Caught in the Steam

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I remember getting flipped in my kayak one time as I was paddling through a rapid.  After getting flipped over a couple of times and surfacing, I did as the rafting guide had taught us and got my feet pointed downstream and then started paddling with my hands when I reached calmer water so I could reach a place to get everything gathered back together and back in the boat.  I had to stop and breathe for a moment after that – the temperature of the water had taken away my breath and I was soaked all the way through.  I needed to shake off a bit of the water and get my mind ready for continue the journey down the river.

Sometimes I feel like I never reach the calmer waters that give me the chance to find a place to stand up, pause, catch my breath, and get everything back together.  The current of life sometimes feels so strong that it seems that all I can do is try to keep my feet pointing down river and steer a little bit with hands quickly paddling.  It feels like I am at the mercy of the stream of life.  And I suppose I am unless I call a timeout, unless I decide to stop for a moment and catch my breath – get re-oriented before continuing.  I forget that I have that option at times.  But usually in the midst of such moments, someone or some event reminds me that I need to pause and reflect before jumping back into the midst of all of the frenetic activity.  I’m not sure when the realization came most recently, but it is with me clearly now.  Now the challenge is to do that – take the time, pause, breathe, get re-oriented, and discern where to jump back into the boat.

May God Bless This House

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IMGP3134A great journey concludes today as we leave shortly for the airport.  We returned to Puente Azul yesterday morning (Friday) and completed the roof on the porch – 40 screws and some silicone around the windows.  It was wonderful to work with this group of people and with the Toledo family on constructing this house.  We had a few mishaps along the way but it all came together.

Early in most weeks on these trips, I find that some folks are already talking about the next trip and the looks on some faces indicate wondering why they chose to come on the first one.  Those experiences sometimes change over the course of the week and sometimes they don’t.  This group was making lists and sharing ideas of how to improve the next trip and wondering if we’d have to wait until next March.  We’ll see what unfolds over the next few weeks and start making plans from there.

Thank you to all who made this journey.  Thank you to all those who helped make this journey possible for the group and who helped provide the funding for the building materials.

Our blessing shared with the Toledo family as we said farewell to them yesterday and a blessing for all of us:  “May God bless you and keep you, may God be gracious and kind to you, and may God’s face shine upon you forever.”

Almost Completed

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It’s starting to look a lot like a house.  We made a lot of progress yesterday.  We finished all the framing except for the porch supports; we hung all but 2 pieces of the siding, and installed the windows.  Today we’ll put on the roof and complete the house today.

This trip, like all of the journeys to El Salvador, have been filled with a variety of experiences and surprises.  Sometimes the surprises seem as if they might de-rail the whole trip.  A blizzard the day before we leave nearly did that this year.  But we readjusted and after arriving on 3 different flights the group was all together.  We’ve joked and laughed and worked hard together.  Again I am thankful for the experiences with these folks and the deeper relationships that come forth from this time together.

If all goes as planned today, we’ll have a day tomorrow when we see a bit more of El Salvador and join Kiki in his ministry serving the folks who live on the streets of San Salvador.

P.S.  All did not go as planned.  We ran out of screws and daylight so we’ve got about another hour of work this morning before we complete the house.

We Are Progressing

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We nIMGP2555ow have all of the materials on site and are moving forward with the completion

of the house.  We ordered and delivered the siding yesterday and continued to work towards the completion of the framing.  We still have one wall to put up and the roof to weld but we did start putting siding on 2 sides yesterday and should mIMGP2541ove forward with that today.  Yesterday was another good day of work and I think today will be as well.  We finish each day tired.  The heat and humidity at this time of the year are quite different than during our November trips.  The heat and humidity takes more out of you.

It Starts Coming Together

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I knew that the trip was going to come together and that we’d adjust well to the disruption IMGP2334to our travel plans when we picked up the first part of the team on Saturday night and no one complained about the cancelled flight or the change in schedule.  That same attitude continued to be present when we said we were leaving for Sonsonate at 10 p.m. on Sunday night.  The group is flexible and adjusting to the needs of the day.

Monday started with visits to the hardware stores for building materials and a level.  It also included the search for a welder/generator and scaffolding.  All was acquired with relative ease and quickly all things considered.  Then we were off to Puente Azul to start bringing up the walls of the house for the Toledo family.  We’re building a steel frame house with galvanized siding this time.  Everyone has been able to work on the project and we made significant progress the first day – we framed the front and back walls and are ready to finish the two side walls this morning.  Hopefully the roof is completed this afternoon.  Here are a couple of pictures to give an idea of what we are doing.  Thanks to our photographer – Connie PriceIMGP2374 IMGP2366

Trouble Finding Ways to Share This

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First a quick update on the arrival of the other members of the team.  On Saturday evening, Marco and I made the dark drive down to the airport to pick up 6 more members of the team.  They all had a breeze through customs – finally someone does.  On Sunday evening, Marco and I made that drive again to pick up the remaining 2 members of the team.  Finally we were all together and after a stop to get the rest of the group at Casa Concordia, we departed for Sonsonate and arrived around 11 p.m.

On Sunday, we tried to catch up to as many things as possible so the team members might have as full an experience as they could – a trip to the downtown market, a visit to the San Salvador volcano, and a visit to Lake Coatapeque.  Three wonderful meals at the guesthouse framed this wonderful but busy day.  I always find it difficult to fully share my experiences when I am with the people and in the country of El Salvador.  For example whenever I visit the San Salvador volcano I try to take a picture that captures the full spectrum of the volcano rim and the surrounding park.  I always fail to accomplish that task – at least it seems to me that I do.  So I end up taking pictures of the flora on the side of the volcano as we hike to the crater rim.  Here are a couple of those images that I captured: IMGP2278 IMGP2269

Blossoming trees and flowering plants cover the hillside with colors that jump out and attract your eye.  Even in the midst of the dry season, life is blossoming about us.  The delicate beauty of these plants grabs hold of me and I want to share the experience with others.  Yet it doesn’t seem to be enough.

The same goes for Lake (Llago) Coatapeque.  The vast beauty can’t be reduced to one image that captures only a single aspect from a single moment.

 

Then there are the surprises like when you drive down from the San Salvador volcano and come upon an unexpected explosion of color before your eyes and amidst the green leaves of all the trees.

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What to do in San Salvador on a Saturday night?

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IMGP0021What do you do on a Saturday night in San Salvador?  Well after the “Blizzard of Oz”, at least that is what the Topeka weather folks called it, you sit on the porch at Casa Concordia, the Lutheran Church’s guesthouse, have a late dinner and tell fish stories with your friend Marco.  That’s how I’m spending my Saturday night.

It was 3 degrees when I left Wichita this morning.  It was 93 when I landed in El Salvador.  Our congregation’s mission trip hit a little snag when our Friday flight was cancelled out of Kansas City.  Turns out that the group ended up on several different flights and we are arriving at different times over the next day or so – Marco arrived yesterday, I made it this afternoon, 6 more arrive tonight, and 2 more tomorrow night.  As always, the key word with any mission trip is flexibility.

It was a nice surprise to walk out of the San Salvador airport and see Marco, KiKi, and Ricardo waiting on me.  After we picked up the other rental vehicle and headed toward the city.  We stopped at a pupusaria along the road.  It didn’t look like much, and it wasn’t necessarily a place you might think to stop, but the pupusas were excellent.  Best I’ve ever had (sorry Scott).  The nap was a needed rest after staying up last night for the drive to Wichita.  Marco tried to wake me for dinner and couldn’t but nevertheless they saved chicken and all the sides for me.  So it is a nice moment to pause and give thanks for this day, friends here in San Salvador and who have previously made this journey with me, and the new experience for those arriving in an hour.

A Huge Question

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We’re in the middle of Advent when we point to the coming of the Christ child and we talk about God’s love for the world.  Advent, though, is also a season when we point to the coming again of God, the coming of God that will lead to the full blossoming of God’s Garden of Love.  The lectionary appoints readings for this season from the prophets of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament as well as readings from the gospels that put more than a little edge on the announcement of God’s coming to us.  There is talk of transformation and calls of repentance that can even raise a sense of alarm within us.  What an interesting moment to be asked, “How do we reconcile the image of a vengeful God with an image of a loving God?”  It is a huge question and one that folks have been contending with for a long time (maybe forever).  The question behind it is “Who is God?”  How we answer this question, in whichever form we ask it, makes a difference to our lives.  I want to tell you up front that I think the answer each of us finds to it will change with time, maybe even in the matter of days, and that the answer will differ in degrees for each of us.  And in the interest of transparency, the person who asked the question offered a longer intro to it than I’ve offered.  I focus on the question because of the limitations of this forum and as a way to focus on what I see as the heart of the question.  Sometimes I get that right and sometimes I don’t.

I’ve struggled with understanding who God is for a long time.  I remember as a young child asking my grandmother a question kind of like the one before us now and getting an answer that just didn’t satisfy me.  It was probably something like, “You don’t need to know that” or “Why are you bothering me with a question that doesn’t make sense”.  I think it made sense then and I think it still does.  I read the stories of scripture and we receive multiple images or descriptions of God’s identity and sometimes they are irreconcilable.  How can the God of the Hebrew people demand Joshua and the Hebrews carry out genocide, called the “ban” in scripture, against the men, women, and children of Canaan?  Does God send the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Judah and Jerusalem as punishment for the people’s lack of faithfulness?  Contrast these two examples (from among many) with the healing stories of Jesus in the gospels or Psalm 23 which illustrate a loving, caring image of God.  How do you hold these multiple images of God together in a way that makes sense?

Here’s where I begin – I cannot know God fully as I cannot ever know another fully, I try to read scripture with cultural and period awareness, and I look for the threads in scripture and the traditions of faith that point towards shalom, God’s wholeness that I believe God intends for creation.  All of this leads me to embrace an image of God that is loving, caring, and that works for the healing of creation including our lives.

I start with an inability to know God fully not to excuse God, nor do I think it is a appropriate to do so, but to point out my own limitations.  That I cannot know God is a statement about me, not a statement about God.  Regarding stories of divinely authorized violence in scripture, I think the stories, for example, from Joshua’s conquest of Canaan have to be read with a sense of cultural norms from the period they describe and beyond.  The “ban” was widely practiced in the Iron Age period and was a way to secure conquest.  If you add the divine imperative to the mix, then you add another layer of legitimization.  It moves responsibility from the human realm to the divine realm and that just makes it easier to justify.  I hear, although I can’t quote at the moment but maybe you can, examples from our own time similar justifications of national and international action and policies.  Finally, I see a common thread throughout scripture and the Christian faith that connects to shalom.  Shalom is often translated peace but it really points to something bigger – it points to wholeness and healing.  I see that thread across many of the stories of the Old Testament and in the life and ministry of Jesus.  These steps lead me to a place where I say that I understand God to be the Holy One who loves us by acting to bring about the healing of the world and our lives and one who I cannot use to justify my own brokenness or wrong actions committed by me, or by others on my behalf.

Radiating Light

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It’s dark by 5:30, sunset is around 5:00 most of these days, I suppose that’s right even though I don’t always look at my watch.  I notice it though in my body and my mind and in my spirit.  Partly, I have to notice it because Will reminds me often that he was born on the summer solstice and the winter solstice, which is coming up, is his half-birthday.  (It is funny the things we connect.)  Mostly though it is the recognition within my own being.  Yesterday that meant I spent a lot of time under the buzz of florescent lights – in my study, in meeting rooms, in hallways, and it seems just about everywhere.  So it was striking to walk into the chapel last evening for centering prayer, stepping out of the buzz of florescent into the warm glow of candle light.  It took a moment for my eyes to adjust and actually for my whole body to adjust to this change.  I noticed how the different light began to change my perspective and how I began to slow down; how the rush that had carried me to this space was now dissipating.

Wanamaker Road here in Topeka is a street filled with lights.  It is the corridor that contains most of the retail marketplaces in town.   The lights of the mall, several strip-malls as well as the lights of automobiles rushing between all of the different shops radiate in every direction.  I suspect that the lights of this road have much the same effect on us as the florescent lights had upon me yesterday.  We rush, rush, rush from store to store, looking for the sign that is brightly lit up that will guide our way to the next stop of our journey.

How different it is to follow the light that comes from God.  It is not so much magic as it just offers a different impact on our lives.  As this light radiates out, It invites us to slow down and to be present in the moment and to be present to the presence of the Holy around us.  I’m thankful for such light in the midst of this season.

A Whole Different Experience

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About 2 weeks ago, I, along with the rest of our mission group, were stuck in the stop and go traffic of San Salvador’s rush hour.  What a wild, chaotic driving experience.  Then you add to that the failed clutch in Scott William’s van and it was even more crazy.  It is hard to fully capture the experience in words since it maybe best described as an assault on all of your senses at once – listening for the horns that beep their warnings, eyes darting in every direction trying to find openings to enter the flow of traffic or trying to avoid getting hit, the feeling of the steering wheel and gear-shift in your hands and the weight of your foot on the clutch, and the taste and smell of diesel exhaust.

I’m busy remembering this experience after listening today as someone lamented about his experience of dealing with the traffic challenges of Topeka.  I compared the experience in my mind and all I could think of was how driving here at home is kind of like a Sunday drive through the country compared to the streets of San Salvador.  This conversation reminds me that our perspective is so often relative to our context.  Differing experiences expand that perception but with time even a broadened perspective will shrink.  I wonder if that diminishing ever stops or even slows?