missionaryMAC

I'm in the final stretch before home service. Just over a week until I fly to the US, and if their first few days are any indication, it's going to fly by with my current team from Concordia Theological Seminary. Ft. Wayne, IN. Last week's Peru youth retreat team is not to be ignored, though, and will feature in this post and the next.  Having hosted a DR youth retreat team in June 2023 , it was like déjà vu all over again for me, to quote Yogi Berra. The schedule was eeeeerily similar, but with an original theme: Defendiendo mi fe en Cristo (Defending My Faith in Christ). Missionary pastors and local volunteers owned the event. Five volunteers from Trinity Lutheran Church in Garden City, KS, and I stepped in to handle mundane tasks so these trusted adults who weren't skipping town a few days later could do what only  they could do: help form the young people of the Peru Lutheran Mission into godly adults - including, Lord willing, a future pastor or deaconess or two. 

I’ll be HOME later today! I started this post about the  Carlton Short-term Team   while living the airport lounge high life in Lima and am posting from jetBlue’s “Fly-fi” somewhere over southern FL. As has become my custom, I welcomed Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Wichita Falls, TX, with their church logo on the chalkboard wall at our hostel.  I loved their practice of beginning and ending most days in the Word together.  The national church's #1 priority was prepping & painting the ironwork grills covering the 1st floor windows...and lots of other places you don't notice until your job is to prep & paint it all, like the stair rail. It's more fun with friends! I knew both of these ladies from previous teams.  We had dinner at a restaurant inside Albrook Mall one night, then walked around a bit. These were clearly  a temporary installation in honor of February's annual  Carnaval celebration.  The dinosaur, on the other hand, is there all the time. Yes, it mak