Lights para o mundo

Somehow, it's August already, meaning LAC's annual regional conference has come and gone. The 1st full week started on...the 1st, so missionaries and guests from 11 countries packed up and headed to our standby resort in Punta Cana, DR, for rest, fellowship, and a deep dive into the theme phrase and title of this post in a mash-up of the three languages represented by our growing team (English, Spanish, and Portuguese), drawn from Acts 13:47:

For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

I seem to get more involved in the planning side of things with each passing year, but my main gig was hosting a short-term team of 12 volunteers who made the conference possible by caring for (read: leading bilingual VBS for!) 38 missionary kids so their parents could fully engage with business sessions and Bible studies and even enjoy a kid-free date night. They were beyond capable, which made my job easy. 

The Benevenutis and I left at 7 am Monday morning and were in line for check-in by 12:30 pm.

Anticipating that we'd have time before our rooms were ready, I took a page from my sister-in-law's book and threw a swimsuit and flip-flops into my backpack for maximum pool time.

The contingent of volunteers from Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Wichita Falls, TX, was raring to go for our 6 pm Monday night meet-up. Having previously served with their congregation in Jamaica and Peru, we had to take a pic for Rev. Dale Snyder. 

Rafa and I on day 1. 

Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Oschwald (Concordia St. Louis) graced us as the keynote speaker each morning. His discourse on the larger context of the theme verse held numerous nuggets of brilliance for me, notably his summary of Acts: "you cannot silence the Word." I may have ducked out a few times to check on the team, always to find that they were doing their thing. The addition of the spacious "Travel Smart Room" was a game changer. 

Wouldn't want to spend my 4th field-i-versary doing anything other than catching up with these sweet sisters in Christ. 

The region gifted each missionary who didn't already have one a copy of Himnario Luterano. Somehow I walked away from Symposium 2022 empty-handed, so that had to be rectified. Volunteers Jessica and Abby enjoyed skimming it for familiar tunes. 

I finally caught up to Goodness on Wednesday morning. She and her family haven't been to a conference since before I came on the field, and I haven't been to Jamaica since October 2019. 

The resort set aside nightly block reservations for "Grupo Luterano" at each of its specialty restaurants. Table for 10, please!

The volunteer team enjoyed breakfast with Revs. Krey and Burakowski Thursday morning. Our hope is that they came away with a broader understanding of how their service fits into our strategy of Spreading the Gospel, Planting Lutheran Churches, and Showing Mercy and potentially how God might be calling them to be involved in His mission in this place going forward. 

LAC ladies on our last day with Christina Hergenrader (far right), whose vivid storytelling highlighted Gospel truths in each of her three afternoon sessions. 

Half of my Friday Play Group - missed you Eva, Deb, Shelee, and Lizz! 

Taking advantage of Golden Hour before enjoying drinks and apps at a farewell cocktail hour after Friday's Divine Service.  

Most conference attendees travel home on Saturday, but the regional team (pictured above minus the Naumanns as Rev. Jonathan recuperates in the US from a broken leg) stays on through Monday for two days of meetings. 

Joel & I showed up on day one in matching pants!

Spontaneous pre-service music before Sunday morning's regional team + family Divine Service. Rev. James Sharp's sermon hooked me from the get-go when he started talking about prepositions, but all joking aside, it was a phenomenal message about paying attention "toward" Jesus.

We got a bit...behind schedule to say the least, so my presentation scheduled for Saturday wound up kicking us off on Sunday. I tried to keep it to 10 minutes, but 45 minutes later...I'm grateful each of us was afforded the time and space to share candidly and lay concerns to rest thoroughly.

The planning committee will debrief the 2022 conference this week and immediately start planning for 2023. Mostly thanks to my fellow planning committee members, we get more and more ahead of the game each year. In that vein, I can't NOT include a shameless plug: see the servenow database if you're interested in serving on next year's childcare team August 7-12, 2023. 

Until next time, blessings!