I did a TER-RI-BLE job of photojournalism during the most recent DRLM FORO partnership meeting, but here's a post anyway :) Eight partners, including one first-time congregation and two partner short-term team sending organizations, joined us for a deep dive into education: school outreach + a secondary focus on mission education.
You can't rightly highlight Concordia Lutheran School in Palmar Arriba without seizing the chance to see it in action, even though it meant an early morning on Friday made even earlier by the fact that our "normal" hotel was unavailable. My alarm regularly goes off at 5:45 am so I wouldn't have minded the 7:15 am pickup time, but somehow I got elected to pick up three partners whose delayed flight got them in around 1 am. More sleep > chapel. We met the rest of the group and our ride to part II of the day's activities in the parking lot of the botanical garden and squeezed in a quick walk while we waited.
📷 Jana Inglehart
Then it was off to Tubugua and the Taino Valley Tropical Park, which I had visited with a
short-term team in October and knew everyone would love.
📷 Jana Inglehart
I also knew that our lunch spot isn't known for speed, so after seeing the tour group off, I went ahead to the restaurant to order a selection of family-style appetizers. My view as I killed time by answering emails on my phone, reading, and Marco Polo-ing my sister-in-law wasn't terrible.
Saturday was meeting day. Imagine a conference room packed with about 35 people for six or seven hours and you've about got it. My time in the sun came right after lunch, when I got to give a presentation I titled "
Mission Education: Philosophy & Practice." The concept had been percolating for awhile, and as my facial expression gives away, it came out passionately and confidently.
📷 Mark Rychel
I also did a lot of simultaneous interpreting despite only being scheduled to do so once!
At the end of the day, Regional Director Rev. Ted Krey did a general callout for impressions/takeaways. The answers impressed me:
- the FORO's multinational flair (featuring individuals from the US, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela, Bolivia, Haiti, and Cuba);
- the fact that so many DRLM congregations, all planted since the LCMS began working here in 2005, are already planting daughter congregations; and
- the fact that everything we do is built on the foundation of relationship.
That night, we'd gather in the Krey backyard for a cookout. If you like pickles and need a good potluck side, try
this.
The education focus continued Sunday after church in Licey as partners, missionaries, and key congregational leaders stuck around for boxed lunches (note to self: frozen juice boxes take longer to defrost than you think) and a presentation by 4th year seminarian Luis on his evangelism project in the public school operating on church property. Luis, both pastors, one of the other seminarians and his wife, one of two deaconesses, and the congregational president ALL have extensive educational experience, from pre-school through university.
A handful of us got together for a leisurely dinner out Sunday evening, but all too soon I was rudely awakened for an early Monday morning airport run. Fun fact, though: the botanical garden opens at FIVE am. I had lunch with two more partners before shuttling them, too, to the airport, and just like that, another FORO was in the books for me.
It felt kind of easy? Like we've done this a few times before and know all the right motions to go through. Despite that sense, I must have been more drained than I realized, because I slept a LOT Monday night into Tuesday and am just now kicking a sniffly cold I picked up...blessedly just in time to leave for Peru tomorrow!
Until next time, blessings in Christ!
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