Following and adapting

To my sisters and brothers in Christ, my family, friends and supporters,

Here are just some of my recent reflections of the last couple of weeks:

Following my Installation Service on Jan. 11th, the real work has begun. The last six months of preparation, language training, cultural immersion, finding an apartment and settling in, is all at once over and now the real work, the real call is underway. There have been three full services to this point in this first month of ministry: preparing, presiding and preaching. There have many more meetings to organize the part of my work that will involve teaching church liturgy and music, as well, to look at ministry at San Juan Camino de Esperanza. But as so many things are still new, I often feel like I am still following and still adapting.

My body is slow at adapting: to the pollution, to the fragrances of foreign trees and flowers, and of course to the food in general. My brain seems slow to adapt at times, too: to the new language, to almost always looking for a particular word or phrase, and to being tired from all the thinking that is needed sometimes. We often forget how set we are in our ways, in our own traditions, customs and habits. They are so automatic, we often don't think about it or why we are doing something in a particular way. These habits, these ways of being in the world, are so entrenched that we don't even realize the extent to which they are a part of our fibre, our DNA. Like Wolverine in "X-Men" whose bones were replaced with metal and sinewed into his very structure,so, too are our habits, our rituals, our customs, our mannerisms, all of our decisions and who we are are.

Our LTS President suggested over a year ago that learning a new language is much like an arm-wrestling match, in which the strength of your opponent far surpasses your own. Cultural and language adaptation does feel much like this, only a part of my brain still fights to win!

Our faith journey seems like this alot of times, too. We fight to get back the control that we think is ours, or that we belive is ours, although we really have no reason to have deserved it. We fight with God, we want our own way, we do not want to have to follow or adapt to a new way of living and being in the world. Thanks to God, though, who knows this about humanity and still chooses to love us anyways, even to the point of sending his only son, Jesus Christ to live and die for us! In Jesus, our frailties and habits, our ways of being in the world can be reconciled and transformed to that of Christ. The adaptation and following is not always easy, this is for sure, but God's grace and love, God's strength and power are certainly far superior to ours. And this is an incredible grace. We are freed by the forgiveness of our sins through Jesus Christ, to change and adapt, to spread this Good News of Jesus, the Good News that saves and transforms us and our world!

Following and adapting is difficult, this is so true...in my five months in South America with the various challenges and joys, I can say that adapting is not always easy, but there are certainly more possibilities of living that reveal themselves in these times of change and transition. God's possibilities and God's capabilities are far beyond what we can see or imagine and this is incredible! I pray for God's vision for our ELCIC and for the Peruvian church-ILEP, as we grow and adapt together in this relationship and with all of the changes that seem to be happening in both of these churches!

In the peace, love, mercy and grace of God,
Pastora Fran.