“I love you, O Lord, my strength.” Psalm 18:1
I have recently been meditating on the above thought. My desire is to love God, and for everything I do to be done out of an ever-growing love for God – not to prove myself to other people, not to worry about my path in life, but rather to rest in God. This week I have been moving out of my house, and God provided strength in the heat (over 110 degrees), trust and faith to give up my possessions, and lots of generous people to help:
- My sister Lorena and brother-in-law Gregor (above) came to visit for over a week of assistance: Lorena was phenomenally helpful at going through boxes of things, letting me tell their story and then encouraging me as I let them go. Gregor brought computer accessories and did some intense work on my computer. He also brought the movie “Strictly Ballroom”!
- Chrissy and Jeff held a garage sale for me at their house and invited people to sell things there and give the proceeds to my missions fund. Chrissy tirelessly priced, greeted, hauled, and advised for over a week in preparation.
- The Rodgers’ community group is cleaning my house after I have moved out.
- Nadia is letting me stay at her house whenever I am in town (which includes much of October through December) and has a lot of room for me to store things.
Schedule
September 5 – 30 I will be in Argentina to assist with two trainings, look for housing, and get to know the Lopez family who will be providing on-the-job training for me next year. Then I return to the U.S. for a few months of support raising and other preparation before moving to Argentina in early January. Some highlights of the next few weeks are:
September 5 – 6
Nearly 24 hours of travel to get to Cordoba, Argentina -- I leave Queen Creek at 10:00 am on Wednesday and arrive in Cordoba at 7:30 am on Thursday (MST)! I will stay with Marcelo and Silva Lopez and their children Luz (18) and Felipe (16). Marcelo has been working with LifeWind International for some time and I look forward to learning from him.
September 11 – 14
“Training of Trainers 1” in the village of Burela, province of Salta. The Wichi Indians had a “Vision Seminar” a few months ago and are now ready to receive training to become trainers of community health evangelists (CHEs). The CHEs will go from home to home teaching their neighbors about basic healthcare, micro-enterprise, and the gospel.
The Wichi Indians are an indigenous people group in northern Argentina and Bolivia. The possession of their land has been disputed by the national government and much of it has been sold and de-forested. Portions of the Bible were recently translated into their language.
September 20
Bibiana MacLeod, Regional Coordinator for the Caribbean and South America, flies in to Buenos Aires to facilitate the next week’s training. She will be my supervisor while I am in South America, and I am looking forward to seeing her again in person – I last saw her in 2004 in the Dominican Republic.
September 24 – 28
“Urban Training of Trainers 1” near Buenos Aires. This training is specially designed for those working in inner city slums to discover local connections and help people work together for the community’s good: spiritually, emotionally, physically, and vocationally.
September 29 – 30
Only 17 hours travel from Buenos Aires to Phoenix, then I hop directly in my car to drive to San Diego.
September 30 – October 4
Continuing medical education conference in San Diego. I will stay with my stepsister Karina, attend the conference with my friend Jenny, and hang out with Jenny, her husband Ken, and her daughters Grace and Kate. Grace is my god-daughter, and while I think it’s a good example to her to follow God to the mission field, it is difficult to move further away from her.
October 5 – 9-ish
I will stay in San Diego, initially alone, to start to digest the previous month’s work and to pray. My stepsister Karina will then return from a conference and we hope to gather some of her friends together so that I can share my heart and vision for holistic ministry.
