missionaryMAC

September is packed with travel: I ushered in the month in Belize and leave tomorrow for Jamaica. A DR FORO (post coming soon!) made a tight turnaround even tighter, but here we go. Beginning August 27, I was privileged to host a Community Health Evangelism (CHE) team in Belize. To my knowledge, it was LAC's 2nd (the first being Peru in Feb. 2020 ), and I was much more knowledgeable this time around. A trained team leader expertly helped a cadre of six well-rounded medical professionals lead a series of interactive workshops for missionaries, preschool teachers, preschool parents, church members, and the communities around the Belize Lutheran Mission congregations at large.  Time with these ladies is always a high point of Belize (Tirzah, on the far right, lives in the DR with me but was along for the ride due to the nature of this particular team). A few hours after we landed, we scoped out happy hour at a new-ish restaurant in Belmopan that I hope to incorporate into future team ...

The day I GOT ENGAGED.  Before I continue, just look at this for a second. Scroll back up to look at it again as many times as you want; gazing at my left hand has fast become one of my favorite pastimes.  I knew my mom had given Josh my engagement ring when we were in St. Louis (without even making him ask for it!). It belonged to my godmother's mother, whom I knew, distantly when I was small, as Aunt Clara. She got married in 1925, so it's 100+ years old. My godmother was my grandma's cousin, so she was like another grandma to me. She herself never married but had seven godchildren, two of whom are my mom and I. I rescued it from a table of mementos and mostly costume jewelry that were up for grabs after her funeral; it’s been waiting for a potential Mr. Right I thought might never materialize ever since. I also knew he'd had The Talk with my dad.  I wondered if he'd pop the question in Georgia : amid a bamboo forest, on a pier overlooking a lake, strolling throu...

You should be proud of me. The day LAC's regional conference ended, I unlinked my work email account from my phone so I wouldn't be taunted by a little red bubble with a number in it all week. For the most part I was unplugged from what was happening back home, but I couldn't escape a flurry of WhatsApps and Instagram messages related to "my" Hurricane.  I'd started keeping an eye on Hurricane Erin in the Hurricane Tracker app before Josh & I left St. Louis. My mom & I reminisced about the family vacation to Daytona Beach that was marked by 1995's same-named storm. I remember sitting in a hotel room playing cards all day and helping clear palm branches and shingles from the pool the next morning.  By the time I was basking in the southern sun and Blue Ridge Mountain vistas, though, Erin had become a bona fide hurricane - the season's first Cat 5, even. The news reported on its harmless progress daily.  Meanwhile, no less than eight people sent...

Cool your jets: this isn't the engagement story, but rest assured that's coming. Josh is a self-proclaimed redneck, so first, I had to become an honorary southern gal. Case in point: the first place he took me in his hometown of Acworth was Bass Pro! I am now the proud owner of a camo hat with a fishhook clip (I've never heard of this but apparently it's a thing).  You see, I needed said hat for the hikin' and shootin' we'd do on Tuesday, our first full day, and the fishin' we'd do later in the week (keep scrolling).  (Lake Allatoona, NOT the Chattahoochee River...yet).  Tuesday night, we joined a local American Cribbage Congress club at a Ruby Tuesday in a neighboring town. We weren't sure what we were in for, but it was a blast. We each anted up with $11 and then proceeded to play eight games vs. eight different opponents. It was not my night, but I did beat a certain someone with the initials "JW" in game 7. He came in 4th overall a...

I can't even express to you the number of times someone's said he's "a good guy."  It's a reassuring comment, in all honesty, since they're talking about my fiancé . Before we get to THAT story, though, you get the back story.  Sometime last fall, I remember a harried conversation about some vicar that was supposed to go to Sri Lanka but needed a new international placement when that fell through. Did any of our pastors want to supervise him? Yes, the Rev. Ross Shaver (Iglesia Luterana Pueblo Nuevo) would take him, so a couple months later, Vicar Josh landed in the DR on December 2.  Somehow, it fell to me to take the new guy shopping. Not knowing him from Adam, I texted to see what time would work best. Eight AM. At the store, he handed me his shopping list  right off the bat. Hmmmm... Making conversation in the car, we learned we shared a mutual love for cards and games. I happened to have cribbage on the brain, so I offhandedly (though seriously) sugge...