Giving a Face and a Name

The past few weeks have been wonderful and very busy!

Working With the Teens

The week after Easter, a high school group from the Albany, NY area came down for a weeklong mission trip in Abbeville.  Given the fact that we have a newborn, we were able to help facilitate during the days.  The week consisted of prayer, various work projects, home visits, nursing home visits, and other types of ministry.  It was such a wonderful experience to get to know the youth and their leaders and minister to them and along side them.  Our children jumped right into the work of the week, and they proved to us yet again that when you approach life loving unconditionally, diving all in, and giving everything until there is no energy left, God can work through you in ways you never imagined.  We watched so many hearts change through serving and loving others.

Around midweek I was talking with a group of students and I listened to one of the students talk about how he had seen a note on the bulletin board of the Christian Service Center from a young man in need of the funds for a college application.  The student gave the money to one of the leaders to give to the young man in need, but wasn’t able to actually meet him in person.  Later that week I was back at the Christian Service Center.  I happened to meet in to the young man applying to college and was able to introduce him to the student that had helped him.  It was such a blessing to watch those two young men connect, talk, and develop a friendship.  It was amazing to see the joy on their faces, and to see how a mission trip “to help the poor” changes when “the poor” have a face and a name and a story to share!

Another day, Josh took three of the high school students, a chaperone, Elijah, and MJ to do some home visits with some of the people that we have befriended over the year.   They went back to the house where we first met Dorothy (Click here to read that story).   Dorothy wasn’t there, but Ms. Alfreda was home.   While we were talking Ms. Alfreda was crocheting away.  As we got ready to leave she handed MJ and the high school girl that was with them two scrunchies for their hair.   On the drive back the high schoolers were talking in the back seat, commenting how they thought they had came down to Louisiana to give to those in need, but they were the one’s receiving!

Rebekah with Grandma (and Josh)

Aside from the mission trip, we had Josh’s parents come and visit from Buffalo around Easter.  After the mission trip our dear friends Pete and Sarah and their family visit from Buffalo for Rebekah’s baptism.  It was wonderful to relax, hangout with everyone, introduce them to Rebekah, visit the local splash pad, and play a few board games.  We went to New Orleans to apply in person for Rebekah's passport (we are able to get it much more quickly this way) and we spent some time sightseeing and eating beignets. 

Rebekah's Baptism

Speaking of Rebekah, she is gaining weight beautifully now (thanks for all your prayers!!)  With her passport on the way, and a green light from the pediatrician we are able to make travel plans!  We hope to leave Big Woods to return to Mexico May 10^th!!  I am so excited to be able to stay in one place for more than two months!  (We have not had that luxury since this past summer!)  So this week you will find me packing, organizing, sorting and purging along with homeschooling, parenting, and whatever else the Lord has in store!  Know you all continue to be in our prayers!!

Beignets in New Orleans

Were You There?

 

I have a playlist of songs that I go to during Holy Week.   I like to have the playlist going in the background around the house.   Sometimes I will take ear buds and listen during a prayer time, letting the songs sweep over me and imaging myself at the different events of Holy Week and Easter Sunday.  One of my favorites is this rendition of “Were You There?”

The answer?   “Yes, you were there.”   You were really and truly present.   You were in Christ’s heart, before His eyes.   You were held in His mind.   His crucified heart fought to beat for you.   His nailed palms stretched out through time and space for you.   His body was stretched out in the tomb to fill and give life to the tombs and voids in your life.   This is not some theological reflection; this is real!

I often get distracted and become, in a sense, numb to the reality of the week.   I water down Christ’s sacrifice through intellectual abstractions and theological distractions.  I get lost in considering the rhetorical reasons why a Gospel writer choose a particular word or phrase, or how an image or term is referencing this psalm or that prophet.   I forget the reality of the Cross.

He really suffered and died.   We went to a local parish for the Good Friday liturgy.   During the liturgy there is a time known as the Veneration of the Cross, when individuals go and express some expression of gratitude and devotion by placing a hand or kiss on a wooden cross.   The local parish had a small sliver of the true Cross (a relic).   This opportunity reminded me of the historical reality of God’s saving acts.  Some have said that if all the relics of the true Cross were gathered from around the world and put together, there would be enough wood to build Noah’s Ark.   Perhaps some relics are not legit.  But if Christ was able to multiply loaves of bread and fish to feeds crowds of thousands, whose is to say that God could not multiply the ultimate sign of victory over sin and death?

You were there.   On the Cross, Christ held you, your situation, the circumstances of your life that seemed hopeless, lifeless, an empty tomb.  Over the past several days I have been mindful of so many family and friends that have experienced some form of tragedy: 

·      The heartbreaking passing of a newborn or toddler.  

·      A spouse’ s battle with cancer.

·      The loss of a teenager son or daughter in a car accident or to addictions or mental illness or random acts of violence.

·      A couple’s struggle with infertility.

·      The hospitalization of a premature infant or loved one.

·      The sudden loss of a job.

·      A reopened wound that remained bound and hidden for years.

In all of these trials and heartaches, valleys and tombs, Christ is with you.   He has always been with you, even though it felt like abandonment, despair, and death.   You have never been alone, because, yes, you were there.   You were there in Christ’s heart, He was conscious of you as He experienced abandonment on the Cross.   You were there as He was wrapped and laid in the tomb.   He brought you and the tombs of your life into the ground with Him.

Death is not the end.  In His resurrection, He breathes new life into our tombs, in our losses, in our tragedies.

·      There is a medical healing through the physicians and medicine.

·      There is a miraculous healing that goes against all odds and statistics.  (Yes I am specifically referring to you Wojo)

·      In their loss through infertility or the passing of a child, a couple or family finds new life as they reach out to others.

·      Sometimes the story ends with a healing in this world, and sometimes a healing in eternity.

We find solace, light, and life when we discover Christ present with us, in the middle of our despair, darkness, and death.   There is an unexplainable joy.   Each of these resurrections give witness to the healing power and presence of Christ's Resurrection.  Not only was the Cross a real historical event, but so was the Resurrection.   It is not just a symbol or analogy.   For as St. Paul said:

But if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?  If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, then empty too is our preaching; empty, too, your faith.   Then we are also false witnesses to God, because we testified against God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if in fact the dead are not raised.  For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.   Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.   If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.   But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For since death came through a human being, then resurrection of the dead came also through a human being.   For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life.  (1 Corinthians 15:12-22)

This is Good News!   This is news worth sharing to the ends of the earth.   If our limited experience in missions has taught us anything it is this:  All throughout the world, people are hurting, trapped in their brokenness and bound in the snares of sin.   Sometimes it is their own sin; sometimes snared by the sins of others.   They are laid in tombs behind sealed immovable stones.   How can we remain numb?   How can we not share God’s love?  How can we withhold the stories of Christ’s resurrection in our lives and give testimony to the empty tombs now vibrant from our own lives?   How can we not share this with our friends, families, and neighbors and to the ends of the earth?   Were not our hearts burning within us as we realized that we were there?

Some updates and prayer intentions…

Please keep little Rebekah in your prayers.   She is doing well but there is some concern with her weight gain.   At her doctor’s appointment last Tuesday, she was at 6 lbs.   By 10-14 days an infant should be back up to her birth weight.   Rebekah was 7 oz shy after 20 days.   We did take her to release tongue and lip ties, which seem to help a little.  We have also supplemented with pumping and bottle-feeding.   We have another appointment this upcoming Tuesday.   If she is not back to 6 lbs 7 oz, we will consider some testing and formula.

Rebekah’s baptism will be on Divine Mercy Sunday!   We are also excited that her godparents (Pete and Sarah Hammer) and their four children will travel down for a visit.

Right now our timeline and plans for returning to Mexico are still in place.   Our original plan and hope is to return the first or second week of May.   Of course this is contingent on Rebekah’s health and weight gain.   We are also waiting on paperwork for her passport.   Please pray that the paperwork and passport application goes quickly and smoothly.

Finally, this upcoming week there is a youth group coming down to Louisiana from New York for a week retreat and service.   No the group is not from Buffalo.  We will help facilitate the retreat, taking them to different work project sites and visiting nursing homes and doing home visits.   May God bless the teens and their chaperons as they travel and spend a week with those in need in Abbeville.  We should have more to share next week.

Sharing Loved Ones

Mariam (another young missionary) holding Rebekah.

I love showing off Rebekah!  As a father, there is something joyful in introducing my precious little daughter.  I love sharing her with others.  I delight in her and I love seeing the joy that she gives others.  There is magic placing her in the arms of another and watching the emergence of a new relationship.   Whether Rebekah is asleep or awake, whether in the arms of an adult or a  child, a mutual blessing takes place as the two encounter each other.  And as a father I can watch the beauty of the exchange unfold and it fills me with joy.

On one hand, we can see how much the Father delights in us as His children, but that is not what I want to share this week.

I was led to reflect on the other side of the relationship.  Who does the Father bring into our lives?   Who are people that the Lord delights in, that He wants to share with us?  Where does God rejoice when He brings people together to form new relationships?   Who are the beloved of the Lord that He wants to share me?

These questions have led me to reflect on the many people and faces that we have encountered over the past 6+ months.   And they fill me with anticipation for who the Lord is going to bring into our lives in the months ahead.   These are the encounters, the faces, the stories that we are committed to sharing with you.   Our prayer is that the Lord blesses you, the same way that He blesses us, as you journey with us through our encounters.

Lord give us the grace to see Your beloved child in everyone that we meet!