the year in review

It's been an eventful year. the most notable absence at this point is that of Donald. There's no easy way to quantify what it is like to have to deal with the untimely death of ANY loved one, but in this case, as in the case of my cousin Eric in 1991, has made for a continuing struggle in adjusting to this present reality.

it's been a good year, a sobering year, a hard year, a centering year, a tiring year. in that sense, it has been no different from our previous years.

We are ending the year as a larger family, with Jesus and Perla having come to us as foster children in the middle of October. While they are precious and dear (as well as troubled, in their own way) ... i can't help but be increasingly aware of the fact that we are witnessing their lives in a way that SHOULD belong to their mother, who desperately wants her children - all 8 - back with her. We are pledged to work with her in that effort.

Jerusalem is a precious, precious place. Flaws and all, the family of faith that meets there is and continues to be a source of grace as well as of challenges. They have taught me what is means to Pastor and BE a pastor. Their patience, love, and support are a continuing source of grace and strength for us.

The Latino Community on the Neck are, as always, a source of joy and sorrow, encouragement and ... opportunities ... there is so much to do ... weighing the needs against our stamina is always a balancing act.

This is a good place. Any way you look at it, taking the good with the bad, the hard with the easy, the blessing with the ... undiscovered blessing... :-)

Here's to a new year of opportunities, hopes, dreams, challenges, and expectations, all rolled together into one.

RBA Hispanic Ministry Report

EXECOM Meeting, Beulah Baptist Church

Warsaw VA

090924

This afternoon I spent a while at the pediatrician’s office here in Warsaw, translating for three families and their children. It’s not unusual for either Leslie or me to spend SOME time there, two or three or even more days a week, depending on the season. The running joke is that they are going to set up a cot for me in one of the offices. Today’s appointments were pretty routine. A couple with their newborn baby son – Jose Maria Andrade Cruz was born on Saturday, and this was his initial newborn appointment. His parents, Jose and Fani, were excited and more than a little apprehensive at the prospect of being parents, but they were both very attentive and very focused on taking care of their precious child. In the course of the visit, I discovered that, though Jose was their first baby, this was their second pregnancy. Though I didn’t ask for any details, I did express to them my condolences in the loss of their first child.

In the next room over, there were two families who are neighbors who live in Village. In one family there are two little ones, Cesar, who is four, and has the distinction of being the first baby I got to the hospital to be born back in 2005 – we arrived at Mary Washington at 2:45 AM and he was born at 3:00 AM. Lucero, his sister, was born this past 4^th of July. The other family has two sons, Victor and Carlos. Victor has apparently been exposed to Poison Ivy or something that has caused him to break out in a rash almost all over his body.

Earlier today I was at the high school with a 17 year old young woman who wanted to enroll in school – she WANTS to at LEAST finish High School, if not go even further in her education, but she has just arrived here from California. She and her boyfriend have beautiful little baby girl. He and HIS family moved here last fall, and her mother wanted her to at least finish out the school year back in California before moving here. The problem right now for her is that her mother in California needs to transfer her guardianship to Marta – her boyfriend’s mother – in order for Marta to be able to enroll the girl in school.

Yesterday I sat with a woman in Callao who went in for a routine mammogram on Monday down at Rappahannock General in Kilmarnock. Her Family Nurse Practitioner received the report Tuesday afternoon early and called me to ask me to relay the results to her. They found a suspicious mass in one of her breasts, and from the size and shape of it there is a high probability that it will turn out to be a malignancy. She cried and I prayed with her. I’d ask you to please add her to your prayer lists – her name is Ana Maria Torres. Over the next days and weeks we will be working on getting her the needed tests and appointments to determine what else needs to happen.

Through your generosity we were able to provide close to a hundred students with the supplies they needed to start school. That number is considerably down from what we did last year, but coincidentally, we had fewer requests to fill this year than last.

I could work my way back through the summer months and walk you through stories of all these families and individuals we have come to know and love, but I know we have other business to attend to here tonight.

What I’d like to leave you with is the understanding that, even though we hear a lot of rhetoric in the public arena that deals in generalities, in labels for huge groups of people, we are still talking about people just like you and me.

If there is one thing that has been reinforced over and over again since we’ve been taking part in this ministry, it is that as followers of Christ, we are called to live in community – meaning we are called to KNOW each other –we are called to share in each other’s lives – CARE for each other, and that is hard to do if you stop thinking of that family in the next aisle over at Wal-Mart as folks with names, with hopes and dreams – in many cases dreams that they may have had at one point for themselves but have had to put away, and are now hoping and dreaming for their children and grandchildren, and start thinking of them in generalities.

Please don’t give in to that temptation, that easy excuse to set aside our responsibility to minister in the name of Jesus to everyone we come in contact with.

Yes, it is hard, and yes, it is messy, but that’s our call.

My final word is, as always, thank you for giving us the chance to DO this. It continues to be a source of joy and challenge for our lives as ministers and as representatives of the Rappahannock Association.

Hispanic Ministry Report to the RBA

Spring meeting, April 23, 2009
Gibeon Baptist Church

I’m reminded of the passage that starts out ‘train up a child in the way he should go …’ because as I was getting ready for tonight, this song started going through my head. As a Royal Ambassador, as a child, I learned the theme song that in part says:

Embajador yo soy, del reino celestial,
Lejos esta mi hogar, en un país mejor
Embajador yo soy, del reino celestial,
En los asuntos de mi Rey,
Este mensaje pues oíd:
Un mensaje de paz y amor;
Reconciliados sed,
Dice el señor mi rey,
Reconciliados sed con Dios

I am an ambassador of the Kingdom of Heaven
My home is far away, in a better land
I am an Ambassador of the Kingdom of Heaven
About the Business of my King
Hear this message
A message of peace and love
Be reconciled
Says my Lord and King
Be reconciled with God

I read in a Newsletter that i get every month from a fellow follower of Christ, where he was discussing the issues facing Christians and Baptists in Virginia specifically. In it, he listed the illegal immigration issue as the #2 issue to be dealt with (the first issue was education); but in regards to illegal immigration, he wrote the following:

“Illegal immigrants are responsible for an amount of crime much larger than their part of the population. They fill jobs that otherwise would be available for American citizens. They are disproportionately active in drug gangs and illegal transport of guns. A question that should be asked of each proponent is, “why are illegal immigrants more important than American citizens?” Certainly we should help these folks as we can, in their native lands.”

My first thought in response to HIS question would be “Are we behaving as though illegal immigrants are LESS important as human beings than us?” (Apart from wondering where he got his facts,) my other question is, how do we frame our thoughts and ideas about ministering to the migrant community, those people who are not in THEIR native land? It occurs to me that the voice that is loudest is that of the culture – the media and politicians. But is that the frame on which we as a people of faith should build OUR view of what it means to minister to this community?

The people of Israel are instructed in Deuteronomy very specifically on how to treat the foreigner among them – and it is with a welcoming spirit and open arms. And the foundation of that instruction is based on their own experience as foreigners and slaves in Egypt. As people of faith, as followers of Christ, we carry that mantle as well, because we are also a people living in exile. We are citizens of heaven, not of the United States. It is difficult for us to envision ourselves AS citizens of somewhere we’ve never been, I agree. But I would challenge us all to work towards living in that frame of mind. Because until we are there, we ARE called TO minister, while we are here, to the least of these, our brothers and sisters.

Our work, yours, mine, OURS, is about the KINGDOM. It is not about our politics or the world’s politics.

And the Kingdom is something that cannot be defined. It can be described – Jesus described it as a precious coin lost that a woman turns her house upside down to find, or like a treasure in a field that is found and the man goes out and buys the field in order to return and retrieve the treasure… Jesus described it, but he never gave a specific definition of it – and that is uncomfortable for us. We can’t box it in, as much as we would like to, for our comfort’s sake. But I think that, for the sake of the Kingdom, I would rather BE uncomfortable.

In the last few weeks, I’ve been stretched out of MY comfort zone. Two couples in the Latino community have come to me asking for counseling. They are going through rough spots in their relationships. Marriage and couples counseling is something that I am NOT comfortable with, but I am stepping out on faith that God’s spirit will give wisdom and guidance as we walk through these sessions together. Some of you may have heard of the movie ‘Fireproof’ – thank goodness, the DVD also has a Spanish language setting. It has served as a starting point for our conversations, and it presents a very clear direction in terms of the need for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ in order to truly make a marriage work.

I would covet your prayers for wisdom and guidance as we continue through that process.

My first and last word to you is “thank you” for giving us this opportunity, to be able to minister in the name of Christ on behalf of the Rappahannock Baptist Association to our Latino brothers and sisters.

On a personal note, I would ask that you pray for Leslie and her family. Her father is in need of a lung transplant, and they are down in Durham undergoing testing and assessment to try to bring him back to a point of health where he could be put on the candidate list TO receive a transplant. Leslie will be spending a lot of time there with them, providing transportation and support as they go through that process. Since she was the only one that didn’t have a ‘day job’ (nudge nudge, wink wink for those of you who know Leslie!) that she had to be at, she taken that on.

Again, thanks so much.