Greetings to you and peace to you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! I write to you from sunny, beautiful Saskatoon, a million miles away from Lima, Peru. And that is not just the distance, it feels like a million miles away in terms of culture, technology, language, and so much more. In these days of re-entry and re-adjustment I feel, once again, like Alice in Wonderland. I am exploring my own country through different eyes, reconnecting with family and friends, familiar yet not-so-familiar places. As with my first trip down the rabbit hole, I feel like a foreigner all over again. There is much that has changed in my beloved Canada, there are new things to integrate into vocabulary and into memory. The mind is racing making comparison's to Lima and Peru: from places, sounds, sights, smells, cities...the list of difference continues!
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| A local market |
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| The view from Martirez, where many of San Juan Camino de Esperanza children and youth live... |
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| With Carlos, from San Juan Camino de Esperanza, at my last ILEP National Convention |
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| With the children at my Farewell Service at Emaus |
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| Saying good-bye with the youth at San Juan Camino de Esperanza |
After a little more than three months in Canada, there is now time for reflection on the good-byes to friends, colleagues, brothers and sisters of ILEP and parishioners of Emaus and San Juan Camino de Esperanza. Along with the Farewell Services, were fiestas to celebrate our years of ministry together, mixed in with the packing, details of an international move, good-bye lunches and coffees...and many, many tears of thankfulness!! As we know, good-byes are sad and I miss so many people, they are held close in thought and prayer and will for a long time to come!
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| Details of good-bye included packing up and getting everything shipped back to Canada |
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| With some of the members of Emaus at my Farewell Service and Celebration of the ministry |
In these years of missionary service, the ELCIC and ILEP in partnership were able to provide pastoral ministry to the congregation of San Juan Camino de Esperanza (St. John Way of Hope), an interim ministry for the last year at the congregation of Emaus, as well as participation in the conference of ILEP pastors, the formation and directing of an ILEP choir, music and liturgy classes with all but three ILEP congregations as well as through the UBL (Universidad Biblica Latinoamericana), and hosting many choirs, music groups, short-term mission groups, and welcoming of many visitors from Germany, Canada and the United States. What an honour it has been, and what blessing and challenge these years have presented. But I left with such gratitude and a heart filled with joy and love for all those with whom I had the pleasure to serve and walk alongside. God truly was present in these sacred places and spaces, on the roadways, in people's homes, in the sharing of meals, in the hillsides, valleys, walkways along the ocean, in joys and sorrow, and most especially in the breaking of bread and outpouring of wine as we gathered to worship, to sing, and in praise of our God from whom all blessings come!
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| With Pastora Uta, Missionary Pastor from Germany, who preached at the San Juan Farewell and Celebration of Ministry |
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| Sharing the peace with Brigitte and Angela who didn't want to let me go.... |
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| The Eucharistic Prayer and Blessing |
And as I leave behind a wonderfully complex and unique culture, people, land, children, congregations, youth, brothers and sisters in Christ, places, sights, smells, food, music and dances, I will continue to pray that those seeds that we planted here will continue to grow and flourish with God's love and grace.
"For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord..." Jeremiah 29: 7-14
With blessings, peace, love, and joy in the Lord,
Pastora Fran.
