Thanks

P.S. And a big shout out to:

• Erin, now my power of attorney for my house (of which the sale is in flux).
• My community group, especially Rachelle, for all of the help at the big garage sale.
• Valerie, for endlessly going through boxes.
  
• Bruce and Peachy, for being such great neighbors through it all.
• Melissa and Adam, for making a good home for Oreo and Pepa (my kitties).
  
• Joe and Nicole, for taking care of my yard while I'm gone.
• Jeff, for keeping my pool from going green while I'm gone.

I know I'll think of more people soon, so stay tuned! It is really remarkable how God chooses to work through all of us, and uses so many "senders" for the one person who "goes." We are truly a family.

“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.

Extreme Home Makeover

Wow -- I am so impressed today! My community group (twelve people I see at least once during the week to "do life together," including sharing about our lives, studying the Bible, and praying) came over today to work on my house to get it ready to sell. I had been putting it off since it was so overwhelming to me. I had never really painted before, and I had not even considered the extreme yardwork exhibited today. I had planned for a day of mostly painting with a little bit of shrubbery-trimming, but what I got was far more than that. I am so thankful to my group and grateful for their wide-ranging skills.

• We painted the inside of the house including the garage (which had not been prepped and was rather scary). It looks beautiful!
• Replaced outlet covers, furniture, and blinds after painting
• Replaced sprinkler heads
• Adjusted and cleaned drip heads (term?)
• Thatched the grass
• Edged semicircles around the sprinkler heads to allow for proper watering
• Re-mounted birdfeeder
• Installed missing smoke detector
• Radically cut back the mesquite tree
• Moved the compost bins and killed the underlying cockroaches
• Cleaned all windows and screens inside and out
• Cleaned the entryway to the house
• Trimmed at least twelve bushes, including the two rosemary ones I was unable to do
• Vacuumed/blew away yard waste

I am so thrilled that everyone came from my community group (except two people who were out of town) and even some of their kids came and helped. It was also a beautiful experience, not just because it was on my house but because it was lots of people working together to accomplish a goal. Some of us talked about how in the past people gathered for barn-raisings and other farm activities that needed to happen together. Not only did we benefit by the company but we also each had different skills and tools. I'm not suggesting that we spend eight hours at our neighbors' houses every weekend, but on a modified scale it makes sense to do more things together.

I am also really beginning to understand that this new phase of my life is necessarily one of community. I am not going to Argentina on my own, and everything surrounding this journey is part of others' lives as well. Last week Chrissy (in my community group) wrote to me about what today's activities meant: "I do not want you to rebel against that high calling of needing us, of needing me. I cannot go to Argentina, though I might desire to. I desire that I could somehow be a part of the going. I do not want to be robbed of the gift of being a part of your going-- of our going. I get to come and be a part of it on Saturday. I hope that you can see this "need" of yours as more a high calling than a burden or an anxiety or something to apologize for. That way it can be beautiful for you, and me, and all of us who get to be a part of this grand thing that He is doing."

The high calling of needing others -- something to ponder.

Travel Plans

As I've been reading about missions and preparing for the work, a consistent theme is "relationships." Missions is relational -- both the work on the field and the preparation of a support team. I really want to get to know more people at my church, since they will be my main body of support. Our church is just over two years old, and while I've been involved as a Sunday School teacher for most of that time and am in a community group, that isn't much time in our culture to really get to know people. I have just started to go around to all of the community groups to meet folks and let them know ways in which they can partner with me, which I've really enjoyed.

Also, in the spirit of building relationships, I've planned some trips!

• Minnesota from June 16 - 24


• San Diego, CA -- some weekend in June or early July


• Berkeley, CA -- July 13 - 18

The official reason for the California trip is to go to LifeWind's headquarters in Modesto, where they will take DNA samples in case I am kidnapped (okay, also to meet the staff).

I am also thinking of a road trip prior to moving to Argentina. This plan will only work well if my father agrees to either buy or sell my car (ahem!). The agenda would be:

• TEXAS: brother Matthew, sister-in-law Michelle, and nephews Will and Alexander. I haven't gotten to meet Alexander yet -- he's in the photo above, adorable at only a few days of age.


• MINNESOTA: friends and family


• CHICAGO: Mark and Julie


• MICHIGAN: Jenny, Ken, and their children Grace and Kate, Jenny's mom Kathy


• CLEVELAND: Mom (including the help I've promised for years on her house), Dad and Beverly

The only trick is that I can't figure out how to make the above work while leaving no later than early January but spending Christmas in Minnesota. I have geographical issues. Help, anyone?