October 7, 2008

Greetings from Frijolillo, where I am finally “resting” from my travels across the United States. What a month! I went from south to north to east to west and west to east before finally heading back south again. Along the way, I enjoyed ocean and mountain views, time with special friends and family across northern Mexico and the entire United States, play time with my 3-year-old nephew, and the opportunity to share what God is doing in me and in the Huastecas with believers across the country (20 engagements, including one presbytery, eleven churches, and one college in six states).

The trip was not without its challenges, however. I experienced fairly rough “counter culture shock,” the feeling of not fitting in to one’s home country because one has adapted to another. Despite the joy of being with loved ones in the United States, I missed my friends in Mexico. I missed the food. I missed the slower pace of life in rural Mexico. And when I returned after my month-long adventure, I felt as though I had been gone three months! A huge thank you to all of you who endured this experience with me with such love and patience.

I am now back home and though I say I am resting, the term is quite relative. I actually had one day of rest, and then things picked up from there: meetings, special services, distributing purchases I had made for people, teaching Sunday school, and preparing lessons and sermons for this week’s Bible Institute classes. Part of me now longs for those four-hour cross-country flights during which I gloriously wasted time in mindless thought.

A reflection on our participation

Over the months I have been reflecting on several issues related to our partnership in ministry in the Huastecas (and around the world). I have more questions than answers, but I invite you to join the reflection.

How do our words, actions, possessions, and contributions impact our brothers and sisters?

Are we reflecting Christ’s nature or our own? Are we teaching our brothers and sisters to look to God in response to their needs or to themselves or us?

Does the U.S. church’s desire to participate in ministry abroad place undue pressure on foreign partners to accommodate us?

Are we participating in God’s mission or fulfilling our own?

How do we prepare for a short-term mission experience? What expectations do we have for team members?

Of particular concern for me is how we are impacting our brothers and sisters spiritually. Does our participation lead them closer to Christ or actually away from him? Are we teaching Christian, American, or secular responses to their concerns?

As a full-time missionary and coordinator of mission opportunities for U.S. congregations, these questions have been on my mind of late. In fact the presbytery staff and I have had to take a step back and evaluate our expectations of local congregations as they seek support for construction projects and consider the most appropriate ways for the U.S. church to be in partnership with us. We are asking God to show us how He would have us minister to one another and together in fulfillment of His purposes in us and in the world.

So, what’s ahead?

October and November are “full.” In addition to monthly Bible Institute classes and weekly preaching engagements, during October I have the following plans:

• Trip to Mexico City with missionaries Raquel and Saret for a meeting at the Central Bible School for Missionaries (9 and 10).
• Visit to Jesus the Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church of Chancuetlán to do varied tasks with leaders, the Presbyterian Women’s group, and children as well as witnessing the tearing down of their current sanctuary and the beginning of the new construction (14-22).
• Visit with missionaries Raquel and Saret to the congregation in Barco to hold a mini vacation Bible school for the children and prepare the congregation to host the presbytery meeting in January during which the sanctuary will be dedicated (23-24).
• Visit the Presbyterian Women’s group in Taxicho in preparation for leadership workshops to be held in November (28 and 30)
• During November I will travel to Mexico City, Oaxaca, Coahuila, and Nicaragua.

Prayer points

I would appreciate your prayer support for the following:

• Renewal of my visa to live and work in Mexico, which is being processed in October and November.
• The processing of a special permit to leave Mexico while my visa is being reviewed in order to attend a PC(USA) missionary retreat in Nicaragua in November.
• The Jesus the Good Shepherd Church of Chancuetlán as they begin the reconstruction of their sanctuary. Pray for physical safety of the workers and that church leadership would trust the Lord’s provision for the project.
• My health and safety during upcoming travels. Pray especially that I will not get motion sickness on the bus rides to Mexico City.
• Brother Simón Hernández of the Taxicho church who continues to struggle with kidney stones.
• Wisdom in offering leadership training and organizational consultation for Presbyterian Women’s groups in the four communities assigned to me by the presbytery women’s leadership.
• The Central Bible School for Missionaries in Mexico City, which is undergoing huge organizational changes that are causing some consternation both at the school and throughout the National Presbyterian Women’s organization.
• Mexico, as she faces social and economic distress related to the narcotics trade, growing violence, the ineffectiveness of law enforcement, increasing moral liberality, and the effects of the economic crisis in the United States (joblessness and the return of migrants). Pray that Christians in Mexico would not only be strengthened, but would be a powerful witness to the sovereignty and provision of God in the midst of the challenges before them.
• The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as it deals with continuing theological and organizational challenges. Pray for me as I monitor the situation and consider the impact of such issues on our partnership with the Mexican church and on my own work as a missionary. Pray that above all, Presbyterians across the United States and Mexico would hear and obey the voice of God and so fulfill His purposes.

A special thank you!

A word of thanks to each of you for:

• your prayers over this past month as I have traveled across the United States
• your gracious hospitality
• your gifts toward the ministry here in the Huastecas and my support as a PC(USA) mission co-worker
• and for all the love and care God provides me through you.

As I traveled across the United States and Mexico I praised God for the amazing host of believers He has placed in my life to encourage, exhort, guide, correct, and support me, personally and ministerially. I am blessed by your partnership. Tlascamati miyac. Thank you so very much. Philippians 1:3-11.

With love,

Susie

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 256