missionaryMAC

You ask what daily life is like? This weekend, hectic: it's DR fall FORO time!  FOROs are biannual, round-table strategic planning gatherings open to anyone who supports mission work in a particular country. While not a traditional "team," I was put in charge of logistics (meals, lodging, transportation) as a sort of test run before the first bona fide short-term team serves here at the end of January. Thankfully, I received all the support I needed from people who have been there, done that.  Danelle and I went shopping early this morning and got everything on the list - an answer to prayer in and of itself! I thought we weren't going to be able to leave until almost lunchtime and would need to go to multiple stores.  In addition to missionaries and local staff, 40 US collaborators were invited; four are coming. Disappointing as that is, if I'm being 100% honest, tracking flight information and making hotel reservations - in two cities - for a gro...

Good morning from my humble abode! After weeks of pouring into the house I now get to call my home, I slept here for the first time last night, only to be rudely awakened at ~ 1:45 am by an earthquake ! I've never felt one before, but somehow I knew exactly what it was. Acquiring furniture turned into quite the saga, but I was finally able to pick up the majority of my IKEA order on Wednesday. They only had one of the 2nd set of dining room chairs I picked out, but I'll wait on plan C until the four credit returns I have coming have been processed. Saga, I told you! Friday night, I hosted a furniture assembly party. The place was filled with missionaries and seminaristas who gave up their evening to play with "Legos for adults." Two hours or so later the job was done; all I did - besides take pictures - was dry and put away dishes that someone else washed! Quality control.  How many Lutherans does it take to put slats in an IKEA bed? This ...

You know the song that gets stuck in your head endlessly: //Amigos de Cristo; we're friends of the Lord; Amigos de Cristo; we're friends of the Lord. For we've been forgiven, and we've been restored, Amigos de Cristo; we're friends of the Lord.// You're welcome ;) That's what comes to mind, though, when I consider Amigos de Jesús , the monthly children's programming at Licey, the church I've all but decided I'm going to make my DR church home. Amigos de Jesús began as an outreach to neighborhood kids with special needs but has since morphed into something that serves a wider circle of little ones. There is Sunday school every week, but the third Sunday of every month is extra-special. Yesterday was my first. Breaking from the regularly scheduled, Catechism-based curriculum, the lesson was straight from the pages of Luke: Jesus Raises a Widow's Son. Vicar Yban Navarro and his wife Marta led the children in a song, Bible story reena...

My first work trip took me to Jamaica from 9/11-14 for the fall FORO meeting. Jamaica is a field that is gaining momentum, so the participants were mostly local staff and OIM representatives. I had an eye toward scouting out the potential impact that short-term teams could make on moving the ministry forward, which it turns out is significant. I already have plans to go back and work with a team at the end of March and may spend as many as five additional weeks there in 2019 with subsequent teams. Maybe by then my brain will have figured out that Jamaica's official language is (thickly accented, in some cases) English! The ambiance is that of any Latin American country I've been in, with a keenly felt British influence in the street names and the fact that they drive on the left side of the road! I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. L to R: Rev. Dr. Art Just (OIM); Rev. Peter Kirby (LHM...and a fellow member of my home congregation!); Rev. Charles St-Onge (...

Little by little. Little by little, I'm working to get my soon-to-be house ready for move-in. The car in the carport belongs to the missionary family that previously lived there. I also had an exterior, dusk to dawn floodlight installed underneath the center of the bay window since this photo was taken.  Homes in Cerro Alto, the neighborhood where the entire Santiago-based missionary team lives, might be spacious and ornate, but they require SO. MUCH. EFFORT. As a rule, landlords tend to be pretty hands-off. I'm starting to see the light, but it feels like I've been slogging through a mud pit. Thursday was a definite low point...long story involving a doorknob and IKEA. Suffice it to say Eddy the electrician saved the day on Friday. He's coming back to tie up a few loose ends tomorrow, so it's back to my all-too-familiar post at the kitchen table (as opposed to  on  the kitchen table...I finally borrowed some plastic chairs from the office) while he works...

"And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." --Genesis 1:31 I was stretched to trust in these words on Friday. As a precursor to taking our FORO collaborators there later this month, the seminary students and any missionaries who had not been were invited to visit " Kilómetro 28 ." Located near the capital, Kilómetro 28 is home to two government institutions that the Dominican Republic Lutheran Mission (DRLM) works in conjunction with. The goal of the partnership is fourfold:  1. Forge a relationship with the director; 2. Provide training for the staff; 3. Share the Good News; and 4. Impact (improve!) the lives of people in all of life's stages. We started at the Hogar Feliz (Happy Home), which cares for 33 abandoned adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Danelle briefed us on what to expect before we proceeded to the cramped  comedor (dining room), where all of the residents were gathered.   ...

Jamielynn, the GEO Missionary in charge of On-Field Orientation, has done a wonderful job managing the balancing act that is all of our schedules! She created a shared Outlook calendar; all we have to do is check it periodically so we know where to be and when. "Conference Opportunity" was the only event last week from Monday through Thursday, which meant we were invited to attend the first ever Mercy Center conference in Palmar Arriba. I jumped at the chance, largely so I could see some of the legwork that's involved in hosting a large group, and even got to tag along on a few planning errands. "Palmar"is one of the mission outposts in the Santiago area. The 3-story building there is home to a school, the Mercy Center, and Seminario Concordia El Reformador. Hogares Luteranos el Buen Pastor, a group home for six orphaned children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, also sits on the property, as does the seminary dormitory, affectionately known as...