Home!

As soon as I stepped out of the airport in Guayaquil, Ecuador, I felt so, so comfortable. The humid air; the heat aroma; the buzzing bugs and beeping cars; the drive across the plains of red dirt, rice fields, bananas and palm trees, sugarcane, and scrub brush; the bus accident that held us up for 3 hours on the way towards the mountains; the mountains themselves, with the winding climbing roads and wispy cool mist and moss on the rocks and trickle-stream-waterfalls and swathes of eucalyptus trees on the sweeping slopes; the hill-city´s little houses cramped together under corrugated tin and red tile roofs; the sound-waves of a semi-familiar language floating past my ears; the total confidence that God is here, too, and has made the way for me to get here, and works in ways I cannot see, and is calling me to work for him here, and to open up new ways of doing, thinking, and feeling in my own life, as well.

The day we arrived in Cuenca was Epiphany, which is when we celebrate the coming of the wise men to visit Jesus. These guys were told to ´go home a new way´, which is what I can truly say is happening to me, too. ¨Hogar, dulce hogar¨, or home sweet home, is what I honestly declare when I step into the house of my host family, after unlocking a front gate, a door gate, and then the door, and greet our three little doggies, and then find whoever is in la casa to greet them with a kiss. I wonder about the people we work with around the city every day, and what their concept of home is. The kids at IPCA all have some stage or form of cerebral palsy, some with more severe mental disorders added to that. It´s just a daycare, so they have parents and a place to call home, but how much love are they really receiving in either place? The elderly men and women at la Fundación Geriatrica sit there all day in chairs and wheelchairs and sleep there at night, and maybe their children come to visit, maybe they don´t even recognize them through the clouds of Alzheimer´s. They are, ostensibly, closer to the eternal home than anyone else, but how many of them have really experienced the One who wants to hold them close forever? The little rascals at REMAR, a home run by former drug addicts, clamor to be captured in my arms and sung songs like Cristo Me Ama (Jesus Loves Me, though I frequently change it to Jesus Loves YOU, because that´s what they´re longing to hear so desperately) and Yo Tengo Gozo, Gozo, Gozo, Gozo, en mi corazón--¿Dónde?--¡En mi corazón!--¿Dónde?--¡En mi corazón! (and the rest of I´ve Got the Joy en Español). Orphaned, lost but somehow found by some compassionate people, decently fed, haphazardly dressed, sent to school, sent to bed; content yet full of hunger for something more, something secure, but how can we communicate that God is the one who can welcome them home and hold them in his arms even now?

My tears find their home on the pages of the blessed book of Isaiah...chapter 58, which is guiding my thoughts in this week of fasting and prayer for the Verbo Iglesia...and 43:19, which is the guiding verse for the Hungarian Lutheran church, sent to me by a mentor of mine as una bendición (a blessing) for the year of 2007, my 19th year.

¨See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.¨

I truly am home, and yet there are so many deserts still to cross...and yet my Prince of Peace is making the way even when I wander. ¡Qué milagro! What a wonder, a miracle!

Peace for all your homes, and may you find your home in Him.

Faces!

Preparation!

The Ecuador 2007 Lighthouse team is composed of 14 students (Amy H., Amy L., Angela, Candice, Connie, Jason, Kevin, Krista, Kristin, Laura, Mark, Ryn, Stephanie, and me) and 3 faculty members (Cathy Harner, social work; Rukshan Fernando, social work; Jody Fernando, TESOL and Spanish) with the Fernando's two kids, Maia and Jehan. During the fall semester (2006), we had weekly meetings together with the other teams (going to Northern Ireland, India, Indonesia, Trinidad, and Ethiopia) on issues of international ministry and short-term missions; then we had time with our own group to bond (through sharing testimonies, friend-raising stories, fears, joys, and prayer requests) and prepare (with committees focused on music, drama, English teaching, and prayer while we're there).
Taylor's World Opportunies Week (WOW) was held in November, with many mission representatives leading workshops and speaking in chapel and displaying their materials in the dining hall and standing around open to talk with us and pray with us. We had an assignment to interview one of them, and I met Nat Saginario from Operation Mobilization (OM), who has been leading short-term mission trips for 40 years. He seems continually sharp, both in the way of keeping on the edge of current knowledge and cultural intelligence, as well as cutting to the heart of spiritual insight. I am always amazed at the un-xpected paths God leads us through to bring us where he wants us. And my journey has barely begun! But some people he has led all around the world already, with no signs of stopping, and I have so much to learn from them. His biggest advice was: PREPARATION.
Prepare spiritually, seeking and soaking in time with God in solitude and in community
Prepare intellectually, finding facts and stories and information to investigate and internalize
Prepare materially, put together and practice dramas and music presentations, teaching tools, testimonies, etc.

Right now my team is still in that stage of preparation. We are currently together at Taylor, with one day left to pack and practice and pray. Pray for us! We may have fears of the unknown, we may have feelings of inadequacy; pray that God's perfect love would cast out our fears and conquer our feelings. Here is a prayer of dedication that we prayed this evening in our meeting:

Jesus said go into all the world.
We will love like Jesus loved.
Into the big cities and small towns
We will love like Jesus loved.
The farms and mountains
We will love like Jesus loved.
The shelters and homes
We will love like Jesus loved.
Jesus said, “Feed the hungry.”
We will love like Jesus loved.
Shelter the homeless
We will love like Jesus loved.
Heal the sick
We will love like Jesus loved.
Visit the imprisoned
We will love like Jesus loved.
And ask for nothing in return.
We will love like Jesus loved.
Expect nothing in return.
We will love like Jesus loved.
Love without expectation.
We will love like Jesus loved.
Love without strings attached.
We will love like Jesus loved.
It won’t be easy.
We will love like Jesus loved.
Some people are hard to love.
We will love like Jesus loved.
It’s hard to help those who won’t help themselves.
We will love like Jesus loved.
He loved for no other reason than to love.
We will love like Jesus loved.
We will do the same.
We will love like Jesus loved.
Amen.