Field Trip

Greetings from Panama City. LAC's 5th and final June/July volunteer team arrives tomorrow, so I'm sneaking in a post between trips to the hardware store and the grocery store. 

After a first day that tested their flexibility chops, the rest of Trinity, Davenport's "field trip" went more or less as I'd planned it.

(They called it a field trip because 1) 2/7 participants were current or retired educators; 2) it was short and sweet; and 3) all signs point to it being merely a first step in a longstanding relationship with "the field" involving many future trips.)

Friday began with Chaplain Naumann leading us in Matins before a Zoom introduction to the seminary with Academic Coordinator Rev. Roberto Bustamante. The Trinity team's Lutheran education antennae went off when Roberto touched on the developing Lutheran teacher colloquy program. 

We noticed in the course of Thursday that a sizeable branch had fallen out of the avocado tree on the playground. Travis (pictured below, right) and Eric were itching to remove it and did as soon as we could get our hands on a saw (thanks, Dr. Naumann!). 

Bye! Have a nice walk up the hill to the seminary dormitory, affectionately known as Golgotha. 

We'll sit here in the A/C. Miguel and Yadiel taught us a simple card game that basically consisted of trying to get a full house.

Lunch at the group home...

...and then some down time before a walk at the botanical garden and a rooftop taco party at fellow missionary Tirzah's apartment that evidently had me in a pensive mood. A power outage hindered my plan to hold an In the Time of the Butterflies movie night under the stars, as well. 

I pulled these beauts out of the fridge Saturday morning to share at an empanada-making outreach event for the ladies of Cienfuegos (though Berkis assured me ALL were welcome). 

I explained the who, what, where, why, and how of Cienfuegos for our visitors and then interpreted the gist of everything that followed into English (I had previously translated and printed the recipe, too). 

Carlos opened with a devotion about our daily bread and made some literature about the Lutheran church and her confessions available for all. 

These might just make an appearance at the Trinity youth's November craft fair. The guys were analyzing the mechanics of the press and pondering how easy it'd be to make one.

I made the team roll up their sleeves Saturday afternoon to help with the massive project that is moving the regional office. We had four work crews:

1. Kitchen facelift: sorting, washing, and stowing dishes, cookware, and utensils; scrubbing cabinets inside and out and lining them with shelf paper; replacing knobs and pulls. 

2. Library organization. Fifth grade teacher Rachel couldn't have been more perfect for this job. I think she just pretended it was her classroom library.

3. IKEA furniture assembly (in the A/C...). 

4. Missionary wall gallery hanging. I LOVE that I can show off the amazing team I'm part of now without having to point out all of the people who've added babies to their families, left the field, joined the field, switched countries, etc. 

A well-earned dinner at my house for this sweaty bunch. 

We doubled up on church Sunday and didn't even have to duck out of Palmar's Divine Service early since, with Pastor Idjon on vacation, sem grad Héctor led us in Matins instead. 

We even had time to, FINALLY, tour Concordia Lutheran School and meet secretary Sheila, sandwiched here between two pedagogically-minded sisters, retired teacher Kay (left) and Rachel (right). 

Receiving God's good gifts of body and blood in, with, and under bread and wine at Iglesia Luterana Cordero de Dios in Licey. 

Lunch at Ocampo (pictured), a grocery store run, and a winner, winner chicken dinner at fellow short-term (her "term" is 3 months instead of less than a week) volunteer Lynae's apartment rounded out our time together. 

I saw the team off at 4:30 am Monday morning, but something tells me LAC hasn't seen the last of Trinity, a congregation eager to dig deeper and step into stride with the people and projects of the Dominican Republic Lutheran Mission as God uses us to Spread the Gospel, Plant Lutheran Churches, and Show Mercy. 

Until next time, blessings in Christ!