September Shalom Article

Friends and Family,

Below is my September article to Shalom, St. Mark's monthly newsletter. Sorry about the delayed posting. Life continues to be busy here. We just returned from a long vacation weekend in Puebla...famous for churches, Mole, and Chiles en Nogada (a delicious green pepper filled with meat and veggies and fruit covered with a white sauce and pomegranate seeds...these are only in season for about two months a year, so we were lucky!). Anyway, happy reading...
LJRM

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Saludos de Mexico! Hello from Mexico!

The past couple summer months have flown by, thanks in part to a busy work and travel schedule. Andrea and I continue to do well, and grow more at home here in Cuernavaca daily. I hope this finds each of you well in your own place.

A lot has happened here in Mexico since my last article. In late June, the ELCA Immersion Program, with which I serve, welcomed its first delegation since the H1N1 flu virus hit the media in April. The group of 23 high school students came with open hearts and open minds to learn from a variety of people about the reality in which many of our brothers and sisters around the world live.

The following week, in early July, Andrea (my wife) held a closing retreat for the four women serving for a year in Mexico through the Young Adults in Global Mission program. The retreat was a time for the volunteers to reflect upon their year of service, relationships, and experiences here in Mexico. It was a time of closure for this group of four, who had spent a year modeling accompaniment with one another and the communities in which they lived and served.

48 hours after the closing retreat, Andrea and I were off for a month in Chicago, to attend New Mission Personnel Orientation. Normally we would have attended orientation before leaving for Mexico, but we began service at an odd time, so instead we came back eight months into our term of service. While some of the material was already familiar because of our experience, we had the wonderful opportunity to meet other new missionaries. Approximately 60 new missionaries are currently preparing to leave home, to serve God’s people through several different denominations. Not only did the orientation demonstrate the community and relationships that exist between denominations, but it was also a good chance to meet people living out their call in a variety of ways throughout the world.

Many of you know that one of our recent excursions was to Tucson in late July. The reason for the trip to Arizona was my examination for ordination by Presbytery de Cristo. Many of you also know that I was approved by the Presbytery to be ordained to the Office of Minister of Word and Sacrament in the PC(USA)! I know several of you know this because I have been asked several times, “When will the ordination service be?”

I’m glad to announce that this worship service celebrating ordination is scheduled to take place on October 11, 2009 at 3:00p.m. at St. Mark’s, with a reception to follow. So, let this be the first formal request for your presence at this service.

Yes, life has been busy here in Mexico on a number of levels, as I’m sure it has been for you, wherever you are today. My prayer for you, and for our church, is that we might take a moment in our busy lives and take note of where God has called us. Be it a high-schooler learning about Mexico, a young women saying good-bye to her community and her country, a candidate for ordination attending a meeting on a hot Saturday afternoon in July, or students and teachers getting ready for the next school year, may we be still enough to notice God’s presence with us today.

By God’s Grace,
Luke Roske-Metcalfe