Reconnected

[Current location: Springdale, AR]

If it seems like I've been traveling a ton on home service, you're not wrong. I have had a fair amount of speaking engagements in the St. Louis, area, though. Certain missionaries purposefully refer to missionaries' US stints as "reconnects," for perhaps obvious reasons that rang true for me about a week and a half ago between Colorado and Michigan. 

The secretary at Grace Chapel Lutheran School in north St. Louis invited me to lead chapel on a Wednesday. I'd been there a handful of times before...for volleyball games in middle school!

Both pastors met me at the door, as did the principal, whom I'd totally forgotten I knew. We'd met years ago at a young adult Bible study group called Quarterlife. Reconnected! Coincidentally, he's Jamaican; the fact that he's now a Lutheran educator is a direct result of LCMS missionaries there in the late 90s and early 2000s. 

The following day, I headed to the LCMS International Center (IC) for an early morning meeting: in person > Zoom. I'd spend the bulk of my day there, minus a few hours when I ducked out to one of St. Louis's many Lutheran Senior Services facilities. My 1st grade teacher (1993-1994 school year) had invited me to present for the Christian Women in Mission (read: LWML) group she's part of. Reconnected!

My late grandmother's cousin (right) and his wife live in the same facility. If my mom had mentioned this factoid, I'd totally forgotten. Reconnected! I'm not sure what relation we'd be, but the important thing is they're family.

Back at the IC, I jumped into the schedule for a joint "Reconnect" day. IC Reconnects aren't new, but lumping various Stateside missionaries together is a new tack on the part of Missionary Services. The other two families and I represented 3 of the 4 international regions. 

After lunch, anyone in the building was invited to hear us each share for 5-8 minutes. Then it was our turn to listen and learn about an innovative take on the missionary support model and the Office of International Mission's strategic direction. There's a phenomenal team of people who are deeply invested in us and our work internationally. Reconnected! I appreciate their continuous striving after best practices and all of the ways they make us feel as much a part of the organization as employees who work in the building. We closed with the Itinerarium order of prayer before travel.

I couldn't leave sans a photo with the Lawsons; we're the only members of our March 2018 missionary orientation cohort still on the field. Reconnected!

My iced chai is empty and Michigan deserves its own post, so that's a wrap :)

Until next time, blessings in Christ!