missionaryMAC

Feliz Navidad Feliz Navidad Feliz Navidad Prospero Ano y Felicidad. Feliz Navidad Feliz Navidad Feliz Navidad Prospero Ano y Felicidad. I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas I wanna wish you a Merry ChristmasI wanna wish you a Merry Christmas From the bottom of my heart. [Repeats] --Jose Feliciano

Well I am Drury's newest alumna as of Saturday! Graduation went just fine, I didn't trip walking across the stage or anything and I did in fact come away diploma in hand. Plus I bet they didn't sing a Disney song at your college graduation (some guy sang "Go the Distance" from Hercules ). Here are some pictures if you are interested. So now that that's over I guess the countdown begins until moving day...my start date is Thurs. Jan. 15 so I'll be leaving the day before, Wed. Jan. 14. That's a little over three weeks from today. I haven't really started packing or anything (I just finished unpacking all my stuff from school actually b/c I'm anal like that and I can't leave it all piled in boxes someplace), but it's not that much different than packing for school or Spain or something and I'm pretty good at that. Plus I have a new humongous bright blue suitcase to use...thanks Mom and Dad! Oh and I turned in my official (for REAL th...

Greetings, Here is some more information that I was able to get today. I will be seeing him again tomorrow, so I am sure I will be sending another update. The doctor does not think that they will operate on the brain tumor. The cancer has spread and has also affected his kidneys. They started him on chemotherapy today, however he was still joking with me because when I got there, he asked me if I could bring him some cigarettes. At least he is remaining upbeat. At this time, the doctors have no time frame on when he can go home, or how much more will spread or anything. Please continue to pray for Enrique, I told him how many people were pulling for him and he had a great smile and said to thank you all. More updates to follow. Thanks. Chris

Received the following e-mail from Chris a few minutes ago: Hello everyone, I am sorry to have to send out this news, but I am asking you all to keep Enrique Carrejo in your prayers. As you may know, Enrique is a driver for Servant Events here at Ysleta. This past Wednesday, Enrique fell at his house. He went to the hospital and a tumor was found on his lungs, and his brain. Tests revealed that it is cancer. He also had a cat scan today while I was visiting him at the hospital to check the possibility of it infecting his kidneys as well. Unfortunately, that is all the information I have right now. The tumor in his brain is giving the doctors the most concern. He has a meeting with a Radioligist tomorrow and they will know how far along it is and what treatment to take. They may have to do surgery to remove the brain tumor because it is right in between the left and right sections. They are giving him steroids to stop the growth of it. I visited him this morning, as his daughte...

Just got back from taking my Hebrew final (which was ridiculously easy...and open-book) which means I'm done for good!!! Well, Monday I have to go listen to 2 presentations in The Spiritual Life and then hand in 2 projects for Graphic Design II--like literally walk in, hand the professor my stuff, walk out--but those don't really count so in my book I am done with my undergrad. So I'm not just going to sit around here all next week while everyone else takes finals, here's the plan: this weekend--hang out in Springfield Monday--do the stuff I talked about in the first paragraph, pack, clean Tuesday afternoon--head to Columbia to see Marie/Kelley Tues-Fri--CoMo Fri, 1 pm--Marie graduation, leave for Springfield immediately following that Fri evening--get back from CoMo, my family gets here for my graduation Sat morning--pick up cap/gown, head to Weiser Gym Sat, 10 am--GRADUATION :) (any and all of you are welcome to come if you are going to be in Springfield/feel like dri...

The expression in the title is a Spanish one that I heard ALL the time when I was over there; it could roughly be translated into English as, "and that's that," or something along those lines. Anyways, I thought it was a fitting way to tell you all that I REACHED MY SUPPORT-RAISING GOAL!!! As of Friday 12/5 when I received my report from LCMS I was $15 over my official budgeted amount, so that is a total blessing and answer to prayer. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! It could also be, as Mrs. Shearman pointed out to me for those of you who know her, God's way of confirming that I am doing what He wants me to be doing. I thought that was a neat perspective that I hadn't really considered before. You're probably wondering what the deal is with all monies received from here on out. My fundraising mentor said it is good to have a cushion in case some of my pledges don't wind up coming in, but basically it just goes into a general pool to support the mission ...

This past weekend (11/14-11/16) I had the opportunity to attend the National LCMS Servant Event Leadership Conference. My future coworker, Chris Hill, was able to fly from El Paso to attend as well. The event was held at the Our Lady of the Snows Shrine in Belleville, IL, a wonderful facility that took amazing care of us. Plus they have one of those deals where you can drive through and look at a whole bunch of Christmas lights, and they turned them on Saturday night...it was perfect with the SNOW!!! The conference included devotions, hymn sings, Bible studies, breakout sessions, a worship service (which we skipped to reunite with the group from St. Paul's that went to Ysleta in July 2008...), and a commissioning service. It was great to make some new contacts (we managed to generate 3-4 groups that may be interested in coming down to El Paso sometime), meet others who have been to Ysleta and love it (like the group from Caro, MI, who built the new sanctuary at San Lucas in Anapra)...

Although I get reports on my account from LCMS every Friday, I couldn't check last week's until yesterday afternoon because I was at Heit's Point all weekend as a counselor for a Confirmation retreat, and we had to leave before I could check it on Friday. When I did though, I was met with exciting news: I now have the first year (plus a little more) completely taken care of! That is one of LCMS's requirements for anyone serving over 12 months--the first year technically needs to be covered before leaving for the field. Not that I was worried about making it to that milestone at all--in fact I am uncharacteristically not worried about reaching my overall goal for that matter--but it means I can officially go! T-minus a little over 2 months!

So LCMS likes to send me a lot of mail and I got one today that I wanted to share--my "Solemn Appointment." So official sounding...I feel like I should frame it like a degree or something (I'll have one of those too in a month and a half now!). Here is the opening paragraph: "To Ms. Erin Mackenzie of Saint Paul Lutheran Church in Des Peres, Missouri Having called on the Lord, our God, for guidance and in the exercise of authority with which He has vested in His church, we, the members of the Board for Mission Services of The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod in lawful meeting on July 29, 2008, have appointed you to the office of Long-term missionary and herewith extend to you this formal notification of your solemn appointment. " Pretty cool, huh? School is going pretty well too. I no longer spend every free second working on my honors project because it's DONE! Well, not like REALLY done, but entirely written, revised once, sent to my committee of professors, ...

Happy Reformation Day!

Two things of note in the past week: 1. I spoke at St. Paul's at the Saturday night service on 10/18 and at all three services on Sunday morning 10/19. I went following the first hymn after a brief introduction by either Pastor Femmel or Pastor Seban. My speech basically outlined what I will be doing and a few of the possible ways to support me. I started off by reading a Bible verse from Psalm 19: 1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. 3 There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. Then after each service my dad and I each took a door and we handed out the brochures that LCMS printed for me as people exited. All in all I think the weekend went well...I received lots of compliments on my talk and got rid of probably 100ish brochure...

Jeff Hefele, a member of my home church (St. Paul’s Des Peres) and a good friend of my family and I, passed away suddenly on Tuesday, October 7, 2008. He was 38 and is survived by his wife Amie and their 3 daughters: Abbie, Julianna, and Isabelle. His obituary as it appeared in the St. Louis Post Dispatch can be read here: http://www.legacy.com/stltoday/DeathNotices.asp?Page=SearchResults . The reason I put this on here is that it was obvious Jeff had a heart for missions—YLM in particular. On four of my five previous trips to Ysleta, I have been accompanied by either Jeff or Amie, sometimes both. Many of my memories of Jeff are consequently things he did while on these trips: Jeff and his invaluable construction expertise, Jeff teaching me to use a Sawzall, Jeff eyeing the dancers onstage at Ajuua! alongside the high school boys on the trip, Jeff and his “pimpin” hat (my friend Katherine crimped the edges of his cowboy hat and stuck a purple feather in the front—Jeff added some girly ...

Hola! This is where I'll record happenings, thoughts, ideas, feelings, etc. during the remaining weeks and months leading up to my stint as the Servant Event Coordinator at Ysleta Lutheran Mission in El Paso, TX, and also during my missionary service for 18 months starting this January. The name missionaryMAC comes from something I got in the mail from LCMS not long after I was officially accepted for this position. They were sending me about 8 trees worth of paperwork every week for awhile; one letter I got was addressed "Dear Missionary Mackenzie" and it pretty much made my day. So what am I up to right now? I leave in a little less than 4 months and I am working hardcore on support-raising! The total that I need to raise to cover everything for 18 months is approx. $17,000. I would also like to raise up an army of people to pray for me before, during, and after my time in El Paso. Currently I am about 1/6 of the way there. The next step will be speaking to my congregat...