missionaryMAC

I'd just finished annihilating Josh at rummy when Dana sent me a WhatsApp message.  [8:07 pm]: Are you at the monument watching the game?!​ *Me, 8:29 pm: Spontaneously orders an Uber from Josh's apartment to the Monument to watch the DR play the US in the World Baseball Classic* There were thousands  of people. If I hadn't realized the depth to which this island worships baseball, I did now. Bars and restaurants were packed and illegal broadcasts were projected on the sides of otherwise nondescript trucks, but you didn't even need to be near one of the bajillions of screens airing the matchup to know what was happening; the crowd's collective reactions told all.  As we abandoned the Uber and scurried up a dirt path to the base of the Monument, it started sprinkling.  By the time we found a spot where we could see the screen if we craned our necks, it was full-on pouring.  I was that most miserable of combinations - cold AND wet - but the rain worked to our advan...

I'm officially in my last month of living abroad in the DR. Accordingly, it figures that my last trip , featuring my last team(s!) , was only the beginning of a string of "lasts," and I'm positive there's more where these came from: LAST beach trip? Dana asked me to walk her through the paces of taking a volunteer team + the 6 residents of the Good Shepherd Lutheran Homes group home to Playa Costambar , so I happily obliged. It was a short-ish beach day, but I wasn't mad. A drizzly morning (see above) gave way to a few hours of sunshine, but a steady breeze brought another freak shower right as we - finally! - sat down to lunch. LAST missionary conference planning meeting with the entire committee. LAST FORO (we busted out the deck of cards that lives in my glove box during a length lunch break!).  Actual LAST missionary conference planning meeting, with the addition of newbies Ashley and Makia , who'll be taking over my role hosting the MK Program Team. ...

While my last couple blog posts have been informative, they've left out a few key details: Panama was my last trip, comprised partly of hosting my last team .  I've always said this was my dream job and I'd be here until I retired or the Lord called me elsewhere.  After 7 1/2 years abroad, The Lord is calling me elsewhere...with someone  else. Now that the cat's out of the bag, click here or on the image below to read my final newsletter.  I'll share much more about my current frame of mind and answer all your burning questions in a subsequent post, but for now, enjoy these photos I may have intentionally left out of the aforementioned posts:  Seeing the TX portion my last team off to the airport.  A touching send-off from the Panama team: wool "paintings" by the Rickman girls of a) Josh & I; and b) Redeemer Lutheran Church. We're laughing as Eva explains that my hair is made out of alpaca wool I sourced from Peru. They even included my ever-pres...

​When a team immediately following H&H  but in another field that would have nearly doubled my time away from home didn't materialize, I gladly volunteered to stay on in Panama and support what was rumored to be a sizable FORO. While it wound up being fairly manageable - five volunteers from the week prior plus Kris, the Mission Board chair from my home congregation in St. Louis -  it was a chance to beta test some of the processes I've helped implement in the DR elsewhere, bringing standardization to the LAC FORO experience region-wide.  An "introvert day" of barely leaving my hotel room on Friday rejuvenated me to kick off the weekend with a Lebanese feast that evening.  Saturday's long day of presentations began with Matins in the sanctuary.  I took minutes from my seat on the corner of the "L" on the right of the photo.  Deaconess Marina deftly did simultaneous translation nearly all day.  The youngest member of the FORO was Pastor Alejandro Ló...

​Josh's airport taxi service was up and running the morning of Friday, February 20; his parents left at 6 am, and I took off for Panama around 8 am. On the surface, there was nothing unusual about my being on the ground to support a volunteer team, except in this case I'd actually be supporting TWO teams functioning as one. The team leaders' last names, respectively, were Holland (TX) and Hartwig (IA), so I dubbed the merger "H&H" in my files.  The TX contingent's original flight was cancelled, so they came in a day early, on the same flight as me. I left them to their own devices until the "mission trip" officially kicked off with a Saturday afternoon airport run to pick up the IA contingent. Fun fact: I've hosted this particular congregation more times than any other, in four different countries.  We took our "show" (an eyeglass clinic with children's activities on the side for neighborhood kids or kids whose parents were get...