The grill in the back of the Lopez´house.
My first bite (ever) of carne asada.
This is the second (!) helping brought off the grill. Silvia and Marcelo are picture here.Sunday, September 9, 2007
Yum!
The grill in the back of the Lopez´house. My first bite (ever) of carne asada. This is the second (!) helping brought off the grill. Silvia and Marcelo are picture here.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Meat
Well, I´ve been in Argentina less than 48 hours and I´ve already eaten two pastries made with lard and five bites of chicken. My host is buying a special roast to grill today. That may seem yummy to some, not a big deal to others, but for someone who hasn´t eaten any of the above for 21 years it´s a little crazy! I´ve had in mind not only the terribly deep spirituality involved in sharing meals with others but also my friend Mike´s saying of being a ¨scavenge-tarian¨ instead of a ¨vegetarian.¨ Tee-hee!
I am so excited to be here! The Lopez family, with whom I am staying and who will start my on-the-job training, are lovely and very welcoming. Marcelo and Silvia are the parents and their children are Luz (18) and Felipe (16). When not working in micro-enterprise and development, Marcelo works in accounting and teaches economics at the university. Silvia is very gifted artistically and has taken courses on indigneous Argentinean art.
On Monday, 9/10, we will start our travel to the village of Burela, in Salta province. We stay overnight in Tucuman, and then arrive in Burela on Tuesday. We will meet a couple who currently work with LifeWind in Bolivia, Develt and Estela. They will be facilitating the majority of the training there. After reading Isaiah 61 & 62 this morning, Marcelo, Silvia, and I were praying for the Wichi Indians (who live in Salta Province) and the training. Apparently some of the problems with the Wichi include a lack of clean water, issues of abuse and violence, and extreme poverty. Many politicians have come in to the area with small gifts and promises of development but no follow-through. However, the Wichi are hungry for teaching, training, and change. One of the pastors there, Don Sixto, has been praying for justice for his people.
The training next week is called, ¨Training of Trainers 1,¨and the purpose is to teach those who will be teaching the individual ¨CHEs.¨ The CHEs will go house to house in their villages, teaching their neighbors about health promotion, disease prevention, small business opportunities, and the love of God. The training will go from Tuesday night, 9/11, to Saturday, 9/15. The sessions are on such topics as: the resources within the community, learning techniques, development, how to experience the love and forgiveness of God, and the role of the training team. I will teach a session on the Holy Spirit on Thursday morning. I´m glad that my session isn´t until later in the week, as I want to experience more of the learner-centered, participatory style Lifewind uses.
I am so excited to be here! The Lopez family, with whom I am staying and who will start my on-the-job training, are lovely and very welcoming. Marcelo and Silvia are the parents and their children are Luz (18) and Felipe (16). When not working in micro-enterprise and development, Marcelo works in accounting and teaches economics at the university. Silvia is very gifted artistically and has taken courses on indigneous Argentinean art.
On Monday, 9/10, we will start our travel to the village of Burela, in Salta province. We stay overnight in Tucuman, and then arrive in Burela on Tuesday. We will meet a couple who currently work with LifeWind in Bolivia, Develt and Estela. They will be facilitating the majority of the training there. After reading Isaiah 61 & 62 this morning, Marcelo, Silvia, and I were praying for the Wichi Indians (who live in Salta Province) and the training. Apparently some of the problems with the Wichi include a lack of clean water, issues of abuse and violence, and extreme poverty. Many politicians have come in to the area with small gifts and promises of development but no follow-through. However, the Wichi are hungry for teaching, training, and change. One of the pastors there, Don Sixto, has been praying for justice for his people.
The training next week is called, ¨Training of Trainers 1,¨and the purpose is to teach those who will be teaching the individual ¨CHEs.¨ The CHEs will go house to house in their villages, teaching their neighbors about health promotion, disease prevention, small business opportunities, and the love of God. The training will go from Tuesday night, 9/11, to Saturday, 9/15. The sessions are on such topics as: the resources within the community, learning techniques, development, how to experience the love and forgiveness of God, and the role of the training team. I will teach a session on the Holy Spirit on Thursday morning. I´m glad that my session isn´t until later in the week, as I want to experience more of the learner-centered, participatory style Lifewind uses.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Thanks
P.S. And a big shout out to:
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.
- 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.
Monday, September 3, 2007
“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.
September 5 – 30 I will be in
September 5 – 6
Nearly 24 hours of travel to get to
September 11 – 14
“Training of Trainers 1” in the
The Wichi Indians are an indigenous people group in northern
September 20
Bibiana MacLeod, Regional Coordinator for the Caribbean and South America, flies in to
September 24 – 28
“Urban Training of Trainers 1” near
September 29 – 30
Only 17 hours travel from
September 30 – October 4
Continuing medical education conference in
October 5 – 9-ish
I will stay in
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Nuttiness
I haven't had internet at home for awhile, so haven't added to my blog -- I'm so glad so many people have noticed!
Six weeks ago I received a reprieve from nuttiness. Sometimes it takes the right person with the precise words that touch your heart and your mind which gives you the key to understanding. I knew I was going crazy, working way too hard for the past four months, but I didn't see a way out. The work all seemed critical. A friend told me that I was listening to a lie. She was so right. I cannot simultaneously believe in a God who prescribes in regular periods of rest and a continual restfulness of the heart while thinking that impossible quantities of tasks must be accomplished regardless of sleep, stress, and fear.
The next day I was on a plane to Minnesota. Half of my plans for that trip were incomplete and the focus of the trip needed to change. On the plane I listened to a song a friend had given me. It's from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack:
Never knew I could feel like this
Like I've never seen the sky before
Want to vanish inside your kiss
Every day I love you more and more
Listen to my heart: can you hear? It sings
Telling me to give you everything
I haven't read many of the ancient mystics, but this song made me think of them and of whole vistas that were open to me if I would truly trust and believe that which I say I believe. Since that trip I have gone to San Diego, Berkeley, and Modesto, California and prepared to leave my current job as clinical director and physician over two sites. More importantly, I have begun to digest a book by Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart. I have been meditating on Psalm 23, and while I recite the entire psalm, when it comes to meditation I have not gotten beyond the first phrase: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Really, it says, "I shall not want." My heart shall be filled and be at peace and at rest because of the one who is my shepherd, and who declares that I need not want.
My friend also said that the key to determining my plans for my last few months in the States would be to look at what was life-giving. I'm not quite sure where this one is going, but it strikes a chord within me and I know it will be important. I will let you know!
Six weeks ago I received a reprieve from nuttiness. Sometimes it takes the right person with the precise words that touch your heart and your mind which gives you the key to understanding. I knew I was going crazy, working way too hard for the past four months, but I didn't see a way out. The work all seemed critical. A friend told me that I was listening to a lie. She was so right. I cannot simultaneously believe in a God who prescribes in regular periods of rest and a continual restfulness of the heart while thinking that impossible quantities of tasks must be accomplished regardless of sleep, stress, and fear.
The next day I was on a plane to Minnesota. Half of my plans for that trip were incomplete and the focus of the trip needed to change. On the plane I listened to a song a friend had given me. It's from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack:
Never knew I could feel like this
Like I've never seen the sky before
Want to vanish inside your kiss
Every day I love you more and more
Listen to my heart: can you hear? It sings
Telling me to give you everything
I haven't read many of the ancient mystics, but this song made me think of them and of whole vistas that were open to me if I would truly trust and believe that which I say I believe. Since that trip I have gone to San Diego, Berkeley, and Modesto, California and prepared to leave my current job as clinical director and physician over two sites. More importantly, I have begun to digest a book by Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart. I have been meditating on Psalm 23, and while I recite the entire psalm, when it comes to meditation I have not gotten beyond the first phrase: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Really, it says, "I shall not want." My heart shall be filled and be at peace and at rest because of the one who is my shepherd, and who declares that I need not want.
My friend also said that the key to determining my plans for my last few months in the States would be to look at what was life-giving. I'm not quite sure where this one is going, but it strikes a chord within me and I know it will be important. I will let you know!
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Title Redux
Okay, some people have questioned the title of my blog again, thinking that it sounds confusing. I think it sounds poetic. It comes from a passage in the Bible, and it's written slightly differently depending on the translation you use.
I'm currently reading the English Standard Version (ESV) in a Bible that was given to me three years ago by my friends Paul and Libby. As an aside, their blog is fabulous! I'm really still learning how to write one (and witness the scattered pictures in the last entry that I don't know how to fix), but go to theirs to learn how to pick a car that runs on vegetable oil, use a solar oven, or paint Ukranian Easter eggs, all accompanied by beautiful photography. TheFullCup.blogspot.com
Here we go: the ESV says, "For all the promises of God find their Yes in him (Jesus)." So, I was wondering today why I had remembered the odd but poetic (I insist!) "promises are yes." I looked in the Message, Eugene Peterson's paraphrase, but it says, "Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus." Nope, not there. So, I went to my new resource, BibleGateway.com, where I found the trusty New International Version (NIV), by far the most popular translation at Christian bookstores these days. With an "ahem!" to all of you who questioned the phrasing of my blog title, here it is from the NIV, emphasis mine: "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ." So there you go -- promises are yes.
As I continue to have so much to do, I do not what to lose sight of the promises being yes, that these things that I am doing right now are to prepare me for another step in my life that I think will be delightful, difficult, and exciting. As I was packing away some books I found a journal from February 2002. Since I rarely journal, there are very few entries. However, some of the ones from my first trip to Haiti help me to remember where I'm coming from. I traveled there to visit Bibiana, a medical missionary with whom I'd corresponded (and who will be my supervisor in my new role this fall). It was a 10-day trip for which I used my vacation during my first year of family medicine residency. My luggage did not arrive until day six. Some of the comments sound naive to me now, of course, but that is my journey. I also have come to appreciate and enjoy lots of what family practice entails, but perhaps that's just because I'm in the non-traditional setting of corrections and work with immigrants.
"Lord, these people here actually think it's possible and indeed normal to go to the mission field (obviously). What a contrast from my family, friends, and colleagues..." and later, "Tonight I was on the terrace with you, Lord, and I don't want to lose sight of my sense of what you were telling me...I was chit-chatting with you about really liking this lifestyle (time, variety, palm trees...simplicity with clothing, etc. -- I don't miss my clothing except the sandals) and thinking about how much I really don't care for any of my FP [family practice] experiences in th US and how Bibiana talked about her passion/philosophy really being with prevention/public health -- and I cried out to you to show me if this was all silliness and for you to show me if these were unimportant things and not your focus and I was struck with the thought that you would really fulfill the desire of my heart (Proverbs 3) and that you really had prepared what was best for me and probably were not going to have me work in the death of 15-minute appointments with unreceptive patients. And I bawled because this really might be possible."
I left that terrace still not knowing if I would ever go full-time to a developing country to do holistic work. However, I left with the distinct sense that God's promises are yes, that God knows in the deepest possible way what will simultaneously fulfill us and be a benefit to others.
I'm currently reading the English Standard Version (ESV) in a Bible that was given to me three years ago by my friends Paul and Libby. As an aside, their blog is fabulous! I'm really still learning how to write one (and witness the scattered pictures in the last entry that I don't know how to fix), but go to theirs to learn how to pick a car that runs on vegetable oil, use a solar oven, or paint Ukranian Easter eggs, all accompanied by beautiful photography. TheFullCup.blogspot.com
Here we go: the ESV says, "For all the promises of God find their Yes in him (Jesus)." So, I was wondering today why I had remembered the odd but poetic (I insist!) "promises are yes." I looked in the Message, Eugene Peterson's paraphrase, but it says, "Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus." Nope, not there. So, I went to my new resource, BibleGateway.com, where I found the trusty New International Version (NIV), by far the most popular translation at Christian bookstores these days. With an "ahem!" to all of you who questioned the phrasing of my blog title, here it is from the NIV, emphasis mine: "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ." So there you go -- promises are yes.
As I continue to have so much to do, I do not what to lose sight of the promises being yes, that these things that I am doing right now are to prepare me for another step in my life that I think will be delightful, difficult, and exciting. As I was packing away some books I found a journal from February 2002. Since I rarely journal, there are very few entries. However, some of the ones from my first trip to Haiti help me to remember where I'm coming from. I traveled there to visit Bibiana, a medical missionary with whom I'd corresponded (and who will be my supervisor in my new role this fall). It was a 10-day trip for which I used my vacation during my first year of family medicine residency. My luggage did not arrive until day six. Some of the comments sound naive to me now, of course, but that is my journey. I also have come to appreciate and enjoy lots of what family practice entails, but perhaps that's just because I'm in the non-traditional setting of corrections and work with immigrants.
"Lord, these people here actually think it's possible and indeed normal to go to the mission field (obviously). What a contrast from my family, friends, and colleagues..." and later, "Tonight I was on the terrace with you, Lord, and I don't want to lose sight of my sense of what you were telling me...I was chit-chatting with you about really liking this lifestyle (time, variety, palm trees...simplicity with clothing, etc. -- I don't miss my clothing except the sandals) and thinking about how much I really don't care for any of my FP [family practice] experiences in th US and how Bibiana talked about her passion/philosophy really being with prevention/public health -- and I cried out to you to show me if this was all silliness and for you to show me if these were unimportant things and not your focus and I was struck with the thought that you would really fulfill the desire of my heart (Proverbs 3) and that you really had prepared what was best for me and probably were not going to have me work in the death of 15-minute appointments with unreceptive patients. And I bawled because this really might be possible."
I left that terrace still not knowing if I would ever go full-time to a developing country to do holistic work. However, I left with the distinct sense that God's promises are yes, that God knows in the deepest possible way what will simultaneously fulfill us and be a benefit to others.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
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.
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