Return to Buenos Aires

One of my last views of San Francisco (off to the right and covered in fog): on our way to Lorena and Gregor's friend Patrick's to play a game before going to the airport.

I got back to Buenos Aires a week ago Friday after six weeks in the States. I want to tell you about my return:

Killer flight, 26 hours from first take-off to last landing, two nights in a row on planes! Yuck! I still don't sleep on planes, and they actually repeated a movie that wasn't worth watching the first time. But I did buy some Peruvian chocolate (see last posting).

Friday:
Got home, watched an episode of Flight of the Conchords (that Lorena and Gregor gave me) and went to bed at 8:30 am.

Woke up to a phone call from Silvia and Horacio (Baradero team). We chatted about the next day's training in La Plata that they were going to help me with. I reviewed what I'd prepared for the next day and found that I had no more work to do on it!

Went for a run and felt so good after the first round that I went again for a total of 6.6 miles, a new record for me (by far!).

Got back to more phone calls from my friends Nora (also on the Baradero team and helping out at the next day's training) and Monica.

Opened my fridge and found the food that Margarita, the woman who cleans my place fortnightly, had prepared. Pears, plums, carrots (some grated already), lettuce (already washed), tomatoes, and milanesas (breaded meat). What a huge blessing!

Saturday:
Took the train to meet Horacio and Silvia who were driving Nora and me to the La Plata training. We shared mate on the drive as we discussed last-minute plans for the day.

Excellent training in La Plata. All of the participants had completed or at least started the assignments from the last session which were to start spiritual maps of their target communities and do a seed project to help out in the neighborhood. Wow!

Here are the participants looking at the collection of resources in our group. The different colors of post-it represent 1) what we like to do with our hands, 2) what we can teach others, 3) what we're passionate about, 4) what we would like to learn if it were available in our neighborhood, and 5) neighborhood groups we are part of. This is an exercise to help them begin to focus on the resources of their communities (Asset-Based Community Development) rather than on what is lacking.

Leading the group in singing, "Build your house on the Rock."

All in all an excellent return to my new home. I felt mimada (cared for, pampered), missed, and I had an excellent team helping with the training, and really lively, active participants at the training.

Three wonderful women: Silvia, Monica, and Nora.

Ridiculously Blessed

The Baradero team two weeks ago, working hard in beautiful late summer surroundings.

I am ridiculously blessed.

In three days I leave for the United States, and although I will be there for nearly six weeks I’ll be in four states. I am ridiculously blessed with friends and family that love me and care about me and are traveling to come see me if I can’t get to them. I will not be on vacation while there, since I will be attending medical conferences and following up by e-mail with people in Argentina and sharing with individuals, small groups, and churches what is going on in Argentina. However, I choose to look at the overwhelming amount of opportunities as a blessing. (Remind me of that if you see me stressed!)

I brought out the camera during our Baradero meeting to take a picture of this hummingbird. Can you find it? It’s green, so it's tricky to spot.

Tonight I sat out on my balcony to decompress after a busy day. I looked at the nearly full moon while Rich Mullins started singing, “Everywhere I go I see you.” I thought, how true, when we open our eyes we see God everywhere. I had been stressed all day and never really stopped to let God move in me, to give God my burdens and take up the easy and light yoke that is offered. Before stepping out on my balcony I did so, and I think that’s why I was able to see God in the moon. The moon in and of itself was stunning, but then a light cover of clouds came over it and the aura created was huge and colorful. I heard a breeze blow through a neighbor’s tree and was delighted with being able to worship God in nature despite being in a city. (Then a truck zoomed by down my cobblestone street and I heard a train in the distance.)

The Baradero team relaxing well after a hard day’s work, enjoying a long after-dinner conversation. I was thinking that night that I am incredibly blessed to be here, where one of the lovely cultural traits is enjoying one another's company for an extended period after a delicious meal.

The next song that came on was Step by Step. The first time I remember hearing this song I was in a rattling van with a bunch of teenagers heading northward in the middle of one of the harshest Minnesota winters. I thought how crazy it was that I had just started to serve God with the youth, and knew that I was over my head and that was where I was supposed to be. “And step by step you lead me, and I will follow you all of my days.” I thought about all of the decisions that I had made in life, both to serve in different ministries as well as times that I had chosen forgiveness and healing over bitterness and anger and how those decisions had opened up huge new vistas in my life each time.

On Saturday in La Plata we had the first of seven modules in the Neighborhood Transformation series for urban areas. In an expansion of the “give a man a fish, teach a man to fish” theme, after learning how to cross a rushing river and teaching others to do so (multiplication) the ones who learn how to cross get the town together to build a formal crossing at the site. This would be like forming a fishing cooperative.

Carlos of the Salvation Army explains to the class his group’s ideas on how to meet the challenge of unemployment/underemployment in the context of relief, individual development, community development and structural change.