missionaryMAC

Last week was surprising...if you were Agatha and Edith, that is. I got to be part of bringing unexpected joy into the lives of first a missionary spouse and then a seminary wife. (The latter was surprising for me, too!)  Tirzah corralled the women of Cerro Alto and pulled off a baby shower for Agatha (and let's be honest, José Augusto, due just before Christmas) on Tuesday afternoon. She claims she had NO idea but was wearing the theme color! Everyone filled their plates with goodies (I made meatballs and a healthy-ish chocolate cake ) before we played 2 games. I correctly matched 16/18 "Bible babies" with their parents but my string was a wee bit longer than the circumference of Agatha's baby bump. After presents, we ended by singing hymns together (as we had at Agatha's first baby shower ) - a tradition (?) I'd be OK with migrating to the US.  The next day, on my way to a local thrift store chain to hopefully find non-tennis-shoe alternative footwear for a

I've never been a person who says "I should..." do X, Y, or Z and then doesn't do it. Ever since I moved back into my house over a year ago, I'd been thinking it'd be nice to have a shelf in the middle of the awkward L-shaped cabinet to the right of my range. True to form, I reached out to the mission's go-to carpenter a little over a month ago. He came, took measurements...and then didn't contact me for weeks but came to do the install within a day of me following up. Go figure.  When the sawdust cleared, I had this! BEFORE (left) & AFTER (right): Short side.  BEFORE (top) & AFTER (bottom): Long side.  So far...I like it. I think. I'll have to do some more cooking & baking before I know for sure, but having two levels of storage promises to make more of the things I use more often than others  more accessible. What should I make next?  Until next time, blessings in Christ!

Yesterday, while a pot of cinnamon and ginger tea steeped on the stove in the office kitchen, one of the Spanish teachers asked me how I could wear shorts " con este frio "! It's definitely not summer anymore in Santiago. In the past week or so we've progressed through... Reformation All five DRLM congregations came together on Sunday, October 27 to commemorate the 507th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing the 95 Theses to a church door in Wittenberg, Germany. The service took place under a tent on the cancha  in Palmar Arriba. I don't know if you can tell in the first photo, but that meant  of course it rained. It's the tent! Every. Time. I was seated near a gap where 2 sections came together, so I kept inching closer to Stan :) Everyone enjoyed box lunches and cake...inside...before going their separate ways.  Photo credit: Jana Inglehart Halloween Halloween seems more and more pervasive every year. In 2018, there were maybe a couple bags of bulk candy at P

I asked my friend and fellow missionary Dana the title question last week in response to an Instagram ad for a guided tour of Santiago's main cemetery, sponsored by a local funeral home. Clearly, she didn't think so, and while I wonder about my Instagram algorithm, this isn't the first time I've purposefully gone walking in a cemetery, either.  Before I go on, I must say the outing was exceptionally well organized. After scoring a rockstar spot and heeding the parking guy's directive that I " lockear " my car (as if I wouldn't have...), we meandered through an impressively large crowd milling about. The organizers were underneath a pop-up tent registering people by name (though they didn't seem concerned about us) and handing out brochures, bottled water, and headsets so even those at the back could hear the guide.  We browsed a wall of crypts near the entrance while we waited for the "4:00" tour to start at maybe  4:30.  I tried followi

Fall 2024 was quiet as far as short-term teams  in the DR, but that doesn't mean we haven't had any short-term volunteers . Quite the opposite, in fact: September & October saw two visitors that technically fell under my purview, each participating in a type of service specifically designed for individuals in their situations.  The Rev. David Mommens, pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Melrose, MN, joined us for five weeks as the guinea pig for Expanding the Spanish Footprint , an immersive Spanish experience for pastors and seminary students . The name is the goal: equip candidates to effectively preach the saving Gospel to Spanish-speakers in their communities. Melrose is teeny (pop. 3,598) but made up of at least 25% Hispanics, and neither of the other two churches (Catholic and Pentecostal, respectively) is doing anything to evangelize them.  David stayed in a mission apartment in the heart of the same neighborhood as the Santiago-based missionary team (and ma

How was Belize, you ask? Wet.  I learned of Nadine thanks to a prayer request on the LAC Facebook page while working at a coffee shop with Karina and tracking the arrival of a four-man team from Trinity Lutheran Church in Houston, TX. Turns out "94L" had become a tropical storm* and was making a beeline directly for us. Even 3.8 inches of rain last Saturday didn't stop  us from Belize-in' , though - just forced us to "pivot!" (which went on to become a catchphrase in conversation the rest of the weekend) several times.  Pivot! Trapped on the bunkhouse porch due to a freak downpour, Rev. Herb Burch shared a brief history of Camp Concordia. Later, we had a "light" (ha!) meal together with the Burches and fellow missionary Danelle 's parents, visiting from OR. Aside from experiencing Camp life, completing a 1/2 day work project, and doing some intentional planning for a larger team from Trinity that's angling to revamp the Little Lambs Presch