Easter Greetings from Mexico! I hope this finds each of you well during this season of new beginnings. Spring in the Midwest is my favorite time of year: the snow melts and the ground and trees turn green, the short cold days give way to warmer and longer days, and new life appears every single day until the corn is ready for harvest in late July.
Here in Mexico, we too are in the midst of the country’s most celebrated season of Lent and Easter. Schools are on break for two weeks, the pace of Mexico City slows as people migrate to families and vacation spots anywhere outside of the metropolis, and Cuernavaca’s population increases during this time.
The weather here makes me long for the spring season in the North. Cuernavaca at the beginning of the hot and dry season, where the land goes from a lush green to a crusty brown, and people head for the relief of the shade.
Life in Mexico for Andrea and me continues to fly by. 2010 has been quite busy thus far. In January, the Immersion Program hosted two groups from the U.S., which pretty much took care of the month for me. In February, we took the Young Adults in Global Mission volunteers to the U.S.-Mexico border for an immersion experience. It was an opportunity for the volunteers to make some connections between the reality in which they have lived for six months and the realities on the border. It was a full five days that left everyone exhausted and full, both mentally and emotionally.
After the border trip ended with the volunteers, Andrea and I had the great opportunity to visit several sponsoring congregations in Tucson and Phoenix. During our Lenten visits, we met people with a variety of backgrounds. Our conversations took place over what amounted to buckets of soup, mounds of salad, and jugs of lemonade during the two weeks. We were welcomed into worship, and shared snippets of our ministry and experiences in Mexico. For me, the experience of visiting so many congregations was life-giving, in that we were able to finally put the faces to the names of those communities of faith who have committed to supporting our ministry in Mexico.
Of the many questions we heard over the course of our visits, one of the most popular was, “When are you due, Andrea!?” To say the least, Andrea’s pregnancy has gone well. We’ve recently begun attending weekly birthing classes with our midwife, which, if there was any lingering denial of parenthood on my part, has truly been eye opening, informative, and a settling dose of reality. Besides all that we’ve learned thus far, I’ve really appreciated the opportunity to hear other soon-to-be parents ask questions and express the same concerns that Andrea and I share. So, June 17 – the due date – will come soon, and we continue to prepare in blessed anticipation.
There is also big news for me personally in my mission service. I’ve decided to leave the ELCA Immersion Program in Mexico City to serve as Associate Pastor at La Iglesia Luterana del Buen Pastor – The Good Shepherd Lutheran Church – in Mexico City. This move comes at a time when the Immersion Program has seen a decline in delegations coming to Mexico, and El Buen Pastor has expressed the desire to have an English-speaking pastor serve their community of faith.
While I will miss working with visiting delegations, I’m enthusiastic about this opportunity to serve as this congregation’s pastor. This transition only affects my day-to-day ministry, and does not affect how long we plan on staying in Mexico. We plan on staying at least through 2012, if not longer. So, this is a big transition for me, through which I continue to work. Your prayers and thoughts for me, the Immersion Program, and El Buen Pastor are greatly appreciated, particularly during the next several months.
As my ministry with the congregation becomes more defined, I will surely let you know more details. At this point I know that it will include preaching, teaching, and other responsibilities typical to congregational ministry. I also know that one of my main foci will be to reach out to and to serve the ex-pat population of the community. The congregation is small, and has historically been bi-lingual and multi-cultural, serving not only the Lutheran population of Mexico City, but also the general protestant population. To get a better idea of the community in which I will be serving, please visit their website at iglesialuterana.org.mx. I look forward to sharing with you more about El Buen Pastor and their ministry to the city of Mexico as I settle into my place there.
In the mean time, the calendar is quite full! Andrea and I will be traveling to the Midwest (just in time for some spring!) for a few weeks in April. Andrea and I will visit Holy Shepherd Lutheran Church in Indiana and Augustana Lutheran Church in Minnesota, where Andrea plans to preach and we will share about our ministries in Mexico. If you’re in the area, we’d love to see you there! We will also be at the annual Discernment-Interview-Placement event for 2010-2011 Young Adults in Global Mission candidates during the second full week of April. Please keep these young people, the country coordinators, and the ELCA Global Mission staff members in your prayers during this week!
We will also be in Eau Claire, WI, April 23-24, presenting at an ELCA Glocal Mission Event designed to bring people together from global and local contexts in order to teach and learn from one another about how we can better serve God’s people around the world – including in our own neighborhoods. So yes, the first few months of 2010 have been full indeed! I have a feeling that come mid-June, life will take on yet another level of full-ness, and I look forward to sharing this with you. As always, thank you for all of your support for Andrea and myself.
In God’s Peace,
Luke
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
What Keeps Me Up at Night by Luke
Late February 2010
It's 1:30am and it's been exactly 5 months of so since writing...Tonight I sit up thinking about the baby and I've convinced myself it's a boy. It don't know why - we've asked the doctor not to know - it's just a hunch. So, the thinking began...
Thoughts wandering around my restless mind and body are about the question of circumcision. I´ve convinced myself that this is the entire process: pain, screaming, passing out, crying, plop right into the arms of the midwife. Then labor starts! Andrea pushes and sweats a lot. Then the much anticipated words, "It's a boy!" Anyone and everyone in the room is astounded at the miracle of life (or simply too exhausted to really give a damn), and then...then...circumcision?
I think to myself laying in bed the phrase that breaks the silence of the awstruck people looking at the most beautiful baby in the world, "Welcome to the world big boy! Time to get circumcised!" Certainly there's some break for the boy, no? Or does it get done right then and there? That's not a decsion to give a 12 or 13 year old is it? My thinking is if you're going to do it, do it when he won't remember!
Now I'm sleepless just wondering how the whole thing goes down.
My mind wanders skipping from topic to topic as fast and steady as we breathe.
Andrea breathes in...What color eyes?
I breathe out...What color hair?
Breathe in...Dear God, please 10 fingers and 10 toes, you know, the ones we've been feeling kick now for a few weeks.
Breathe in...I imagine changing diapers one day and the circumcised boy pisses all over me.
Breathe out...I get mad, but then see his face and my anger melts away leaving a smile.
Breathe in...One small clean-up along the way.
Then I think about earthquakes - Haiti and Chili. For goodness sake, what the heck happens if right before, or in the middle, of the circumcision?! The birth?!
My mind imagines Andrea being in labor, covered in the richest sweat of her life as she´s about to give birth and then POW! The Big One hits Mexico, leaving us outside when the boy plops out. Jesus!
Bricks are falling, flash lights in hand, buckets of water, stacks of towels, in-laws, a midwife, all chaos surrounds us and Lord willing a little baby joins us for the craziness. S¿$%!
It's cold outside here in Tucson. My handwriting sucks today. So really, besides the earthquake and 20 beautiful digits, what do we do about circumcision? What if there's a slip of the knife? How do you explain that one? With, "Sorry son, there was an earthquake." That will be of little comfort to one in junior high gym class...but really, what a story!
What a story indeed - even if there's not earthquake and all goes fine in record time (four hours). A beautiful baby. Crazy.
I imagine the love that I know will surround that little boy in the first few moments of life will be pure and rich. My hope is that that love can be spread out just a bit through the world which is clearly so thirsty for love.
It will be a good day, 20 digits or none. Grey hair or blue. Crying or quiet. Both sets of parents or none. Boy or Girl. A day much anticipated since the first positive prego test and the first desernable kick.
Oh man, what if Andrea went into labor on the plane a day from now!? Well, enough questions for now. I'll have to save that one for another one of these nights. The End.
FYI: Andrea and I still do not know if it´s a boy or a girl. We´ve talked since about circumcision...something neither of us really considered until this sleepless night.
It's 1:30am and it's been exactly 5 months of so since writing...Tonight I sit up thinking about the baby and I've convinced myself it's a boy. It don't know why - we've asked the doctor not to know - it's just a hunch. So, the thinking began...
Thoughts wandering around my restless mind and body are about the question of circumcision. I´ve convinced myself that this is the entire process: pain, screaming, passing out, crying, plop right into the arms of the midwife. Then labor starts! Andrea pushes and sweats a lot. Then the much anticipated words, "It's a boy!" Anyone and everyone in the room is astounded at the miracle of life (or simply too exhausted to really give a damn), and then...then...circumcision?
I think to myself laying in bed the phrase that breaks the silence of the awstruck people looking at the most beautiful baby in the world, "Welcome to the world big boy! Time to get circumcised!" Certainly there's some break for the boy, no? Or does it get done right then and there? That's not a decsion to give a 12 or 13 year old is it? My thinking is if you're going to do it, do it when he won't remember!
Now I'm sleepless just wondering how the whole thing goes down.
My mind wanders skipping from topic to topic as fast and steady as we breathe.
Andrea breathes in...What color eyes?
I breathe out...What color hair?
Breathe in...Dear God, please 10 fingers and 10 toes, you know, the ones we've been feeling kick now for a few weeks.
Breathe in...I imagine changing diapers one day and the circumcised boy pisses all over me.
Breathe out...I get mad, but then see his face and my anger melts away leaving a smile.
Breathe in...One small clean-up along the way.
Then I think about earthquakes - Haiti and Chili. For goodness sake, what the heck happens if right before, or in the middle, of the circumcision?! The birth?!
My mind imagines Andrea being in labor, covered in the richest sweat of her life as she´s about to give birth and then POW! The Big One hits Mexico, leaving us outside when the boy plops out. Jesus!
Bricks are falling, flash lights in hand, buckets of water, stacks of towels, in-laws, a midwife, all chaos surrounds us and Lord willing a little baby joins us for the craziness. S¿$%!
It's cold outside here in Tucson. My handwriting sucks today. So really, besides the earthquake and 20 beautiful digits, what do we do about circumcision? What if there's a slip of the knife? How do you explain that one? With, "Sorry son, there was an earthquake." That will be of little comfort to one in junior high gym class...but really, what a story!
What a story indeed - even if there's not earthquake and all goes fine in record time (four hours). A beautiful baby. Crazy.
I imagine the love that I know will surround that little boy in the first few moments of life will be pure and rich. My hope is that that love can be spread out just a bit through the world which is clearly so thirsty for love.
It will be a good day, 20 digits or none. Grey hair or blue. Crying or quiet. Both sets of parents or none. Boy or Girl. A day much anticipated since the first positive prego test and the first desernable kick.
Oh man, what if Andrea went into labor on the plane a day from now!? Well, enough questions for now. I'll have to save that one for another one of these nights. The End.
FYI: Andrea and I still do not know if it´s a boy or a girl. We´ve talked since about circumcision...something neither of us really considered until this sleepless night.
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