Fall is my favorite season of the year. I celebrate the change in the crispness of the air, the colors that saturate trees, the cool nights that necessitate a warm jacket or sweater, the crunchy walks kicking dry leaves along our way. Fall brings to me a feeling of awe at the natural world, and a sense of reflection with the changing of the seasons. Change forces us to reflect.
This fall, we find ourselves in a state of “homelessness.” We have become transient beings as we haul our suitcases from town to town, home to home during the first step in our missionary assignments. As a traditionally “rooted” person who has always enjoyed a home base--a place of refuge--I’ve tried to be intentional in finding perspective through this time of travel. Patrick and I are thrown out of the routine that defined our lives a few months ago, and begin the process of learning how to be flexible, malleable, attentive to how we can make a little “home” in each place we find ourselvs. It marks the first of many adjustments ahead the will challenge us in this new journey.
September brought our first experiences in itineration—traveling to several of the many churches who have pledged financial and spiritual support to us and our future work in Haiti. We really didn’t know what to expect with such visits. We were relieved to find warmth and hospitality shown to us as we entered each new faith community and congregation. We were invited to share in worship services, provided meals and lodging and hearty conversations. We learned from people whose life experiences were vivid and globally centered and helped give us some perspective on our upcoming assignment. Music of choirs and soloists elevated our spirits as we sat back in the pews to reflect. We were inspired by the interest shown by members of congregations in our work and in the lives of people living outside the U.S. Excitement sparked as people brainstormed on how to organize fund drives, to collect supplies, or to plan trips. Relationships were forged. Inspiration ignited. And my faith in the people of this country was lifted as conversations about global and spiritual accountability and responsibility threaded through our trips.
Patrick and I have felt so blessed by the friends, new and old, who have opened their lives and their homes to us over the last month. Homelessness is not a challenge or a difficulty to be forged when your friends and neighbors wrap you in love and hospitality everywhere you go. Home becomes the community, the place you find yourself in. We’ve been pampered and loved as we’ve moved from home to home. How rich we are to be surrounded by such a community who seeks to offer us such luxuries of life. Many thanks to you all.
Now we are in Indianapolis, at the end of a week of missionary orientation. The week has helped us develop a new community as we’ve met missionaries both at the end of their service and embarking afresh. We came to understand our parent organization, Global Ministries, better in its philosophy and branches of outreach. We had sessions addressing anti-racism, cultural immersion and training, security, as well as other nuts and bolts of our future jobs. Subjects broached during our time included struggling with our identity as Americans, and what that means as we move into foreign places, the violence both criminal and political that exists in our world and how to face such situations, the sex and labor slave trade that infects our countries and allows slavery to be at an all new high in our world’s history, our roles as missionaries and our responsibility to our partners who will dictate what kind of work is needed and the role we will play. We came to understand our mission as bringing a presence of reconciliation and solidarity to the partners and populations we will serve as well as challenging social structures in our societies that do not lend themselves to liberation and peace for all people. I pray that we are up to the challenge we are called to and that our presence becomes one of healing and transformation.
One more week of U.S. leaving remains before our departure to Haiti. We try not to get overwhelmed at our to-do list or at the long list of people that we want to hug goodbye. Even the list of things to learn, discuss and accomplish in our first few months of Haiti seems staggering, but excites us at we are facing challenges that look different from anything else we’ve ever tried. That excites. That's FUN!
This fall, we find ourselves in a state of “homelessness.” We have become transient beings as we haul our suitcases from town to town, home to home during the first step in our missionary assignments. As a traditionally “rooted” person who has always enjoyed a home base--a place of refuge--I’ve tried to be intentional in finding perspective through this time of travel. Patrick and I are thrown out of the routine that defined our lives a few months ago, and begin the process of learning how to be flexible, malleable, attentive to how we can make a little “home” in each place we find ourselvs. It marks the first of many adjustments ahead the will challenge us in this new journey.
September brought our first experiences in itineration—traveling to several of the many churches who have pledged financial and spiritual support to us and our future work in Haiti. We really didn’t know what to expect with such visits. We were relieved to find warmth and hospitality shown to us as we entered each new faith community and congregation. We were invited to share in worship services, provided meals and lodging and hearty conversations. We learned from people whose life experiences were vivid and globally centered and helped give us some perspective on our upcoming assignment. Music of choirs and soloists elevated our spirits as we sat back in the pews to reflect. We were inspired by the interest shown by members of congregations in our work and in the lives of people living outside the U.S. Excitement sparked as people brainstormed on how to organize fund drives, to collect supplies, or to plan trips. Relationships were forged. Inspiration ignited. And my faith in the people of this country was lifted as conversations about global and spiritual accountability and responsibility threaded through our trips.
Patrick and I have felt so blessed by the friends, new and old, who have opened their lives and their homes to us over the last month. Homelessness is not a challenge or a difficulty to be forged when your friends and neighbors wrap you in love and hospitality everywhere you go. Home becomes the community, the place you find yourself in. We’ve been pampered and loved as we’ve moved from home to home. How rich we are to be surrounded by such a community who seeks to offer us such luxuries of life. Many thanks to you all.
Now we are in Indianapolis, at the end of a week of missionary orientation. The week has helped us develop a new community as we’ve met missionaries both at the end of their service and embarking afresh. We came to understand our parent organization, Global Ministries, better in its philosophy and branches of outreach. We had sessions addressing anti-racism, cultural immersion and training, security, as well as other nuts and bolts of our future jobs. Subjects broached during our time included struggling with our identity as Americans, and what that means as we move into foreign places, the violence both criminal and political that exists in our world and how to face such situations, the sex and labor slave trade that infects our countries and allows slavery to be at an all new high in our world’s history, our roles as missionaries and our responsibility to our partners who will dictate what kind of work is needed and the role we will play. We came to understand our mission as bringing a presence of reconciliation and solidarity to the partners and populations we will serve as well as challenging social structures in our societies that do not lend themselves to liberation and peace for all people. I pray that we are up to the challenge we are called to and that our presence becomes one of healing and transformation.
One more week of U.S. leaving remains before our departure to Haiti. We try not to get overwhelmed at our to-do list or at the long list of people that we want to hug goodbye. Even the list of things to learn, discuss and accomplish in our first few months of Haiti seems staggering, but excites us at we are facing challenges that look different from anything else we’ve ever tried. That excites. That's FUN!
For now, I get ready to board the plane for my parent's home. I think I’ll study a little Creole, journal about my thoughts, and look forward to a trip to the farm and to Denver to revel in moments with family and friends, to soak up the beauty of fall and the crispness of the air, to reflect on the road that has lead us here and that stretches ahead of us into the distance.
I just read about your adventure...I am so proud of both of you and what you are doing..keep in touch..Aunt Carol
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