missionaryMAC

"God's timing is perfect" was my refrain all last weekend.  As I soaked up my last few days in St. Louis, the reality that COVID might jeopardize the planned Puerto Rico short-term team hit. We wouldn't know in time for me to do anything other than board my early morning flight on Friday, though, so I did. And then we sat on the tarmac. And sat some more. The longer we sat, the tighter my connection got until making my next flight was an impossibility.  God's timing is perfect. Have you ever been on a plane when a flight attendant came over the loudspeaker asking if there was a doctor on board? I don't think I have, but as I impatiently checked the American Airlines app for updates, I heard a flight attendant a few rows back ask if there was anyone on board who spoke Spanish!  ¡Yo sí! I proceeded to meet a Columbian woman named Berta, with whom I shared the latest from the flight deck. It was nothing of value, really - all of us were going to miss our connecti

The end of my last post (a negative COVID test) came just in time for me to travel to St. Louis on a Wednesday for a few days with family and friends before the regional leadership team meeting scheduled for the following Tuesday through Thursday.  Less than 24 hours into my trip, however, I learned that COVID had put the kibosh on the meeting; we're shooting for a pared-down, virtual version in mid-February. Hello, three wide open days. I filled them with a mixture of bonus time with family and friends as well as a few pressing work tasks undeterred by the promise of unanticipated vacation. Following are some visuals of both the planned and the unplanned.  My immediate family & I celebrated a belated Christmas (yes, my parents left their tree up) - "Santa" had a beach bag full of souvenirs from Germany, and my sister made me a Cricut car window cling to commemorate my 11/28  half marathon . I put it on as soon as I got home. Squeezing the last bit of holiday spirit

...someone gave to me the worst Christmas gift ever: COVID-19 (yes, I'm fully vaccinated).  Before I realized I had it, I enjoyed a few days in the capital, beginning with a confirmation at Iglesia Luterana Pan de Vida. The highlight was a live production of Lin Manuel Miranda's musical-turned-movie In the Heights .  Wednesday night (12/29) when I got home, I couldn't taste my dinner. I was also stuffed up to the point I could barely breathe through my nose by then, but when I couldn't taste Thursday's breakfast, either, I ventured to  Laboratorio Clínico García & García . Unsurprisingly: POSITIVO.  Commence isolation: reading, Netflix, naps, a virtual church service, and eventually working some and even jogging in place to get some steps in toward the end. On Friday, I woke up feeling  better, and from then on, I was virtually asymptomatic. Against my will thanks to my neighbors' blaring bachata , I was up until past midnight on NYE to ring in 2022.  Last T

Venid, fieles todos. O Come, All Ye Faithful. The words of a familiar hymn invite us to come -  to come, "joyful and triumphant" to "behold Him / Born the king of angels." And so I went this Christmas, not to kneel before a manger in Bethlehem, but to the "mangers" where I see the king of angels: the font, the Word, the Sacraments (c.f. Regional Director Rev. Ted Krey's Christmas Day sermon at Iglesia Luterana Cordero de Dios).  I was extended a similar invitation to come by numerous missionary friends and colleagues, such that I barely spent any of Christmas Eve or Christmas Day alone.  A timeline of events: 12/24, 9:30 am: Worship at Iglesia Luterana Pueblo Nuevo A picture with Jamielynn and Tirzah turned into one with all the women and girls in attendance! Not to be outdone... I passed at least five roadside lechón (whole roast suckling pig) stalls on the way home. 12:00 pm: Facetime with my family while they opened presents at my brother & sis