To Peru with love...

Dear Friends, Family, & Supporters!

This is a little bit different of a blog-post and perhaps appropriate to be posting it, finally, on the US Thanksgiving holiday. There are times when we can all recall with gratitude the experiences, good & bad, that have formed and shaped us. The following post was my journal entry several weeks ago, recalling all that has happened, personally and professionally, in these years serving in Peru as missionary. It has been life-changing and wonderful, not always easy or joyous, as other ex-pats can attest, but this is my little letter of gratitude...

To Peru with love,

Wow! What a journey these last three and a half years have been...such a roller-coaster, such extremes, nothing could have prepared me for Peru, for Lima, for the challenges and struggles of life overseas, as well as those of our church here. I felt prepared and was as ready as one could have been, but there is no way I could have been fully prepared for all that was to happen.

Lima is hard, tough, grey, dirty, sprawling, rude, demanding. Peru with such intense competition...huge cultural differences, despite appearances.

Amazing.

I am grateful for all of it.

I am grateful for the extremes because of those I am in touch with my feelings.

I am grateful for the severities of conflicts and disagreements, because of those I know myself much better and have learned how and when to respond and approach certain issues and situations.

I am grateful for my closest friends and those that continue to form and develop. They remind me who I am and why I am here and when none of it is clear, we guide each other through it all.

I am grateful for both of my parishes, they are teaching me how to be a pastor, how to speak the truth in love, when my presence is most valued and needed, what is my role in the various situations we encounter, and how to say what needs to be said even when it's the hardest, and sometimes the last, thing I want to do!

I am grateful to be able to speak Spanish, to learn guitar, to teach English, to dance salsa and learn the latin music and its rhythms, because i am creating new brain pathways, new memories, deepening my experience here and my experience of myself, in this I have learned how capable, open and adventurous I really am. I have learned that I can and do take risks.

I am grateful for the men I have dated in these singles years and even for all of the heart-break along the way because I have learned what love is and what love isn't and I have had to stand strong in the face of the manipulating and controlling ones, and this has not only made me stronger, it's helped shape and define what I want in a life partner and what I am not willing to accept.

I am grateful to live close to the ocean, beaches, and beautiful parks. They renew my soul and remind me there is still beauty in the world even in the midst of the ugliness of human sin and brokenness, corruption, and poverty.

I am grateful for my sister and my family who continue to love me even when they and we are so far apart and even though they don't always understand me or why I'm here...they show me a glimpse of unconditional love and how important good roots are even though I colour mine!

I am grateful for the supporters in the ELCIC, for the companion synods and congregational relationships and the wonderful relationships that have been formed because they affirm me and remind me why I am here, they notice and name things I'd long forgotten about in the years here. They breathe new life, hope, and love into the workings of our congregation and ILEP.

My heart is full...I am grateful and hope-filled.

Thank you, Peru, AND all of you whose support, encouragement, understanding, and interest, continue to inspire me! Thank you also for the many recent Birthday greetings, and all the ways you have responded and shown you care not only about me, but also the Peruvian congregational members, the growing ILEP church, and all of the ministries here!

Blessings & Abrazos!!

Pastora Fran