin I was able to digest my experiences over the past couple of months. He in turn was feeding off my energy. Our conversation became an excited and dynamic back and forth exchange of ideas, convictions, revelations and decision making. One decision is that I plan on talking with the Bishop to share with him my observations and hopes for the diocese. A friend suggested that my mission and gift to the diocese might be as a communicator and observer between the people (congregations and communities) and the church leadership (the bishop and priests). This idea has a taste of public health as it would focus on groups of people on a broader scale.
Such a conversation is just what I needed. At times I have found myself feeling isolated from developing real relationships with the leaders of the diocese. I am not sure how or why this occurse. I feed off of such interaction and exchanges. It is nice to feel a kindred connection with those whom I share this church home with.

Thanks be to God for Bosa

2009-07-14T10:27:00.000-07:00

Audra and I spent Sunday July 5 and Monday the 6th in Bosa (a town in south east Bogota). This area does not have the best of reputations as reactions when we mention where we are to begin work include stuttering, incredulous gawking and some mentions of safety concerns; now it really isn´t all that. However it is a hurting population with hunger, crime, violence, delinquency and lack of family planning. You know you are only a couple blocks away from the mission when you start rocking and rolling over the dirt road (still in Bogota). The sanctuary itself is more like a MASH unit. It is constructed of a timber skeleton with green plastic construction fabric as walls. During the day as natural light filters through the green walls indiscriminately cast a sickly green hue over everything and everyone; though after a few minuets you do adjust to this Emerald Cityish experience.
Sunday was a full day event in Bosa attending all three of the services at 9am, 4pm and 7pm. I gladly participated in each service´s lecture readings. Despite the obvious delinquencies of this area the first two services were full (each with forty-something). The 7pm serves, as it was explained, is give or take.
The extraordinary part of this mission is in its leaders, Alberto Urbano and Alejandro. I had met with these gentlemen a few times before and they had shared about their mission work and I expressed my desire to work more and be more active in the community. Somehow I got the idea in my head that these guys were from some Catholic sect. I had completely convinced myself of this. My talk with Deacon Eduin helped me realize why I had resisted the idea that they might be Episcopalian. It is because their mentality is so very distinct from anyone who I had yet met. Their God-talk and God-walk are charged and refreshing. They call themselves missionaries even after having been ordained. They rely on the tithes of the communities to sustain their livelihoods. Alberto describes this as being a process of relying upon God to provide for them through the generosity and prosperity of the families they serve. Instead of praying for full offertories, they pray for the economic well being of the congregation and that they may give with generosity.
These men have devoted their lives to their ministry and faith. They hold services every day except Monday. Monday(July 6) began a program named Operation Rescue with the call to rescue the children of the community from the street and TV. It is basically the same situation in Bosa as it is in the mission in the south. Parents must leave as early as 4am to go to work and normally do not return until 6pm. This leaves children to fend for themselves in the house where the older sibling cooks and cares for the younger ones. With so much free time children are usually either glued to the television or out in the street where they are exposed to violence, drugs and alcohol. Some children go to school in the morning and others in the evening.
The Fathers have started this mission to be open from 8am to 6pm Mon – Sat. to give the children a place of safety, a hot meal, a snack and spiritual mentorship for a group that will come either in the morning before classes or in the evening after classes. Even more extraordinary is that this mission receives no outside funding for the ministry. Due to lack of economic resources the program must charge a modest free of 7,000 pesos (= $3.50) per week. This is a non inflated price to feed each child a meal and snack 6 days of the week. This might seem like small change, but in a community that may only earn one or two dollars a day it does keep some families from participating.
Monday (July 6), was the first day of Operation Rescue. Due to school being on vacation we were with 20-25 children all day. We started the day with a church service lead by Father Alberto. This was followed by English class, soccer, a snack and basketball. We also laid witness to a group brawl that included women hitting women, men hitting men and men and women yelling at each other. It was an opportunity to informally teach about a better way to conduct oneself. Audra had a conversation with a group about why at 24 she didn´t already have children. We often have to explain ourselves for this. This is reality for these children to see girls as young as 15 with their first child. It is a difficult cultural barrier to negotiate. Then we had lunch. Before calling an end to the first day Audra and I sat down with Alberto to discuss how the first day went. We expressed our concern for the anger and rage that we observed manifest in the young boys and the talk Audra had about family planning. Then I sat down with the children and helped them organize their own schedule for the following day. They included time for reading and studies, dance, art and time to play. At the end of the day Audra and I were exhausted and felt very rewarded. The difficult matter is that my travel schedule will hinder a normal work schedule, Audra leaves in September and in August she and I will be in Quibdo for a couple of weeks. Our hope and intention is to set up steady work for the incoming missionaries that will prove fulfilling.
Like the mission in the south these children are incredibly loving and in great need to be hugged and loved on. Audra and I agree that we feel as though we integrated almost immediately with this group. Perhaps it has to do with the fact they are on average a few years older than the children at the southern mission.
At this point I ask each of you to search your hearts and discern if you would like to participate in this mission by sponsoring a child. This is $3.50 a week, the equivalent (or less) of a medium Starbucks frothy something or other. This project will save lives, hopefully prevent early pregnancies and at the very least reduce under-nutrition. Take a moment to pray and ask God if you are being called to serve the poor through this program. If you would like to sponsor a child for Operation Rescue please email me and I will be happy to get you connected.
In meeting with the missionaries I became convicted of God´s call to me to be bold in my time here in Colombia. I had grown lazy and lacked motivation to press the diocese to take advantage of my energy and gifts. I now feel refreshed and ready to put forth my all to make this experience everything it can be and helping the diocese take advantage of my hands and energy.

Bucaramana...just what i needed

2009-07-11T11:52:00.000-07:00

Untill the 21st i will be staying with Padre (father) Jorge and his wife Esmeralda in Bucaramana (check out a map to orient yourself). Audra is in California for a couple of weeks representing the YASC missionaries at the General Convention that is being held at this very moment in Anaheim. So, since I was already planning on paying a visit to this city the timing worked out well.
Since arriving Jorge and Esmeralda have been dear hosts. They have shown me around parts of the city amd I accompanied the father and a family of the parish to the churches mission center at a carring facility for elderly. This was a marvelous experience.
Truth be told, the elderly and such care facilities normaly give me the heaby-jeabies. The last time I was in a `retirment home` was when I went with my family to visit my grandfather Tidwell who suffered from Alsthimers. That place made me so uncomfortable. It smelled of sick people, and despite the staffs best efforts, it always smelled of urin. Some of the people were practically comotose others loud and then there were the obvious sick. I do remember a number of very kind and loving individuals and meeting with them was nice though sad because hovering over everything was a since of lonleiness and forgotteness.
However this mission was quite different. I walked through the doors to find myself once again outside...I was disoriented for a moment untill I was told that the building is under construction to build a second level. There are rooms everywhere, this place is probably the most ample one story building I have walked into since arriving to Colombia. I was told that there are some 80 individuals who reside at this mission. There are not only elderly who live here, but also individuals who cannot care for themselves independently. There are a score of personalities to take not of amonst the residents and atendents.
We were there to have a Ecaristic service. My first task was to hand out suckers that the family had brought. My first instinct was to freak out a bit. You want me to walk around this place by myself and hand these strangers suckers? Thankfully I bucked up and started on my task and to my surprise I found myself really enjoying making a connection with the men and women. A few were dispondent, others hardly connected to the same world and then there were others who were able to look me in the eyes. Some responded with a smile a few engaged me in conversation. There were a few who looked looked upon me with the character and spirit of an innocent little child. It was really quite extrodinary. This time, those that were sick did not scare me, they moved my heart. I was able to look them in there eyes and take hold of their hands.
The most powerfull moments passed as we went through the Eucarist. I had a genuine Christ moment durring the giving of the Peace. It was like my eyes were opened and I saw Chirst in them. I heard the message that these are my children, love them. As I took hold of their hands to pass the peace they looked up at me with a pure joy. As I touched the cheek of a fragile tiny woman I realized that this is the work of Christ in action. I looked around and felt my heart swell with love for these people. I have requeted to return next week and this time I will remember to take my camera to share with you there faces. I cannot pass up the oportuinity to encounter Christ again, now can I.

More on our Kids

2009-06-18T09:38:00.000-07:00

Last friday I went to the mission on my own. As I came down from lunch I entered upon the children acting out provocative sexual dance moves. I almost lost my composure. I tried to explain that was not a way to respect oneself and that just because you see family members dancing that way does not make it appropriate. They know that I love to dance so I explained that I don't dance that way. However the environment was not exactly conducive to a teaching moment since the kids were mortified having been caught. Later that day one of the girls again was acting out this same sexual dance move. I took her aside and sat face to face with her. I tried to explain to her that acting in such a way was not respecting herself and that God loves her so much that he wants the best of life for her. I told her that God loves her body, mind and spirit and wants her to treat herself with great respect and care and act in a way to demand respect from boys (the body being a temple for the Spirit of God being on the forefront of my mind). She clearly understood and expressed desire that boys respect her. This was a great relief that she understood this concept. I told her how much I loved her and that was why I was taking the time to talk to her. She nodded her head in affirmation gave me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. I think that was the best that conversation could have gone, when talking to a 9 year old.

That same day I finally realized that Santiago, at 10 years old, is illiterate. He doesn't know the spanish alphabet. You can imagine how frustrating and embarrassing that could be for him when we are asking him to know the English alphabet and spell words in English. This is an enormous key to his disciplinary problems. I am a bit sick that it took five months for me to realize this. I don't know how this escaped us 'till now. I suppose looking back on it, I just thought he was being indignant and uncooperative. The second occurrence being that we didn't begin using the whiteboard (written material and exercises) until three weeks ago.

This Wednesday I had to put Santiago in time-out. When it was time for him to return to the group I had spoken with Father Jose for permission to give Santiago lessons in the alphabet and spelling. Father Jose gave me a notebook, a pencil and his blessing. I sat down in front of Santiago on the floor. I looked at him and told him that I understood why we were having such issues during class and asked if he would like me to help him learn the spanish alphabet and how to spell. With his eyes to the ground he nodded his head yes. I asked if he would work with me so that I could help him, again he nodded his head yes. I directed his gaze to my eyes by gently tilting his chin up. I looked him in the eyes and told him that I loved him, gave him a kiss on the forehead and told him that I would help him and that I needed his help. He seemed to understand so I sent him back into class.

So class went quite well that day. However when it was time to go out to play, that was another story. The previous day the mother of some of our students had come by the mission and expressed how she didn't want the children (her children) to play in the road anymore because there is too much traffic and too dangerous. Makes sense, but after five months why now? Well, I had already had the same concern so I brought it up with the Father and asked to take them to the other side of the school. He was fine with it. So the process to getting to the other side of the school (about 50 meters or less away) was trying. I didn't realize what a struggle it would be to break these kids out of there routine. Heaven forbid I love them enough to not want them plowed down by a motorcycle or car. The following 10 minuets was a trial and failure of my patients as the kids one after another and in unison began to whine and complain and put on their bratty faces about how horrible this new place was to play. Good grief, less traffic, more peaceful and we wouldn't have to dodge the hoard that comes down the hill when school lets out. Well, it wasn't my finest hour as I lost my temper and declared that we would not be playing that day and ordered everyone to return to the mission.

My temperature was up and so to cool off I took a break in the back. It was at this point that Audra and I had an impromptu teacher-director meeting with Father Jose Romero. In this discussion we identified some of the individuals who would benefit from a tutorial of the alphabet, reading and writing. Being that the kids are entering into a three week break we decided that upon returning to their regular school schedule we will separate those who need this extra help and hold their classes in a separate room. It is ironic that we came to teach English and what they actually need is to know how to manage their native language.

Now don't misunderstand me, Santiago still has some major disciplinary issues to work through, but I can't help but assume that taking care of this literacy issue will go a long way to helping him out as well as the other children. In this meeting Father Jose told us that Dylan's mom is in prison. For what, I don't know, but that is most likely why he has taken to calling me "mama" lately. I discourage him calling me this. Is that the right direction to take? It was also explained that many women of this community support themselves through prostitution and their children were not planned and don't know who the father is. This makes for a very complicated situation. So here we are as strangers in this country serving as mentors to children from this kind of environment. What are we to do? I am trying to strike a balance between the love of fun and laughter and discipline, especially in terms of respect. It is a hard line to walk. I just pray that the Episcopal missionaries, Audra and I and the missionaries to follow, can give these children an opportunity to better their lives. I love these children and want them to succeed in the world. The cards seem to be stacked against them, however in a world where God lowered himself into flesh as Christ who suffered and died that we may have life abundant, their is hope for every child. I hold on to this hope of Christ's transformative grace.

Blessings and Peace to All

The Bus Ride

2009-06-12T09:25:00.000-07:00

I don't remember if I have described the process of getting to the Mission. It is an hour and a half bus ride one way. My first month or two here I was battling with motion sickness/nausea practically every time I got into any moving vehicle including taxies and worse yet buses. I think it is some reaction to a blessed life driving myself around almost everywhere back home. So the prospect of 2.5-3 hours in a bus every time we would go work with the kids was hard to swallow. Thanks be to God, after five months of making this journey, my body has decided to cooperate. I wish I could make the time more productive, say by reading or writing something (my body says NO! to that), or perhaps meditation and or prayer... that has yet to come anywhere near to working out... too many distraction? I suppose. I did successfully complete one Seduco puzzle (easy seduco) but I totally blocked when I started the second puzzle and haven't tried it again. So basically it is just time to let my mind wander about as it pleases. Audra and I usually end up sitting in different seats when we have the opportunity to each have a window seat. She and I try to reason that a window seat helps alleviate the nausea.

It is amazing what you can witness in an hour/half bus ride. At any moment along the ride someone might board the bus, hop over the turn-stile and pass around candies or music to sell. I especially enjoy when someone lugs in a harp, a guitar or a boom-box to accompany a home-mixed rap about their life. All of these are people's way of making some money. Unlike in the states, where we have a host of social relief programs, food stamps, half-way houses, churches to give out lunches, etc, it is not that simple here. I am not at all forgetting those who do fall through the cracks; however, when it comes to South America you can't talk about cracks, you must speak in terms of gorges reminiscent of the Grand Canyon. So what does the situation look like? It is too big and complicated for me to get a clear visualization. There are factors like the government just doesn't have the infrastructure or preparedness to deal with so much poverty. For example when you get 1,000;s or 10,000 displaced because of waring and Gorillas what are these folks supposed to do to survive? What opportunities exist for them? I have no idea where to start asking for such answers.

It would be completely overwhelming and not possible to give money to everyone who comes in need. So I have struck a balance. One: I have chosen to donate to folks who serve us with lovely music, with well hewn talet. My three favorites to date... A harpist (I was going to donate to this one when I saw him lug that huge thing over the turn-stile), a female guitarist and vocalist (she was playing in a packed rush-hour bus and received a strong round of applause and some pretty sweet tips), the third was a rapper and his boom-box (he was actually really good and I understood every word). However my favorite is when someone steps aboard with nothing at all but themselves. They have no chocolates, gums, CD's or music. These individuals stand up in front of complete strangers and after greeting the crowed they start into their recent life stories of how they got to be where they are (in their need). They are all in need, many have families and everyone of them want to be in better circumstances. There is no better source to learn about the human trials of fallen fortune. The folks that I choose to donate to are the men and women who have enriched my life for having heard their stories. I have heard stories from a number of men who had been in prison. One man who had been in prison for stealing for sake of need, he had determined to not resort to stealing and was so in front of us asking us to help. One women who was going from bus to bus trying to get enough money together to get her child the surgery she needed (Medicare does not exist here). And just the other day a man who, with his family, had moved to Bogotá (I missed the reason for this move) and was now living on the street with no family to contact searching for and not finding work (12% unemployment in Colombia/Bogotá) and with a three year old to feed. He described how they as a family would go from restaurant to restaurant begging for food just to get by that day. These are the stories that bring my heart to the earth, to their feet. Along with 1,000 or 2,000 pesos that I donate, I tuck them into my heart with a prayer. In the states I would have been cynical and say to myself what is a buck going to do for this persons greater needs? However here, a couple thousand pesos will buy a some bread to get them through the next day. Yeah there are those folks who are professional peddlers but I feel the majority are really trying to find a solution to their suffering, and having an empty stomach is not very conducive to thinking clearly.

At a latter date I will have to describe the business model here. It simply bogles my mind. It would be better accompanied with pictures.

Blessings and Peace

The Tide has Turned - Thanks be to God

2009-06-07T14:06:00.000-07:00

It is amazing how life hands one experiences in waves. So, not so long ago, I was dealing with the distance-traveler blues. Now, I am riding on a new wave of energy and joy. I must say that the latter is far more desirable than the former. Well, no duh. These past couple of weeks I had set to devote more of my energy to the Mission with Father José Romero. This past Saturday the church hosted and Ecumenical Brigada. For those who don't know what a Brigada is (heaven knows I had no clue before I saw it in action), it is a day where all sorts of social services are provided to any who have need to attend. This includes dental, general health, vaccinations, physical therapy, medicines, clothing, hair cuts, a bag of basic food items per houshold (rice, flour, oil, hot-choclate mix, pasta, etc.) and other services. The week leading up to this event I went to the mission earlier in the day to help out with preparations. This included making up the pray leaflets (if that is what they are called). It also included two solid days of sorting through and organizing the medicines that had been donated. Then typing out an alphabetical list of the meds (10 pages). By Saturday morning of the Brigada most of the meds had ben mixed up again, having been consolidated to 3 tables and the carefully written alphabetical list.... I have no idea if what I did was at all usefull, but I loved doing it all. Such a project to participate in, really gave me something to look forward to and it was so very important to Father José, the parish community and the community that benefited from all of the services offered. I had never known of a Brigada before, but now I have a much clearer idea of how they get put together.

Along with this our time working with the Children is growing more rich. Through God's grace and a firm hand, Dylan is now doing very well in class. His hick-ups are no more distracting than Santiago's, who also is behaving himself much better these days. Doling out discipline is hard, and not fun, I felt like the bad guy. Blahk! However to see the fruits of a group who work and play together so much more smoothly is a great gift and reward. Dylan, who before, would only stand attached to me and Audra during play time, is now being pulled into games with the other kids. They call for him to come join them. It is such a sweat treat for me when I hear this. They are more direct to search us out when they need a hug, which we give out with joy and sincere love. During the Brigada I got the chance to meet some of their parents/families again. It is really nice to see their smiles and looks of recognition. During the closing prayers Audra and I sat with Dylan and his cousin. Next to Dylan was a women who might have been his mother. She seemed to be simply miserable. Not in an outlandish way...no. She is a lovely young women who just seemed insulated in sadness and distress. This mood transfered to Dylan, who at one moment was playing with me the next was on the verge of tears unwilling to make eye-contact with me (perhaps the women did not like him interacting with us). After some persuading he came out of this and came to sit between me and Audra and his liveliness returned. I first saw the young women smile when it was time for their family to pick up their care package of food goods. We even shared in a joke about not finding a 'gallinero' (hen house) in the bag.

Poverty affects an individual and the individual affects the community. Some of the community members would not be found without a smile, giving warm regards and loving on their children. Others seemed trapped in despair and joylessness, which might be hopelessness (although, I do not know them well enough to judge their conditions). It is times like these that I feel so set apart from understanding, set apart from their suffering. I have been blessed to have had all of my needs overwhelmingly provided for... food that is not just to fill the belly but feeds the soul, an abundance of beautiful memories filled with love, a supportive and incredible family...etc. I don't know what it is to really be without. Does that mean that I cannot connect with the pain of this women? I hope not. Audra suggested that one can not consider the pain of one against the pain of another because when a soul is distressed a soul is distressed and needs healing no matter if you are wealthy or in desperate poverty. This seems to resonate with Christ's call to serve the poor. Scripture does not only mention the poor of money, but above all the poor in spirit. In this there are two ministries. One, to give clothing, food and shelter to the one who is without. The other is to offer the life in Christ to the poor in Spirit. In my experience when the poor in Spirit sets to serve the one without both are served in a glorious way.

Love in our Lord Christ,

Laura-Catherine

A few pictures from Suesca a few weeks back

2009-06-01T14:21:00.000-07:00

Here Is Suesca

I am So Ready

With Dear Friends

Beautiful Sights

Photos say more than words

2009-06-01T13:12:00.000-07:00

A Good Time Had by All

Good Company Night and Day

Trying out a few Routes

Basking in the Sun

A long weekend at San Gil Santander, Colombia.

Just take a look at the photos that resulted from this past weekend and I think you will understand what a wonderful and rich experience I had. My decision to go on this outing was a bit last notice... either monday or tuesday night of this past week. Audra decided to stay in town so I was off on an adventure on my own. Oscar and Audra accompanied me to where I was to meet up with the group. The ETD was 10pm, but in true latin american style we didn't ship off until midnight. We traveled in what

is called a buseta (a small bus that seats 15). Out of a group of 11ish I was only acquainted with two of the guys who I had known from the climbing gym, but I did not let that stop me from having fun with them on the ride down. It was a great ice-breaker. We arrived around 6am. From there we unloaded and set up camp. The weekend was full of lazily basking in the sun, hiking, swimming, a bit of bouldering (finding large rocks to skillfully ascend), bolder hoping our way up and down the river and just a lot of fun.

The water was incredible, crystal clear, clean, brisk and invigorating. For most of the Colombians it was a bit too cold, but for me .... superb. Saturday night we gathered at the store where we shared some beers, conversation and hey I even got to dance! Yah! All of the folks were really nice, that open-heartedness runs deep here. The weather was perfect. During the middle of the day it would get hot enough to break a bit of a sweat as we hiked around and the nights cooled off enough to need long sleeves and pants and enjoy a fire.... simply put, Perfect and it is like that year round; can you imagine?! The whole weekend was rich and recharged my spirit. For me, there is no separating my relationship with God from my relationship with others, and in the same way in how I relate to the earth. When I take a deep breath and look around at the creation in such remarkable form I am humbled and sincerely grateful. I have found my remedy to the city blues. I am already planning another outing within the next week or so. We had three full days and two nights, although I would have loved to have extended the time. We arrived back into Bogotá around midnight of monday/tuesday night, in time to have a full night sleep in my own bed. It was all wonderful and to top it off I think I came away with some new friends.

Be Blessed

Getting on Track

2009-05-20T07:47:00.000-07:00

This past week was quite productive, in an official sense. If you recall, Monday David Copply, our director from the national office, paid Audra and I a visit to help us give the mission a kick-start. The past couple of months our work had staled-out and because these things tend to be wrapped up in diplomacy, Audra and I needed an official hand in figuring out what we would be doing for the next several months. The meetings seem to have been a great success. The Bishop is amazingly open to our ideas and his involvement and availability is rare in such circumstances. The night of our first meeting Audra and I sat down and hammered out a schedule that would serve as an idealistic base. The following meeting the Bishop gave us cart-blach to follow the schedule we had created, as far as it could be realized. Our calenders are now full of hopes, goals and travel plans. I find that the simple prospect of travel and getting into projects has given me an energy and emotional boost. Although I do realize that the schedule we created is in idealistic terms. For example: we had hoped that there would be existing projects with an aids clinic in Suacha that we could work with twice a week. The reality is that the Aids program is not active yet. Sunday, Audra and I visited the church in Suacha with the Bishop and we are now needing to reevaluate our calenders. There was talk of a youth program that has already been started up that meets Saturday nights. Along with this I am hoping to make a visit once a week to do some old-fashioned door to door parish invites. I hope to be able to visit the homes of parish members and hold a bible study during the weekday. I have aspirations of doing the same for the Cathedral community and perhaps in Faca as well. Along with this Audra and I are wanting to get a couple of parishes involved in youth groups that would allow for discussion of topics that are important to the children/young adults. So pray for us that things start rolling strongly towards fulfilling work.

The question that is most poignantly on my mind is how to get a church to be filled with congregants. It is also the question on the minds of many priests here. For example: The cathedral is right smack in the middle of the city, surrounded by apartments and possible attendees, yet each of the two services might have in attendance 20 or fewer. In Suacha, this past Sunday, there was only a handful (on account of the rain?). Audra tells me the parish in Medellin has 10 members. What is going on? And what can I do to help? I know that our goal as a church is not necessarily in numbers, but I think even this would call attention for need for growth. From my observations the difference between the parishes that are packed-out vs those who struggle with attendance lies in the priest who is supported by the ministry or payed by the diocese, such as in the souther mission and Fr. Raphael in Cartagena (who's churches are full, healthy and growing), vs those who are volunteer priests such as in the Cathedral, Faca, Suacha, etc (who struggle with attendance). I have humble hopes that the missionaries from the Episcopal church can serve as intermediaries for the communities of such parishes who's priest(s) are volunteers. As of recent I feel called to meet with parishioners (including visiting them at their homes), to check in on them and to get them involved in activities during the weekdays (potentially a once-weekly bible study). I have no experience in leading community outreach projects, but this could be a start. I realize how much having Fr. Mark (my priest from St. Andrew's Birmingham) available for meetings and bible studies effected where I decided to commit my time and energy. The Episcopal diocese in South America just don't have the recourses that we have in the states to pay all of its priests. In this there is evidently a need to supplement time and energy to the community.

A small archive of photos from months past

2009-05-17T19:42:00.000-07:00

All of these Pictures are from the mission in the South where we mento the Kids at an afterschool programe.

that is the church/mission center in the background

The children are so very loving and caring to oneanother

They are so darn cute

Audra and I belting out "the little tea-pot" song....

we are just about to - pour out -

flower power in action

a few of the children decided to adorn us with native flora

Diego's impish little smile betrays him.

A train running up and down the hill

I love these kids

To the unknowing eye this might appear as an English class

Actually those three had made a game of who can goose LauraCatherine's leg

Bishop Duque's family. His three girls have been studying at a university in Buenos Aires since Feberuary

Mirium and Oscar, the wonderfull couple who hosted both me and Audra

Oscar is still wearing the helmet because of the piece of scull removed after a toumor was removed

This is me and Audra's mom, along with the rest of the crew getting down and funky with live music.

I love Latin America!

The bishop, a priest and a congragant showing off their dance moves.

This is our dear and lovely Cathedral decked out for a comitioning cerimony;

specifically for our beloved Father Juan Carlos... whoop! whoop!

what is God doing in this Mission Trip

2009-05-17T17:53:00.000-07:00

A God one-on-one moment: So a number of weeks ago, I had a very real and interesting encounter with God. It was during the time I was feeling the loneliest and I had been struggling to encounter God, trying to get the face-to-face contact. Among my streaming thoughts I began to wonder about prayer. I recalled scripture that I have studied related to the topic, meditated on it being through faith that our prayers are answered and I recalled a book that my friend Alicia and I discussed this past fall. I happened to have read a section of this book where the author suggests a prayer form that he calls "random acts of prayer" or something to that very effect. The author challenges the reader to use his or her daily life as an excuses to pray for those around you. Well, as I was walking back to the office one bright sunny day I walked upon a couple of men trying to get their car to turn-over. It was making sounds that did not give much hope it would cooperate. I decided that these gentlemen needed a Godly intervention and so as I was walking towards the car I prayed, in the name of Christ, that the car would start. As I concluded the prayer with an Amen and was passing the car, it started. It wasn't a surprise that it started at that moment, but I felt a wave of extreme gratitude and love. I gave thanks over and over again for God's grace and kindness. That was the face-to-face, instant gratification moment I needed. I know God is there but sometimes what I really want is for the Lord to be sitting at the foot of my bed, talking with me about my heart and letting me cry in His arms. I am realizing my weakness of being in this. I so want my faith and the Spirit to be enough to sustain me. I want to be abel to say and live into a relationship with God that is so full that I am never lonely, that God is all I need and never waver in knowing that God will give me his best. Yet I have found myself in tears wondering where God was and wanting a physical presence to comfort me, but God is much bigger than such moments; He is so much greater than what I think I need. As I reflect on the waves of emotions that I have experienced I realize where God has been in each circumstance. It is not a pale reflection or a shadow of God's Holy work, but it is bright, beautiful and clearly present. I wonder how I don't see it as it is in progress. One bright blessing in this journey is my friendship with Audra. In this friendship God has blessed me with that physical presence I need. We talk about our hearts, our pains and trials, we share innumerable laughs and our tears. I don't know of many such circumstances (if any) where two strangers where placed together as a team in another country and became best friends; it is nothing short of a blessings form an immensely loving God. So, despite the organization issues with this mission, it has been a remarkable growing experience for me spiritually.

More about Faca

2009-05-12T10:06:00.000-07:00

Facatativa (Faca) has a stunning view with a heavy reality. The weekend I was there for the weekend, Father Javier took me around the community and explained the issues that plague its people. There are narco-traffickers up the mountain who demand individuals pay them some sort of life-tax (I would call it). These people hardly have enough to maintain a basic level of subsistence without being extorted. Yet if they refuse to pay or just can't then they will "disappear". Many, if not most, of the young women begin having children as early as age 14. Claudia, Father Javier's wife, mentioned that it was not uncommon to have a twenty to twenty-two year old with four or five children. A family that I have gotten to know goes along with that image. The mother is 32 and her oldest child is 18. She has four or five children with the youngest at less than two years old. They all live together in house no bigger than Audra's and my apartment. The husband who is at least twenty years older than the mother is somehow disabled and unable to work; if you ask Claudia, she says he is just unwilling to work. So the entire family depends on the 18 year old son to sustain the family. The young-mother-plight occurs for many of the same reason it occurs in other areas of the world; lack of sex education, lack of parental presence, limited resources in ones own family leads to the 'need' for young women to leave the home early and join with a man who can provide for her (although in the case of this family, the father was only a provider until he could lay the responsibility/burden on his, way too young, son).

The agricultural life is absolutely gruling. An individual may work from 7am - 4 or 5pm picking peas (a labor intensive job) all day to come away with $4; and that is after the work of tilling, planting and tending. The harvest is the only time when they make any money. If you are talking about potatoes (the majority of the crops of Faca), the income is even less. There is also great strife that presence itself in Faca and around Colombia that targets Anglican/Episcopalians. Father Javier explained that there are three types of people: those that just let the 'Episcopalians' be, those that attend the church and those that are bent against it (as a result of the strong Roman Catholic culture). The latter has proven to be quite the challenge. The seriousness of this conflict was made clear when Javier explained that the priest before him left Faca for what he felt were safety concerns. Another telling example is that one of his son's professors tried to fail him for no other reason than he was Episcopalian. The only reason he didn't fail him is because Javier is a lawyer and went and laid the law down (literally). The professor apologized saying 'if I had known his father was a lawyer I would have never thought of failing him' - LIKE THAT'S THE POINT! I think one of the dominant reasons I didn't come back from Faca refreshed was because it was such a heavy reality experience. These people are so very kind and full of life and love (those who I met; who granted are not always easy to get along with, as Javier told me; but none the less wonderful people). They struggle to get enough food, education tends to not be top priority (although there are young people attending college) and non-responsible sex practices are the cultural norm.

change of plans

2009-05-04T10:37:00.000-07:00

This is a message written on a rock along side the road that leads to the church.

I didn't translate this image the first time I posted it. Here is what it says:

"Every day God is born in our Hearts"

A simple message that I love! and since my first visit to Faca I have repeated these lines to myself to help me center in my experiences here.

So I have been putting off this blog for a while now. One: because it has become hard to separate what has become common place for

me (although a fellow missionary reminded me to make the effort) and Two: because I am still in the 'blah's' and I really don't want my blog entries to time and again to be about that. But that is where I am and this blog is to share the truth that I am experiencing. So about two weeks ago I decided I needed to get out of Bogotá for my sanity and was making plans to go to Medellin for a week. The sunday before last I asked the Bishop for a meeting and told him of my plans formedellin; his response, we'll talk, I would like you guys to go for one or two months. I didn't pay much attention to this as I though

t well we can discuss the extended visit more when I return from my short visit. Well thursday came and the meeting never happened. The bishop was in and out of the office. Thursday I talked to him over the phone and found out he didn't want me to go for this one week trip and to wait until it is a more extended visit.

It hurt to have to change my plans so drastically. In one part it is my fault for making having such expectations for a visit without first approvals from the Bishop, but on the other hand, we just don't have anything at all to do in the

office right now and I didn't see a reason why not. This is defenitly a time to tune our communication.

So instead I went to Faca to visit Father (Padre) Javier and his wife. It turned out that it was a weekend get together with friends and family. So there was a whole crew at the Faca house.

It nice. Unfortunately because this trip

was so last minuet I failed to check if my camera battery was charged and yeap, I am sure you can guess, it was dead as a doornail ( where did that expression come from anyway? reminds me of how wide the language barrier can be) So that means there are no pictures on my part. These are the pictures I took from my first visit. The weekend was full of food, visiting neighbors and enjoying the beautiful freshness of the countryside. Friday afternoon the whole crew came together to make a community pot of Ajiaco, a traditional colombian soup of mazorca (big white corn), chicken, potatoes (two or three varieties), some type of tuber who's name I can't recall, and a few other native plants. It took hours to prepare and

was amazing. along with the soup we feasted on grilled sweet plantains and fire roasted pork ribs. I was literally stuffed until 10 am the next morning. That friday night those who still remained, a group of 10 or so, partied down with some good whiskey and dancing. I got to teach some of them some dance moves. I still take pleasure in the irony of a Gringa (girl from the States) teaching latin dance moves to native latinos.

Saturday was slow and lazy, no need to do anything, except eat and walk around the beautiful countryside a bit. Revisit the photos from Faca. The people were kind and fed me well. I hope I did my part to help out with the food and cleaning so that I didn't make a pest of myself. Sunday we came together for Padre Javier's Sermon at San Thomas, his church; which is litterally nextdoor to the house we were in. I was stunned at the passion that man came out with, being that he didn't exactly prepare any sermon. I was wondering how it would work out. He has gotten to know the people of this farming community quite well and his language in his sermons hit at the heart of their lives. Which is actually a more pure and direct interpretation of Scripture, being that the gospel was about the good Sheppard and many of them actually tend flocks. That is what strikes my heart when I read scripture, how it is so intertwined with the earth and man-kinds tending and working the creation. It makes me want to sink my hands into the rich soil their to get closer to God and to be present with His love.

I stayed with Javier and Claudia Suday night and Javier dropped me off at the apartment at 545 am as he went to work. Needless to say I went back to bed for a couple of hours. Audra and I went to my fav. coffee shop and ended

up talking for two solid hours. We missed a lot of our talk time in the three days I was away. I realized that I returned from this trip not rejuvenated like I was sincerly hoping for. Audra noted that as well. But, I will go on.

Truthfully I walked away more refreshed from our coffee-talk. I do love colombia and my time here, but the bright-

spot is the friendship that Audra and I have been building. It is a precious gift to come away from any experience with such an encounter.

Amidst the talk with the Bishop about going to Medellin for more than a week I realized how much I am coming to love the children we work with. It actually brought tears to my eyes to think of leaving them for so long. They are begining to really respond to the more structured time schedule. Wednesday Dylan, although still his bing-bongy self, was much better behaved. Unfortunately I didn't get to see if it would last since he and his sister left even before we went outside to play. It is so nice to be with them. They smile at us with genuine affection. I love their hugs and their calls to co

me play with them.

Although I still am a bit in the blahs, I am having lovely experiences and I am confident that personal/ internal struggles are the growing pains of God's grace of transformation.

Peace

a trial of love

2009-04-21T07:12:00.000-07:00

The gifts that we, as missionaries,receive are innumerable. At times I wonder what I could offer in the slightest to offset this seemingly imbalanced exchange. One enormous gift is having a job that, in the best case scenario, is to be in the presence of the risen Lord in every way and every day. In this active presence of being we are offered transformation. If we give in to God's beautifully work in love filled relationships, we will not return as we arrived.

In the past couple of weeks the reality of relationships has swelled from a meer gesture of pleasantries to spirit and emotion shared responses.

This past Wednesday was an emotional rug swept from under my feet. It was close to time that the kids be released to return to their homes, although no one was giving any sign of having intention of wanting to leave early. Audra and I were singing and dancing with a group of the children as we were in the second round of English lessons. Those who normally tend to resist the classes were off on one end of the room doing homework or chatting while the rest were hanging out around us.

As I was jumping around, singing quite loudly 'Do the Hocky Pocky' I noticed Julio siting against the door. He is 9 years old, a hansom boy with especially light hazel eyes, who has consistently been an eager participant in English classes. I went to stir him up and get him into the game. I tried a couple of time to get him on his feet with no reaction. Something was up. His head was bowed down with a somber expression on his face. I sat down next to him and that is when I noticed his eyes were red. I asked a variety of questions to find out what had caused the change from his normally vivacious character. I asked how he was doing, if he was alright, if something had occurred during class , was he hurt. To each question he didn't respond. I asked if someone in the class had hit him, he said no. I asked if he was sad, he answered yes or maybe it was just his reaction to this question that answered yes for him as his eyes welled up and tears began to trickle down his cheek. I sat next to him comforting him the only way I knew how to by stroking his hair and forehead. I again asked if someone in the class had hit him, he said no, and then in a clip of speech he told me that his grandmother had hit him. A child in the grips of tears is hard to understand, in Spanish it was even more difficult, but I got the gist. I asked when, he said Monday...it was Wednesday, what had occurred in his home? He had been holding onto this pain and hurt since Monday. I said how very sorry I was and how no one has the right to hit him (which had been the topic of discipline for the past two days with Dylan); the tears began to course down his cheek. His eyes are large and round and as his pain was brought to the surface those large hazel eyes stared off into the distance as tears streamed freely; but that was the extent of his emotional give. I wanted to pick him up and hold him tightly, but he didn't want to be held, or wouldn't let himself. This is a culture of a woman is a woman and a man is a man from childhood and one aspect of this is that men don't cry. I was completely taken off guard. I asked if he was hurting, he said yes. I was completely helpless, what can I do, what should I do?

In this land, abuse is apart of life and the equivalent of DHR doesn't seem to be an option in this part of the world, the world of the marginalized. All of these communities that spread up these hills came as a result of being displaced by paramilitary or the FARC. Now a community with some moderate infrastructure, including schools have been established for quite some time but are not given access to the same resources as are available to the urban Bogota.

I can't make his grandmother stop hitting him. I could only keep saying how very sorry I was that he was sad and hurting. I was now trying to be present in the flood of emotions coming from this precious child. I stayed close by his side stroking his hair and arm. Telling him that it was right and good to cry. As his tears began to abate he leaned forward to come closer to me as the closest gesture of being held that he could bring himself to. As the other children, who had also been taken off guard to see their friend was crying, had been coming up to us asking why he was crying. I had to put thought into how to acknowledge their concern while keeping Julio's privacy guarded. It turned into a variety of non-verbal ques that the children astutely and thankfully picked up on. Just as heart binding as it was to see him cry it was hurtful to see a since of shame cross his face as he wiped the tears from his face. The tears continued to role until he couldn't cry anymore. I dried the last of his tears from his cheek and made sure that he looked me in the eyes to share with him how very much I care for him. He shook himself of the emotional wellspring that had just inundated his being to stand up and join with his classmates to prepare to leave.

Although today, as the doors were opened and the sugary lolly pops were distributed, no one was in a hurry to leave. Most everyone tarried just outside the door. Julio, his little brother and one of the girls had walked a bit farther down the hill, but had stopped. Audra and I went around and gave one last hug to each of the children and sent them on their way promising to come back the next week. I took the opportunity and I ran down the hill and caught hold of Edinson, Julio's little brother, I gave the girl a big hug and then went to Julio. I gave him my hug and a departure cheek kiss, looked him in the eyes and told him that I loved him (te quiero), with the added question that if he knew that I love him (¿sabes?). Looking me in the eyes he nodded his head in affirmation, with a smile I let him go on his way as I returned to the church. My soul was brought to its knees. As for the rest the ride home, that evening and ever since I have been digesting the significance of what had passed.

Another amazing related gift came on Sunday as we attended the service at the mission. We saw a great part of our class room. It was so nice to see them beyond our routine visit and their genuine pleasure to see us was more precious than gold. And Julio's face brightened to a glow when he saw me and I am sure I glowed back at him as God was and issurly present in our relationship.

After three months in Bogota I am just now beginning to see a glimmer of what it is that I am doing here. I ambeginning to see the relationships that started on the surface work their way deeper and deeper into the flesh of Christ. As I share the Spirit that the Lord has blessed me with they share their Spirit with me. The soul is a beautiful place to reside with the other.

Peace dear friends

Still catching up

2009-04-14T18:17:00.000-07:00

Well, my heavens! It is Holy Week and by the time you read this, it will be post Easter Sunday. Monday through

Wednesday afternoon Audra and I participated in a Comunication Workshop presented by an organization named YES. Many of our diocesan pastoral friends attended. Each time we meet it becomes a more enriching experience of friendship.

This workshop was to teach us a new way o

f communicating to promote relationships. The focus of discution was gender and orientation and how to negotiate this sinsitive topic within a world of different beliefs to bring safty, love and hope to those who are suffering. We were taught a patern of comunication that begins with truley being present with and for the other person; in this mode the conversation becomes about the other person and what it is that they are saying. The second of this three step patern is to re-create the person, meaning to be able to respond to and repeat what it is that they mean, not mearly parrot what they said and allow the person to be who

they are at that moment, authentically. This is a patern that does not allow the participants in the conversation to be the winer or loser. If this method is to function, both sides must be alowed to remain who they are and no one may loes the discussion/fight. It is a time to put aside that you know that you belive them to be wrong, and concentrate on who they are. The third step is to respond with generosity. In this you are opening up the posibility of an authentic relationship where both individuals are who they are and the relationship itself becomes the tranformative force. - well, if that makes no sense it's because I am trying to concentrate a two day workshop into one paragraph.

Just as much as I was greatly enriched by the workshop and the comunity participation I was reneud by the gardens and beautiful sights where we were staying, it was a Catholic nunery, I guess you would call it. I took as much advantage of this beautiful environment as I could. We arrived Monday morning, early and had attended the workshop untill lunch, that afternoon we had free. I spent a glorious hour and a half or so lying in the grass hiden from all eyes amongst beautifully kept gardens. The following two morning I awoke with the sun to have plenty of time before breakfast. It was time to be in silence, to be with God and scripture. It is in nature that I can finally find my mind quiet. The city has been draining me more than I realized. I am making plans to spend a long weekend in Faca in a few weeks.

I participated in the Holy Thursday service by reading the Epistle. For Friday I was asked to be one of seven individuals to give a five minuet sermon on one of the last frases that Christ spoke durring the cruzifiction in the Gospel of John. My frase was 'woman here is your son; and then he said to the other disciple, here is your mother'. The night before my dad helped me negociate this text. With some help from the internet to get a better understanding of John the disciple I wrote out some notes. Well, I didn't use the notes really at all and I spoke too quickly, but I was asured that the people were able to understand me. I kind-of left it up to the Spirit to help me to negociate the language and scripture. If another oportunity aris

es I will be considerate to prepare more fully.

Oh, Saturday evening service I had an emotional melt down. Earlyer that day I had contended with the man who had been singing during each of the Holy Week services. It is him singing with a guy playing the keyboard, he has a lovley rich voice. He has some amazing songs and I had been asking him since I arrived in Colombia to help me learn the songs so that I might sing with him or with the other group that sings at the 11am service, but he never came through. So that Saturday was just too much after I had raised my hopes to sing durring holy week. Before I went to the service I was studying psalm 63 which, in part, talks about David singing God's praises. So while in the service I suddenly became overwhelmed with the desire to sing out thanks and praise, to sing the songs with this community, but I couldn't. The man wasn't calling out page numbers for the song book and I didn't know them. I sudenly missed my church terribly. A place where I know the prayers and the songs where I can share in this experience with my friends and loved ones. I burst into tears and had to leave the service. It actually was a needed reliefe to cry it out for a bit. Ironicly it was the singing man who

came to check on me and I was able to tell him at that moment how frustrated I was and that singing is something that I need to do. If he hadn't come to me I don't know if I would have had the strength to go to him. So I was able to return to the service in time for the second half of the sermon. Later that evening I got a wonderfull dady-like hug from Father Juan Carlos who had been very concerned. Audra and I both decided he is probably our favorite person here in Colombia.

I have begun dance clases, and they are not exacly what I was hoping for. The two times I have gon, there has been a dance teacher who has a baby and spends the great majority of the time on the phone. Monday afternoon I was there for an hour and a half and was taught one dance step. I am going to try to go tuesday and thursday mornings in hopes of finding the other of the two dance teachers less distracted. I must say that it did take an hour and a half of dancing salsa by myself to become board. It was a little bit of excersize, that is better than nothing. My hair is still insisting on falling out more than I want, but as long as there are no bald spots I won't worry too much. My stress level has totaly calmed down. Yoga and prayers in the morning is a great way to start the day.

Sorry about the long update, but hey a lot occured.

Blessings and Love.

What's the view like

2009-04-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

So now it has been more than a few weeks since the convention has pased Audra and I have be

en concentrating on hamering down a concrete schedule with Father Carlos to work twice a week with the mission in the south of bogotá.

A blog can be a place where one can share what events have pased, not often do I remember to also share what it is like for me to be living these events.

The longer I am here the more I realize I have to learn. First in regards to language. You know, sometimes I think I know my stuff and I am just rambling on in Spanish spiting out profound thought and making interesting points only to realize that either a) they didn't understand a word I was saying or more likely and even more frustrating b) my lack of grammer skills kills the poinancy of whatever I was talking about and the conversation turns into a Spanish lesson. Ahhh!!

Ok, so really, what I have to say isn't quite so profound, most of the time. Latley my experience with Spanish has been more of a challenge than the first couple of months.

I spend a lot of time trying to pull together enough vocabulary and grammer since to put my frases together sufficiently to be understood. It seems as though most of my time is spent just trying to not trip over my own toung.

Second. Robin, you were so right. Robin is a Missionary who is currently in the Sudan. She was in Libiria as a missionary season before last; she also attended and sincirley enriched our traning in New York. During the training I expressed a concern that when I was in Ecuador my personality changed for the

worse, by becoming terribly indisisive, self doubting and fearful about money and other things. I asked what I could do to prevent this from hapening. She said - you can't prevent it, the best thing you can do is to realize this is God calling you to be changed/transformed in Him; don't try to fight it, go to God and let Him transform you.

Well, I havn't returned to being that same person I was in Ecuador, thanks be to God, however I am still realizing I am not the person God intends for me to be. Over the past few weeks I have felt my stress level steadily escalate., I didn't even realize I was reaching my max stress level untill I realized how much hair I was losing on a daily bases (first noted by my hair stylest). It is not caused by any one event / thing inparticular, but for general reasons I supose. Traveling around is rich and rewarding, but it dosn't allow for a routine, which I thrive on, nor does it make regular excersize easy. It hapens to be my third month in Colombia and there is a three month mark that we were warned about in mission training where things might go a bit awray in ones person while abroad. I hit that date right on the head. Latley I have been contending with analizing a future that I couldn't possibly come to a conclusion about (because it hasn't occured, a basic thought that seems to escape me at times). But thanks to caring advice from Audra, and tender words from Dad I was encouraged to focuse on getting in some basic excersise each day and go from there.

-What I am missing at the moment: Sunday morning breakfast with my dad at the bakery, wakeing up at Camp McDowel and weekend evenings with my Aunt and Uncle

Wow, where did March Go!?

2009-04-01T12:37:00.000-07:00

Convention time:

Our time in the convention was rich and rewarding. It was such a pleasure to meet up with the folks we had met durring our travels and to meet all new people. I want to impart how loving these people are. However 'loving' dosn't exactly express the full image. In Spanish we say that these folks are 'cariñoso'. It is a word that meens loving, considerate, carring, tender, thoughtfull, generous, welcoming, etc.

So the best part of this weekend was getting to spend time with the people, which I think is a really good conclusion to any event. Beyond this I enjoyed experiencing the whole event. What a different world between the Colombian Episcopal Diocese and my Alabama Diocese. The convention began friday night after dinner and concluded Saturday evening. They planed for 75 people and that is including the guests that weren't going to be voting, like me and Audra, and that is the entire Colombian Diocese being represented. Also here we have one Bishop for the whole of Colombia. He was the president of the convention.

Friday night there was an opening Eucharist service that was soo lovely. The room was full of robed and adorned priests from all over the country; many we know, many we didn't. It was an oportunity ripe for getting to know a lot more people.

Saturday we began our day with a 7am breakfast. By this point, to have to be dressed and ready at 7am is a bit of a struggle, but we made it happen for the sake of sustanance. The first speaker of the conferance was our friend and local 9am priest Padre Juan Carlos. He spoke of discovering and getting to know who you are beyond the context of where you work, what you do, your marital status, etc. Basicaly who you are in God. He is a very dinamic speaker, always conveying his ideas with passion.

Later on we heard form Padre Antonis, from Cali, who spoke about the proposed relationship between the ERD and the Diocese of Colombia. Man did this pirk my ears up. It was wild. I was hearing about this now working relationship when just a month or so before I was in Faca sitting with Matt St.John, the latin american contact for the ERD, and a group from the Diocese discussing the posibility of this relationship. It seems like it will come to fruistion. I have a lot of intrest in seeing if I could work with the ERD here in Colombia.

I happen to get excited when there are discusions and debates, whether it is in a mock UN caucus or in a convention center with the Colombian Diocese. There is something energizing about being amongst so many strong individuals. This segment of the convention occured Saturday evening. People were on the edge of their seats at one point, with hands raising emphaticley, voices calling for the bishops attention, people talking all at the same time. At this point I settled myself behind the right ear of a woman priest who I love! She is spunky and funny. So I used her to help me negociate the language chaos. That made the experience more fullfiling, to not be totally lost in the conversation.

All in all this conference gave me more energy to apply for the sake of the Episcopal Diocese of Colombia. There is a lot of hope, growth and energy within those individuals participating with the church. I am left releived that I still have so much time left to discover, more deeply, what the diocese is all about.

Nice Company

2009-03-16T13:40:00.001-07:00

This past week I had the pleasure of staying with a couple from the church - Mirium and Oscar. Audra has been away in Atlanta where, thanks be to God, she succesfully obtained her Missionary Visa which is good for one year. She just might be staying beyond September. I decided that it would be wiser to stay with friends durring Audras abscense. These wholy generouse people were Audra's host family before I arrived. While Audra was staying with them Oscar was in the hospital having a massive tumor removed from his brain the size of a large fist! He is now doing quite well. He still has a place where they removed the tumor and they didn't replace the skull there in order to protect against infection. He must wear a helmet wenever he is out and about because if he should fall and hit his head there it would kill him. As a result of the tumor, that had been growing for 10 years, Oscars personality had taken on being stubborn and in a bad humor. This is still the case at times and is difficult on Mirium. However they are an extreemly loving family, still obviously inlove. This is such a remarkable example of God redeeming their relationship. Many people might have bailed on such a trying and difficult situation but they each have a beautifully inspiring faith that carries them through the hard times. Mirium and Oscar have been so, so very generous in sharing their home and time with me. This experience was a lot better than when I stayed by myself while Audra was away.

Saturday we went to the church were I taught english for a couple of hours. There is some sort of a class set up from 830am saturday morning, where Audra and I teach english class for two hours, then we have two hours of philosophy/theology. Wellk, that is the theory at least. It has worked out like that only once. This past saturday was exclusivly English class for two hours with Mirium, Oscar and John (our friend and the guard on duty at the time).

On our way back home I went a hair salon that Mirium recomended. Ok, folks so for those who don't know this about me, I am very particular about who touches my hair with sharp instruments. Infact I have only had one man cut my hair for 20+ years. Beyond that Beth Ann's sister Nicole had been the only other person to cut my hair. So this was a big deal, but a neccesary step to take. With some aprehention I sat down in the barbers chair and in my not quite perfect spanish described exactley how I wanted my hair. Man I was tense. The result.... I now have a new hairstylest. I am so pleased.

I then went back to Mirium and Oscar's home where I shared lunch with both of them plus Mirium's mother, sister and brother. It was lovely. It didn't pass me by without taking note of how nice it was to be in such company. Sunday I attended both services and had a relaxing time chatting with parishiners. Rev. John Carlos gave another riviting sermon that spot lighted on the old testement reading. How there should be no god before the one true God and how that relates to our lives. At the 11 o'clock service there was a guest sermon from one of the other priests that serves at the Cathedral. It was his first sermon and he did great. He chose to focus on the Gospel, which was Christ driving out the market from the synagogue. He dirrected the sermon to Christs humanity in his anger and when is anger called for. After the service the music dirrector petitioned that I join them to sing durring Holy Week. So this Tuesday, tomorrow, it seems as though I will be going to practice. It makes me a bit nervous to sing with only a couple other people, but I am happy to be able to participate more fully in the parish. I'll be sure to let you know how that goes, fingers crossed =.).

Where have all the missionaries gone?

2009-03-13T15:04:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

So now that you have heard my openion on the importance of the name 'missionary' I would like to turn your attention to an issue that is much more imediatley impacting to the Episcopal Church missions - Lack Of Funding!

A friend turned my attention to this issue. While the discution of the name does have its place and importance what should be focused on at this moment is the fact that mission personel is scrapping the barrel to provide rescources to missions. In fact , as of recent, mission personel had to make the decision to only send Young Adult Service Corp missionaries out into the field, leaving out volunteers in mission and long term missionaries. Those who have already been placed will remain in their host countries but no new applicants are being accepted.

WOW!

This is a real shame. Once again I call attention to the fact that we call ourselves a Mission church (If you didn't know that, be assured your not the only one - but yep that is what we are considered) And yet, where are our missionaries? We are not so very small of a faction within the U.S. Christian world and yet we are only capable of sending out a dozen or so missionaries.

It takes rescources to care for and manage Missionaries, they don't just give us a plane ticket and say good luck. I am being watched over by a team of very capable and caring individuals. This is not a pleasure cruz to be a missionary, there are real dangeres and needs, so there are real precations that must be taken. We are provided excelent insurance to cover any health need, we are provided a stipened for language aquisition, there are emergency procedures inplace that among other services will provide for us to be able to return to the U.S. and many other services that insures, to the best of the ability of Mission Personel, that we are healthy and well equiped to give of ourselves to the countries that take us in.

In this time of economic stress I was blown away by God's grace through individuals generosity. As missionaries we are expected to fundraise for half of the cost to send us out for one year, this minimum sum is $10,000. On top of that we must fundraise for all extra expenses that will be needed in our ministry. Let me tell you the fundraising process is no simple task. Since the fall, untill I left for Colombia, I was basically working two full time jobs, as can atest my coworkers and anyone else who is envolved in fundraising. It is a shared partnership between the missionary and Mission Personel. So we aren't just sighning up to recieve a free ride to a cool country. We take great responsibility in our own needs as well. This to say that the funds that Mission Personel needs is no extravigant request. It is a basic need for rescources to fulfill this ministry.

I want to share this with you so that it can be spread to those voting in General Convention. Hopefully the experiences of your missionaries can give rise to new energy to expand the mission team, to nurture and grow this ministry - TOGETHER! We must all be together on this for mission work to come full circle. We go out bringing with us, you, our loved ones and the experience we shared to form who we are; in turn we will return with what we have shared with our host county to give to you. Without you, this process just doesn't work.

Please support missions. This is a very real call that needs very real support.

I am a "MISSIONARY"

2009-03-10T13:54:00.000-07:00

In response to the upcoming General convention and a letter sent out by David Coppley, one of the great individuals who works in Mission Personel in the Episcopal Church Office in New York (aka 815); and imparticularly to those voting in the General Convention.

The subject is the word/term "missionary". This term is could perhaps be changed to 'partners in mission', by a vote in the General Convention. It has been a subject of discussion for at least the past two or three years I believe. It was discused in the July New York mission training before last, and again it was discused in the training I attended this past July.

At the time I was still wrapping my mind around the fact that I was really about to go off to me a "missionary". I have been in the Episcopal church since I was about seven years old. My father and I have developed a deep and rich relationship with the church through these many years.

I have been greatly served by amazing people within the church and spiritually nurtured in this Episcopal home. I mean "home" in a very real and concrete since. That although I am so far from my dear loved ones, family and friends, I am here in Colombia, South America, at home in the Episcopal diocese. It is a sensation that is the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Having said this I now must turn to the issues that surround the term 'missionary' within the Episcopal church.

First WE JUST DON'T USE IT! Really! For the many years that I have been in the church I had not once heard that we had missonaries or supported missiones, that is untill my dear friend Deacon Gerrie sugested that the Spirit was calling me to be a missionary and my dear friends Bob and Kay Blackwell shared their misson experience with me. I then began to hound mission personel trying to figure out what this missionary thing was all about in the Episcopal church.

So my great frustration comes from the fact that I had been strugling with the idea to become a priest since I was in ninth grade. However as the years passed and I entered into college and disscutions with Father Marc the pieces just weren't comming together. I knew God was calling me to something but the only option I saw before me was priesthood. Yet I wanted to travel, to meet and know different cultures. I knew I had the energy to go out and take on difficult challenges, physically and emotionally. It wasn't untill I was in an event at my church with guest speakers from Haita, a priest and his wife Carmel that while they were speaking the Holy Spirit practically hit me up-side the head and I heard clearly, without a shadow of a doubt, - "Go and be a Missionary"

The relief of hearing that word brought me to tears! (and I am not the crying type folks) It was like I was taken out of chaos into peace. I said to myself and God - Oh, that's what you've been trying to tell me all these years!

Moments latter though I was absolutly befuddled. I was thinking, but I'm in the Episcopal church, do we do that?

I had very few thoughts for what a missonary is or of the word missionary, but it still brought me great peace at that moment I heard it. The strangest thing is that the little thought I had given to what it was to be a missionary was anything but holy. I had vissions of the Crusades; of pompus holier-than-thou Europeans and Americans hitting natives over the head with the bible, taking away thier culture and communities. I don't know if I had one positive thought towards missionaries.

So if you can imagine this put me in a very wierd state. I mean, well, if God is calling me to be a missionary, it has to be a good thing filled with love, but on the other hand I had no idea how to reconcile these two oposing natures of the word missionary.

I believe that it could be argued that language is the nursemaid of culture. Language cultivates communication and community. This, just to say that to determine the validity of -a word- is a very sinsitive matter that has very real and lasting consequences.

My disconect with the word missionary began to be healed a couple of years ago and I now, as of recent, have come to an opinion. I have now been working in Colombia for 63 days. In these past few weeks I have found myself in conversations that only the word "Missionary" could have lead me, for instance at a climbing gym or riding in a taxi. They have all been rich and productive conversations. As Audra and I introduce ourselves as missionaries to everyone we meet we have shared our lives within the Episcopal Church and our lives as missionaries. As we share our intrests, passions and talent, the people we encounter get to see a new incarnation of the word missionary. The Cathedral, our parrish lifts Audra and I up in celebration that we are their Missionaries. As we visit the parishes around the diocese we are introduced as and we introduce ourselves as Missionaries.

As a missionary I am not working for a church, for a religion, I am working with and through the Episcopal Church. I am called by God to share the blessed Good News and the life I have in Christ.

Yes the biblical relivance of the WORD missionary could be argued whatever way, perhaps. I am not a theologin who can base my opinion in these terms.

My hope and desire is that the Episcopal Church begin to claim and embrace the word missionary as well as those of us who are working in the name of the church and in the name of Christ as Missionaries. We have done a poor job of taking on the resposability of carring on the call to send out disciples, of making it comnon knowledge that - Yeah, we are a Missionary Church! And we are darn proud of it! Otherwise I would have known about Young Adult Service Corp and the other mission possibilities from the time I entered the church.

We as a culture have created this word and we have given it life. It is a word in motion, not static. We can transform its perception. We can take controle over its intent and use it to heal the very wounds it has created. Like an antivenom that uses a bit of the deadly poison to create a cure.

Also I am thinking of our brothers and sisters in different secs of Christianity; our Christian brothers and sisters whom we share the table of sacraments, whether Lutheran, Catholic, Evangelica, Charismatic, Methodist, etc. Although we may not agree with them on all points we are all brothers and sisters in Christ (to mentions that we don't even agree amongst ourselves). They are going out in great number with great faith to serve a life of strife and joy in the name of lifting up those who are suffering, and they do so as Missionaries. As a Missionary I am in communion with everyone who leaves his or her home to go out and share his or her life in Christ. We are all to work to spread the same Good News. In changing the name you may also be ailienating us from our Christian community. We seek to bring together servents of Christ not find ways of seperating us.

I humbly but boldly offer my opinion that the word "missionary" should not be changed. As I continue on with my ministry here and where ever God leads me I will introduce myself as a missionary. In this I will pray that the spirit guides my will and action to be a transformative representative of the mission of the christian missionaries at large.

In the name of our Lord Christ Peace

What a doozy part III

2009-03-03T13:36:00.000-08:00

Wednesday was jam packed! After our visit to Sucre with a short tour around a couple of blocks we loaded back on the bus and entered into the town of Henequen which is a word that derivies from Anhenequen (sp?) meening misquito, which is also their mascot. Here we met Eduardo. I am still confused as to his actual title. He was wearing a clerical colar but no one was calling him padre/father. He might be a deacon of some sort because he is from the Roman Catholic church and is married. Anyway titles are only a part of who a person is. Some may try to discretit titles all together but the human race takes great importance in what to call someone. Weather it is 'mrs.' /'señora' or 'miss' 'señorita' indicates if a woman is single or not. A priest that has gone through ordination takes comfort and joy in the title of reverand or father and so does the comunity that looks to him or her for guidance and leadership. A short discourse, I will return to the the subject of Eduardo. He is a very passionate leader within this community. Like Sucre and all the missions that we visited this day there is a solid sence of hope and proven leadership within the community especially amongst the women. Henequen is working with two organizations, one being ___________ and the other being _____________.

With the help of these two organizations and the services provided by a conjunction of the Roman Catholic church and the Episcopal church this community has been able to organize itself to scrape together the next to nothing in reso

urces they have to create viable structures and community development. Our day was already feeling long as we walked in the dusty hot streets. Here closer to the equator the sun is in a larger and more intense form than we are use to. However everyone was sweltering under this sun including the locals. Eduardo took us down the road a bit to a site that overlooked what could serve as a make shift town, yet here these are permanent dwellings asembled from the same wooden planks that are salvaged from shiping flates. Eduardo's care and concern for this comunity is vivid and pure. He spoke passionatley to us of the scencere need to give dignity and a bit of comfort to these peoples lives.

Around this time we also visited La Mision Mary Magdalena. I believe it is here that we were treated to a really great looking lunch of fried fish and coconut rice. Unfortunatly I thought it wise to take another day off food just incase my stomach decided to retaliate. They were so very hospitable. It is so hard to keep in mind how much these people strugle to pull together enough food and resources for themselves on a daily bases and yet when a group of 16 or 18 (I lost count of our numbers) they come together give us a fan cooled plentiful lunch complete with Coke for those of us who couldn't risk the juice made from questionable water. We took this moment to just relax, diguest and talk amongst ourselves. A much needed break from the heat and running around. Either before or after lunch we were lead between a couple of unassuming buildings into a family recycling enterprise! It was wild to see this mini recycling center unexpectedly out of nowhere. We were told that it was managed and run by a single extended family. Each house-hold specializes in one material. One family goes around collecting scrap PVC (used for ___________), another glass bottles (that can be returned to the company for money), another collects tin cans with lids that can be used for storing paint, etc. This is an ideal business for this regioun, talk about resoursfull. They have cornered the market on trash. In Malombo to Henequen and most of these regiouns we visited we saw trash collectin in the local waterways along the street and in unocupied lots. This family not only has found a way to make some money they are also cleaning up their community, whether or not this is an aspect that has occured to them. The reason that their is trash all over the place is because the sanitation system is just not working. Father Gonzalo told me that they just don't know when the trash reseptor trucks will show up. These companies are private and are not subject to leagalities, so the comunity has no reason to depend upon sanitation and are simply acustom to throughing it away from their homes. It has been said that Colombia suffers from rural economic sprawl in the way that the further you get from the capital the less money, resources and care get to the people. So you can imagin on the coast these guys are getting the scrappings from the barrel.

Latter that afternoon, already behind on our schedule by a couple of hours, we arrived at Grupo Accion con Jovenes Pandilleros. This is a group that works with young people, mostly young men, who want to get out of gangs and drugs. We heard a lot from the leaders of the organization telling us about their programs and projects. They are training these guys to know how to make mops, develop urban gardens (which perked my ears right up) and other various labors. There is also detox available for those who want to get clean. Towards the end of our time we finaly got to hear some of the testimonials from the guys that were there. Rev. Matt asked what motivated them to get into the programe. The majority mentioned that it was for their children. They want a better life for their kids, better then they had know.

As the sun began to set we loaded back into the bus to head to Santa Cruz. This is were Estivan does his mission training. Because we were so late many of the parrishoners had to leave for work or home. I think at this point we were two or three hours late or something crazy like that. This is a lovely well established parish with its own church building. We were treated to a music from three young people and heard from the leadership of the parrish (all women). We also got to meet the oldest parishoner, something of a matriarch for the community. We were then treated to a big plate of fresh fruit, man was that good. By this time it was getting late and we headed back to the hotel were the conneticut group was staying. Audra and I ended up going out to dinner with the group and hanging out. It really was a treat to relax with a cool group of folks.

It's a doozy, part II (with more to come)

2009-03-02T14:04:00.000-08:00

Part II

Monday we went to Malambo to visit the mission service. Father Gonzalo Rendon and his family have been there since October. This is a very poor region with little in the way of economic or educational resources (which always go hand in hand). It is so very dusty and dry here. It is a stark difference from El Centro. Imagin if you can an elegant colonial tourist center next to a marganalized town of forgotten citizens. It is a harsh reality. Besides the dust and heat, what you notice first is that the streets are lean of stores and there were no shops around the church. Only a few modestly scattered snack and drink shops vending the same bags of water (yes bags, not bottles), chips and prepackaged cookies. I have been use to streets solely devoted to selling mea wide assortment of goods. It is a clear indicator of the economic health of the comunity. Father Gonzalo told us that the community suffers from spiritual sinizism. The comunity is tiered of being poor and they just want out and for many they just don't seem t

o have much hope. This is a perspective I pic

ked up from Father Gonzalo's description of the community. I hope to return in order to

get to know the community mentality for myself. It is always hard to report on a regioun from a secondary source, especially one in your secondary language. So take these coments as just that, comentary on a terciary level.

This was the day that the stomach bacteria decided to attack with a vengence. Just to give you a more personal perspective on this day: I love south america and being a missionary. The thing I really regret is that I almost always get motion sick in anything that moves. The primary form of transportation is bus which is all the worse. It takes two hours one way to get to and from molambo I remember thinking on our way there that this bus ride might actually be taking me to hell. On the way back home it was even worse. I was suddenly arrested with chilles from a feaver and what I discreetly call a "bad

stomach". On arriving to our room I promptley oozed into bed and tried as hard as I could to not move a muscle. to shorten this

long story Audra, who had also come down with a feaver, and I opted out of the tuesday trip to Las Islas Rosarios. We had already gone to Playa Blanka (these are the trouist beach islands).

We stayed simi-conscious in bed most of the day. Whether we really wanted it or not we ended up having some very well intentioned visitors checking in on us. Father Rafael's wife's mother is an absolute angel. Although we thought we just wanted solitude, Abualita (affectionate term for grandmother) checked in on us on a regular bases and made clear vegitable broth for us with lemon. It was soo very kind of her and it probably helped us get better more quickly. We also got a visit from a surgeon that was staying two doors down from us. He checked on our symptoms and chatted with us. if you can imagine Audra and I simiconsious in bed with such an assortment of visitors entering our room.

Thanks be to God and Imodium (type tablets) we were back on the road with the Conneticut gang the next day which was one of the most important trips where we visited multiple missions that the church is involved in. What a site when we drove up to Mission San Miguel Arcangel in Sucre. There were two

lines of people lined up all along the road awaiting our arrival. As we pulled up they greeted us with aplause as we exited the bus and began to walk up to the mission center. I shook hands with some but realized I would not be able to greet everyone in the lines that ushered us to the little house that serves as a makeship church, community meeting building and mission

network center. This is the mission

that Carlos (the siminarian I mentioned last week) works in. We were then treated to a dance performance by some of the young landies f the community. They actually had matching skirts, shoes and socks! I don't

know if they already had these items or if they bought them for this performance. It was very well don after a bit of technical music difficulties.

There is such a different energy here than in Malambo. Sucre is actually poorer than Malambo but the people here have so much more hope! There is a reall community drive here to better their lives. Yes they know they are poor and they want a way out, the difference is they see Carlos and the Episcopal church as a means

of colaborating their strong local leadership with a means of obtaining resourses they do not have access to. Here, as is the case with the Episcopal church of Colombia, local leadership comes from the women of the community. In fact women make up the greatest percentage of participants in any of the missions and parishes. This is a community that was built from necesity of displaced persons being run off of their farms in surrounding areas because of the Farc (gorrilla forces). Most of these people had their land taken from them and forced to move to this area with nothing. They would find a piece of land

and build a home using the brocken down wooden boards from shipping crates. This community only has primary education available to the community, that is like elementary school, perhaps through middle school ( I am not sure). The secondary school which might consist of middle to high school is too far away for the families to send their children. They simply can't afford bus fair. Conneticut is hoping to help this comunity purchas a plot of land to build a central building that would serve as a permanant church, school and community meeting area. I am amazed at how well thougt out many of their ideas are. They think practically and thoughtfully. Although I do realize they have lowered there asperations for fear of asking for too much. I hope there is a compromise that can be discovered.

It's a doozy, part 1

2009-03-02T09:52:00.000-08:00

We left for Cartegena around noonish the tenth of feb. It was an easy enough flight. When we steped off the plan it was Hello Sun and Heat! The air was fresh and a sweet change from Bogotá smog. We were greeted with a breez along with the warmth that you can only

get on the coast. It isn’t a salty breez but heavy with humidity and refreshing coolness amidst the sun. After recovering my backpack We exited the bagage claim and were met by Estivan, who was holding a sign saying “Episcpal Church”. No doubts that this was our ride.

We get to the Church and got into our modest rooms. the room consists of two metal bunkbeads each with a five or six inch matress that on first test didn’t hold up to the test. I figured it wouldn’t work with metal bars agains my back. So, with ease I slid the mattress from the top bead ontop of my mattress, much better (not to say I wasn’t still missing my bed back in Bogotá). Yea, yeah, ok so I am a bit of a pansy, I am ok with that =.).

After we literally droped our stuff down we headed out to explor a bit. We walked around the block that surrounds the church.

Thursday we made a day in el Centro. This is the most turistic part of Cartegena with shops and restaurants catering to those with money, but thankfully we were able to scout out places for those of us who are less free-spending. We began our day with a walk down past the church before we caught a cab to take us the rest of the way. Within the first few hours of our morning - afternoon jaunt I got toasted, worse than I had known since I was ten-years old or so, I mean red as a lobster and crispy fried. That is with buying sunblock and applying it around midday.

Oh, well. That night we attended the thrusday evening service. It was amazing. I am always tacken a'back when I step into a new parish. I love getting to meet people when we are all there for the purpose of giving time to God. It is just a different and very special environment that lends itself to forming a comunity. Father Rafael gave a rockin' sermon! I really wish I could record the sermons I have been hearing. The priests are so very full of the spirit and are not afraid to raise a few eyebrows.

The next day we went to el Centro. That is the central tourist market. It is full of tighly knit streets lined with Colonial architecture. That day I got to wear shorts for the first time. I love shorts and dresses. That was a real treat. There are a lot of pirctures from these two days. Friday we went to Playa Blanka. I have never seen a Caribean beach before. It is gor

eous with aqua-emeraled colored waters, white sand and everything the perfect temperature. Unfortunantly it wasn't the relaxing day I was really hopeing for. The thing is that this is a place that depend

s soely upon tourists. I was practicly swarmed with folks touching me to sell massages, pressing jewlery of all sorts in my way and casting guilt trips on me that if I don't buy from them their children will suffer. I almost lost it! In fact I did a bit. This all occured within the first hour I was there and the rest of the time I was so upset and tense I wasn't able to enjoy it much, that is untill after a really great lunch of fried fish and coconut rice. They have a saying that I picked up in Ecuador and Colombia. "Full stomach, content heart" that is so very true.

That night we ate the best Arepas with cheese I have had since arriving in Colombia. So I havn't explained much about the food, mainly because I am not very excited about it. All except for the fresh tropical fruit juice and arepas. Arepas actually remind me a lot of my grandmother, they seem quite southern, like hoe-cacks. It is a patty of very very finly ground corn (with fresh or corn flour I am not sure). It has a soft texture and with a sharp white cheese, not even chocolate cake can beat it.

Saturday the Conneticut folks arrived. I knew they were going to be a fun crowed from the start. That day we had dinner with the folks who had arrived shared some stories and walked around El Centro a bit. Unfortunately I have been less than laxed on my journaling so my memory is a bit fuzzy.

Sunday we all attended service together. The Conneticut group loved it! There were two or three of the ordained priests participating in the Eucarist and Bishop Laura. Talk about language immersion! They all did great. I was very impressed when Bishop Laura, who took hold of blessings in Spanish. I know it ment a lot to the people.

A new perspective

2009-02-20T15:17:00.000-08:00

Bare (bear...?) with me folks this trip is going to take a couple of instalments to get everything across that I want to share with you. We have just arrived back in Bogota, having been in Cartagena since the 11th. My birthday is this Sunday Yah! We are planning to through-down latin style in the dance club saturday. I finaly got to open the package that my dad had sent. It had arrived right after we left. I opened all the letters just today, friday. To all of you who wrote your warm regards and birthday wishes thank you sooo very much!! It means so much to know I am being thought of .

A few quick notes about the trip. Next week I will have time to write a proper report of the happenings.

First: The Conneticut group was an absolute BLAST!! And so very generously cared for Audra and I, it humbled me. It was so great to be in such a relaxed environment with so many clergy including La Opispo (Bishop Laura), and the amazing lay people. It was great just be tourists for a while with them.

We saw some absolutley amazing sites of the "barrios" ( I think it is like towns) of Cartegena.

I was blown away with how active and energized the local people are within the Episcopal church there and the organizations that the church participates in. They have incredible leadership built up. I really want to get you guys as excited as I am about what can really be done to improve their quality of life. We were blessed to get to know the two siminarians who are ministering in this are. Carlos and his brother Steven are young men who are filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit. They have brought new energy and hope into these region; they will certainly increase the fruite being produced there. Father Rafael and his family are so very dear. He is the priest of Cartegena. This is a man with real vision and a solid head on his shoulders. This city has been experiencing diocesen growth, new missions being build, needs are begining to be met in some areas and in other areas there is concrete movment into acction. The companion dioces of Conneticut, with the help of Audra and I, are going to get some of these projects the suport they need to succeed. This is such an amazing partnership because there is already such strong local leadership. We have made a lot of new friends and Audra and I will now be working with the Bishop so that we may hopefully return to Cartegena for a month or so to really get to follow Carlos and Steven in there ministry.

Consider this a teaser! Tons and Tons of Photos are soon to come.

Much love, blessings and Peace

And there Running!!

2009-02-06T11:27:00.001-08:00

Ok, so graciamente (thankfully) Audra is back and everything seems right with the world. Well, perhaps a bit exagerated, but I am really glad to have her back. I have been having a great time with her and Evet (her mom). We've been going out to some of the local markets and Evet has been cooken' up some fine food for us. - Thanks Evet. I am continuing to practice the guitare and little by little I am forming calluses, I might have already said this, but bare with me. I am reallly getting into my reading, and my Spanish is comming along poco a poco (bit by bit). Feb. is going to be a crazy month! This week we have Evet, she leaves tuesday and Wednesday Audra and I are flying to Cartagena. Take a look at a map as soon as you get the chance. Cartegena is on the Norther Coast of Colombia, extreemely well know. We are going up there early to have some time of our own to get to know the city a bit. Saturday a mission group from a church from Conneticut ( Colombia's companion diocese) will be meeting us in Cartegena and we will spend about a week translating and just participating in their service mission. We will be returning on the 20th at 1230 and at 130 the following hour we will go from the national airport to the international airport to pick up a friend of Audra's who will be visiting for a couple of weeks. We are planning on visiting an eco-hostel or such while she is visiting and of course a lot more.

In the mean time we are still figuring out our work and schedule. So far we have a lot on the books, but nothing has started yet. It looks like we will be working two days a week at the mission church in southern bogota, thursdays teaching english to kids in the evening and saturdays teaching english to siminarians here in the office. Audra and I might tag team the thursday and saturday events. It is looking hopefull that, as long as I am in town, I will be welcome to take the theological classes with the siminarians. Yahh!!

My next project is getting into dance classes. Pilar has offered to help me out. I have got to get into a routine of dancing or I might just start bouncing off the walls! :,D

The fun part of our upcomming events is that I have an excuse, and need, to buy cloths for hot weather. The downer is that there will be a lot of expenses racking up including the flight to cartegena (it would take over 24 hours by bus), lodging, meals and such. So I am going to have to figure some things out. But it will all work out.

I will be sure to let you know how it all goes.

Blessings and Peace