Breakfast with most of "Team Baradero." You can see the typical breakfast drinks (tea and mate) and food (all simple carbs), plus my mandarin orange. I've decided it's okay to shock people at breakfast by eating fruit. They told me they could see how it might be a good idea to have fruit in the morning, but certainly not when it's cold. :-)So, the past few days have been kind of hard. I've had a bunch of things to get done at home: figure out more of my continuing medical education which I last worked on in October, send e-mails to a bunch of new contacts here in Argentina, work on my quarterly reports (how is it that time again?), develop an organizational system at home now that I'm seeing how the work is going (where does one buy a filing box?), confirm upcoming trips to Baradero and Rosario, etc. None of these things sounds particularly exciting, but they are things that need to get done. But I kind of got into a funk, and found it really hard to focus Monday and Tuesday.
Grace is something I don't really understand. It comes when I least expect it, and can be overwhelming, especially when I recognize it as coming straight from God. The concept of "will power" I also don't really understand, since it's possible to be very strong in some areas of my life and not in others. I don't really think that's will power, though, just strength and weakness, or sin strongholds, lack of surrender, or something else.
I had an excellent weekend, which makes the bad days this week seem particularly hard. Saturday I got some things done at home, then went to my friends' Annie and Bill's for tea with a missionary named Luis who is supported by their daughter's church. Two of Annie and Bill's daughters also came over at different times with their husbands and children. We had an excellent talk and it turns out Luis used to work with Gabriel, my contact in Salta. Luis currently works in the province of Neuquen, the "Austria" of Argentina (mountains, lakes, etc.). He's got some great projects with church plants, school tutoring, feeding centers. We talked about CHE and if it could be useful to them, and I think it definitely could be, particularly with the Mapuche Indian communities they serve.
I stayed for pizza with several members of the family, then for a movie with Bill and Annie. Sunday I spoke at church about our projects and a new fundraiser we're starting there for their missionary couple to be able to go to our Nicaraguan internship in October. I was then invited for lunch with Bill, Annie, and Lidia, and Lidia and I ended our time with tea while our hosts took a siesta. Then I went running (see previous post). All in all an excellent weekend, filled with new ministry contacts, more involvement in my local church, and family meals. And did I mention the running?
Anyway, I'm not going to answer any questions about grace in this post. I only know that it was not will power that helped me to run on Sunday, nor was it lack of same that made my days on Monday and Tuesday so gloomy and non-functional. It wasn't me being flexible that made it relatively easy to start eating meat again last September after more than two decades, and it's not me being picky that makes it hard again now. I think I was given extra grace last September so that I would see God's hand in my move here.
So, I wanted a pep talk today. I chose an inspirational conversation from Dodgeball where the main character unexpectedly encounters Lance Armstrong at the Las Vegas Airport. I also listened to this Semisonic song, which I hadn't heard since way back in the early 90s in my concert-going days, back when they were named "Pleasure" and they opened every show with it. Listen to one or both, and I think you'll get pepped up like I did!
I don't want you to think I'm not being "spiritual,"(here I go with my Greek dichotomous thinking, separating the spiritual from the non-spiritual) since I did also learn from the Hebrew scriptures. Two days ago I read the book of Micah, and at first felt frustrated and guilty at one of the passages, normally a favorite of mine: What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? See, I wasn't doing much of anything worthwhile that day. But then I read on about the character of God and what God does: Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
Heating up bread that was in the freezer and the previous day's empanadas and pizza, the old-fashioned way, on a wood burning stove! Yes, that is a slice of ham on one piece of pizza and a whole olive, pit included, on the other.
