god in a lion suit

^"People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them." -Mark 10:13-16

Hello everyone!

Here I am updating my blog.. I`m at the sister`s house helping to translate for a meeting, but it turns out they only need me when the connection goes bad so in the meantime I thought I`d write a little update :)

I was supposed to be leaving for a camping trip on the beach in an hour and a half... but last night the few youth leaders who had committed to going all had "last minute changes" in their availability, so the trip is postponed (which means cancelled). It`s okay for me, because we would have had to stay up all night to finish sewing our rice-sack tent.  Now we can finish it tranquilamente for the next venture.

Last night was the closing presentation for our kids summer program at the parish.  Each class prepared a little number for the parents, which included theater (La Niña de la Selva/The girl from the Jungle), dance (one from the jungle and one from the highland), and a couple of songs.  For our English class we presented the camp song "Baby Shark," so they will forever remember that tiburón is shark!  (important if they ever find themselves on a beach in the U.S.) It`s amazing how much the emotion and nervousness involved in a formal presentation can really bring people closer together, especially children!  The high emotion wasn`t enough to calm some of our most rowdy kids, but I suppose the lion running around stage attacking the other actors when it`s not his turn adds to the entertainment. 

We formed a pretty tight community, as several parents told me that their children "acostumbraron," or got used to their classes at the parish.  We hope they continue attendance!  There`s lots of work to do in terms of building up children`s ministry in our parish, and it`s a tiring job, but I think we did it pretty well!

Lately I`ve been becoming more and more interested in liturgical ministry, especially in relation to youth.  I´ve never been a huge fan of Catholic liturgies, finding that my faith really came alive in direct encounters with people, and not so much in the church building.  But the institution of our Catholic faith maintains that the liturgy is the center of our shared faith, so I´ve begun to ask, if that`s true, why don`t I feel it?  And I think it has a lot to do with the way we go about liturgy.  Instead of asking how to make the liturgy come alive for its participants, we restrict ourselves to the way it "should be" or the way it`s always been done.  The point of Eucharist, of liturgy, is communion.  Why do we not create a space the promotes encounter with the person sitting in front of or behind us? Why our style of praying really reflect the intimacy and union that their words express?  If young people are going to see that the liturgy is even more important for our parish community than game nights, sports tournaments, and trips to the beach, all of which we do really well, they need to be shown that it`s true.  Just repeating "the liturgy is important, the Eucharist is the center of our fatih" isn`t going to do it.  They have to be shown, they have to feel it. 

Anyway, theory is one thing.  Practice is another.  And right now, chasing around a growling 5-year-old boy in a lion suit is what brings us together, what reminds us of our common call.  So we`ll continue looking for ways to enhance our faith, but we won`t reject the value of what we have!

Thanks for reading.  Would love to hear from you!

Wishing you PEACE in your heart and RESTLESSNESS in your spirit :)

merry christmas and a happy new year!

Well, Christmas went off with another big bang this year, literally, as midnight was welcomed with lots of Roman candles and sparklers (plus a flower or two).  Of course, it was a small show compared to a week later as the streets filled with life-size dolls burning away last year´s old to make room for this year´s new.  But back to Christmas.  My theater group opened Christmas Eve Mass with the nativity play, in which I starred one of Gabriel´s side-kicks in a white gown with hands folded in prayer and a smile on my face.  It went well and the mass was nice-- it was the first Mass said by our new priest, but unfortunately he didn´t give the homily so we didn´t really get a good taste of him yet!  After Mass we hung around for awhile, giving Christmas hugs to all our parish friends and taking pictures with the life-size nativity.  Then we went home to prepare a delicious dinner of Velveeta macaroni and cheese shells with ketchup (a special treat for us!) until midnight, when we put baby Jesus in the nativity and went outside to light fireworks with all the neighbors.  We mixed the Peruvians traditions with our own and waited til Christmas Day to open presents (by the way thank you for all the cards and gifts!) and lounge around.

But Christmas wasn´t all relaxing!  Since I work in youth ministry in our parish, it was also an important time for activities.  As has become tradition, the youth movement's biggest Christmas project this year was a chocolotada for about 60 of the poorest children in our parish.  But unlike tradition, this year we decided to do it a little differently.  They still received the signature panetón and hot chocolate, but the event was not advertised as a chocolotada.  Instead, we designed it as a birthday party for Jesus.  With animation similar to that typical of birthday parties here, each youth group presented a fun Christmas song or skit.  I acted as Wendy in my theater group´s presentation of Peter Pan 2.  The show culminated in a live representation of Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, and angels (featuring my very own housemate Katie doing her best to hold a crying, hair-pulling, very heavy baby Jesus).  After circling the patio with the holy family, the kids re-entered the party room, where their gifts were arranged around a candle.  Each child then received a paper heart with the explanation that Jesus doesn´t need us to gift him expensive things, just our hearts.  One by one, they located their heart next to the candle, picked up a gift, and handed the gift to another child.  Amazingly, their pacience lasted almost to the last child, when they did start getting a little ansy!  It was a beautiful celebration (with very few flaws) in which the youth groups united together to give a clear message to the kids: Christmas isn´t about the gifts we receive but about sharing the love that Jesus came to give us.  Perhaps the kids got more excited by the piñatas at the end, but Jesus´ love was very apparent in the laughter, sincerity and participation of the youth and children alike.

New Year´s was also wonderful with a visit from my brother, Scott!  I think he got a good taste of Chimbote at New Years... fish smell, burning dolls and fireworks, and ceviche.  Now it´s time to get into full summer mode-- hot weather, snow cones, beach, volleyball, home improvements, summer school at the parish, evening games at the youth center, etc.  This week my community mates and I are cleansing our bodies.  That means nothing but raw veggies, apples, vegetable broth, and juiced fruits!  By the end of the seven days our insides should be thanking us for flushing out all the sugar and grease that has been consumed in the past month...  though right now I really just want a big bowl of rice and a Reese´s!

Thanks for reading!  I wish you a very happy new year as you embark anew on God´s mission for you in the world!  

Reaping the fruits of 4-H and shop class

I have to say that while being here I’ve learned to appreciate my mom more than I ever had before.  Living in a community not only means that we get to eat together, learn Spanish together, laugh together, and cry together, we also get to care for a house together.  But caring for a house is a lot more work than I thought, and it’s not just because of the Chimbote dust.  Sweeping never ends, dishes never end, dusting never ends, bathrooms are never perfectly clean, the table is never cleared off for more than five minutes, etc., etc., etc.  BUT as a house of hospitality it’s also a lot of fun – because cleaning isn’t something we do only for ourselves, but for our friends, neighbors, and coworkers to whom we open our home.  Our community goal of participating in the culture of hospitality that surrounds us also inspires us to creatively make our home a more inviting, comfortable place.  Thus leading to the reason for the title of this blog post…

One of those ideas was sparked by Katie, who has been set on getting a lamp for our living room for several weeks now.  Finally one afternoon she and I went downtown to price some lamps, and discovered the neither the styles available nor their corresponding prices gelled with our needs.  So I said Katie, I think we can just build a lamp!

With a little help from the internet to brush up my electrical skills and some perusing around the house to find discarded or unneeded objects, we did it!  Our living room is now graced with a beautiful (dare I say?), quirky, symbolic lamp make with (almost) completely recycled materials.  And I only blew the power out once J  Definitely a purple ribbon, if not best of show ;)   Here’s a little description, not for bragging purposes, but to maybe inspire you to make something cool out of old junk that’s lying around!

We started by buying the necessary electrical parts for a lamp – the light socket, cord, and plug – which in the U.S. can be bought in a lamp kit but here are sold individually.  We also bought a small piece of plastic tubing, some wire, and super glue.  Then we identified a cool-looking plastic bottle from our extensive collection of bottles waiting to be recycled.  The base of the lamp was constructed by fitting the tube from the neck of the bottle to the bottom corner, stringing the cord through it, and attaching the light socket on top.  We filled around the tube with sand that Kelli retrieved from a sand dune just down the road and… complete!  You can fill the inside with other little things as well… we added around the top the words, “Ustedes son la luz del mundo,” which means “You are the light of the world,” from the Gospel of Matthew. 

 Now for the lamp shade.  We used two wire hangers and bent them into squares, then attached them at the corners with a second plastic bottle, cut into strips.  This I first tried to cover with tissue paper and then decorate with used matches (we have a gas stove), but it was a little sub-par quality.  So we thought a little harder and came up with using an old T-shirt, which in our case ended up being my bilingual Incarnate Word Missionaries shirt, which was too big for me anyway!  A little cutting (don’t take for granted your rotary cutter – children’s scissors make the job a little more frustrating!) and sewing (also don’t take for granted your sewing machine!) led to the (almost) perfectly-fitted lampshade cover.  To attach the lampshade, we wrapped wire around the bottom lampshade frame and looped it to wrap around the neck of the bottle.  Voilà!  And it’s even IWM-themed J  Here you can pictures of the front and back… the fact that both designs ended up being centered was pure luck!  Yay for recycled products!

Another post to come soon to share about our Christmas celebrations… I wish you all a very joyful and peaceful Christmas!  Another opportunity to realize how truly BLESSED we are that our God chose to come to the earth and be one of us… God doesn’t want to be far away and scary.  In the beginning God was the word, but the word was made FLESH in order to be closer to us.  I pray that this year’s celebration truly allows you to feel that closeness.

Thanks for reading!  I would love to hear from each and every one of you J  Chau!

                                  

not forgetting, but forgiving

This weekend I went for the first time to mass in one of our parish’s chapels, Santo Domingo. The neighborhood is on the outskirts of Chimbote and has a very rural feel. I’ve been walking by it for several months on my way to LENTCH, always noticing it but never inquiring. This past week I finally decided to bring it up to Padre Luciano and see what’s going on there. I went Sunday in hopes of meeting the right people to start developing some kind of outreach to the kids or youth in the neighborhood.


When I walked into the chapel, I saw a very simple room. At the front was the altar, and behind it there was no wall but instead a garden. There were two rows of simple wooden benches and a handful of señoras (elderly women) sitting on the right. I walked in, took a seat near them, and they greeted me and everyone else as they arrived. There ended up being a total of about ten people. Padre Miguel arrived a few minutes after four, and the Mass started.

Until that Mass, it was like any other Sunday for me. Then Padre offered the opening prayer, and added, “Today we are lucky to have here Emily, from the United States, as we commemorate ten years of the attack on her country at the World Trade Center and pray for the thousands of victims from the U.S. and from all over the world.” Ah, of course, the ten year anniversary of 9/11! I had completely forgotten, but as the Mass proceeded, it turned out to be a better commemoration than I could have asked for.

The Gospel for this Sunday was the parable of forgiving others as God forgives us (Matthew, 18: 21-35). Padre Miguel started out his Homily by highlighting the most common message that we understand from this reading – so many times we are so grateful that our loving God forgives even the gravest of our sins, but we are unwilling to forgive our brothers and sisters for the smallest offenses. Then he said, “We have a good opportunity today, as well, to consider the social message of this Gospel.” The message that he proceeded to give re-awoke in me the emotion of 9/11, and it re-ignited my own sentiments about the way we respond to it:

What if warring nations, instead of retaliating with hatred, started with forgiveness? Obviously many people will present arguments of practicality – the government has to worry about the safety of its people, and we should also work to combat systems of evil in the world. But does not hatred simply breed more hatred? Why not strive for national sentiments of forgiveness, understanding, and solidarity with the millions of other people who deal with terrorism every day? Forgiveness does not mean letting the same atrocity happen twice, but it does mean changing the attitude behind our reaction.

With these thoughts I sat as the Mass continued, and Padre Miguel invited me to offer the petitions, even though I was a fist-time visitor in this tight-knit community. This allowed me to step outside my internal reflections and participate in an active way with the community. I received the body of Christ that day with perhaps more conviction and belief than I have in a long time, because I felt the truth of Christ’s message of forgiveness, on the smallest and largest scale.

So as we move on with our lives and the anniversary of 9/11 passes, let us carry not more hatred toward those who carry out acts of terrorism, but forgiveness. Let us pray not that they suffer for what they’ve done but that love, more powerful than the strongest hatred, may fill their hearts. And let our hearts also be filled with love and the courage to work for a more peaceful world.

learning to bear beams of love

Well, I’ve officially been part of the IWM family for just over a year now.  Marcelle, one of my community mates, finished her two years of service and is now back in the states.  Katie and Kyle, our two new community mates, have arrived and are starting to gain their footing here in Chimbote.  Our community is slowly developing into what we hope will be a solid, supportive household.  The four of us are beginning our journey to imitate Christ’s first disciples, who “bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” through the love made manifest in their community (Acts, 5:33).  We are willing recipients of your prayers during this important time of transition!

It’s hard to believe that it’s been so long since I left the U.S., but looking back on the past year I know that I have experienced and grown a lot.  I have formed lots of life-giving relationships that I already know will be very painful to say goodbye to, and in that process have found little niches in my service sites that help me feel like an active, contributing member, and not just a visitor.  All taken into account, I am very happy with my life here in Chimbote.

Amidst the many joys that occur daily in my life, I have lately been struggling with and reflecting a lot upon my own incapacities – incapacity to be everything a friend should be, to be everything a community mate should be, to be everything a missionary should be.  I grew up thinking, and rightfully so, that I can do anything I set my heart on.  But what is too easy to forget is that it’s not going to go perfectly, and it’s not going to be easy.  Likewise, I developed many ideas in college about what it means to be a Catholic missionary, what it means to be a development practitioner and what it means to be a United States native in a foreign country.  These ideas are well-ingrained in my thoughts and beliefs, but what is again too easy to forget is that I’m not going to fulfill those roles perfectly, and that it’s not going to be easy.  And it hasn’t been.

I will not claim to have made any significant difference in the lives of people here in Chimbote during the past year, but I know that I have discovered much about myself, my capabilities and my limitations, some of which is very exciting and some of which is difficult to swallow.  Just this morning I happened to turn to a passage in a collection of writings by Dorothy Day that illuminated my feelings of self-doubt.  Her reflection spurs from the words of William Blake: “We are put on earth for a little space that we may learn to bear the beams of love.”  She writes:

“Suddenly I remembered coming home from a meeting in Brooklyn many years ago, sitting in an uncomfortable bus seat facing a few poor people.  One of them, a downcast, ragged man, suddenly epitomized for me the desolation, the hopelessness of the destitute, and I began to weep.  I had been struck by one of those ‘beams of love,’ wounded by it in a most particular way.  It was my own condition that I was weeping about—my own hardness of heart, my own sinfulness.  I recognized this as a moment of truth, an experience of what the New Catechism calls our ‘tremendous, universal, inevitable, and yet inexcusable incapacity to love’ … Because I felt so strongly my nothingness, my powerlessness to do anything about this horrifying recognition of my own hardness of heart, it drove me to the recognition that in God alone was my strength.”

People sometimes ask, if it is so difficult to choose to live closer to the poor, closer to the world’s most ghastly injustices, and jump into a position of uncertainty where I may or may not have any idea what I’m doing, why do it?  I do it, as I think many people do, because by putting myself in a position of completely vulnerability, by losing the ability to depend on family, intelligence, material comforts, language, talents, privacy, and the limitless list of dependencies that we humans foster, all I am left with to depend on is the love of God, made manifest both in the people around me and in myself.   And then I begin to realize that only by accepting that love am I capable of sharing it. 

So that’s what I’m working on right now… an on-going process that is in every moment more difficult and easier at the same time.  But I am thankful for the life I am living, and that it allows me to pursue a spirituality that is fueled by the raw authenticity of the world. 

Thank you for letting me share some of my reflections with you!  My prayer for you, as much as for myself, is that we can know and accept our limitedness and incapacity in order to fill it with the unlimitedness and infinite capacity of God’s love!

out to sea

Hello everyone!  I hope this writing finds you all well and enjoying the summer!  It’s a little crazy for me to imagine you all celebrating the 4^th of July with barbecues and picnics when we’re just getting into the heart of winter here!  Of course, winter here is nothing compared to a Nebraska winter, with temperatures oscillating between perhaps 55 and 75, but the open-air nature of the buildings and houses here does allow for the constant coolness to reach under the skin and chill the bones. 

This weekend wrapped up the lingering festivities from the celebration of San Pedrito (Saint Peter), who is the patron saint of Chimbote.  It was a two-week celebration – the biggest event of the year – with lots of concerts, food and artisan fairs, art and dance exhibits, etc.  The first culminating event is the vigil night, June 28, which features a huge concert in the main plaza until about 6 in the morning.  I went for a few hours with a group of five people and we had to grab hands and make a train so we wouldn’t get lost in the sea of people!  The following day, June 29, is the central day of the fiesta and starts with a boat procession out to sea led by a 2-foot statue of San Pedro.  Despite being out late the night before, we were determined to pull ourselves out of bed and take advantage of the unique opportunity to take a boat ride in Chimbote’s bay.  It turned out to be quite the adventure…

We left the house later than planned, about 7:30 when we should have left at 7 at the latest.  We took a taxi to the main dock for boarding the boats and quickly got in line – a little questioning revealed that the boarding wouldn’t actually start until 9, so we had some time to wait.  We had been told, though, that the year before they had waited in line but the boats filled up before they reached the front, so we were willing to wait.  Our Peruvian friend went to check out another dock further down the seafront to see if we might have a better opportunity there, and brought back the news that the line we were in would only let us board tiny boats, which could be more dangerous and less comfortable, but the other line would lead us to bigger fishing boats, which could be a more enjoyable ride.  So, we decided to abandon our spot in line and head to the other site.  We arrived to find a short line of people waiting to board a very large boat, decked out in colorful flags and a five-person band.  After a short wait we became uneasy about the random method there seemed to be for letting some people board while others no, so our friend went to inquire.  He soon waved us over to the boarding ramp and explained that it was a private boat by invitation only, but he had explained that he had friends from abroad visiting and the captain invited us to join them.  After a bit of debate and prodding from the captain’s sister (details of which I won’t go into fully) a couple of us were very uncomfortable with the idea that we would get to board just because we were foreigners while all these other people would be refused entry.  So we sent our one roommate with her friend (who really was visiting from the US) on the large boat while three of us (Kelli and I and our Peruvian friend) left to see if we could still get on the smaller boats.  Story said and done we easily boarded a small row boat, which carried us to a slightly larger fishing boat and out to sea.  It was a 2-hour ride on a small, dirty fishing boat but it was beautiful and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.  The waves made us a little uneasy at times but the sights of sea lions, pelicans, rocky islands and open water helped to distract us!

We compiled a little list of some of our San Pedrito experiences on the program blog, http://www.iwmissions.blogspot.com/.  I also wrote a little spiritual reflection about Saint Peter and the celebration with that article, so please read if your interest is sparked!  It really is a celebration of Chimbote – the culture, the food, and of course the people!  It’s a beautiful display of pride and unity that I hope is reflected in the U.S. during this holiday season!

Apart from the celebrations, my activities are going well!  My main activities are coordinating the parish youth council, organizing activities for the youth movement, helping teach Confirmation and First Communion, teaching English, participating in the parish theater group and volunteering at an after-school program for children who work on the streets of Chimbote.  I generally fill my spare time with preparations, one-on-one help with English or computers, cleaning the house, reading, praying, heading downtown, cooking, watching Kelli practice tricks on her spinning top, enjoying Marcelle’s cooking, playing music with friends, hanging out with the Sisters, catching up with the lives of friends and family on Facebook (haha, hint hint, call me!), etc., etc., etc. 

As we celebrate the 4^th of July, I pray that it can be a time of unity and that our pride (or whatever feeling it may be) in our home country may drive us to act on behalf of a stronger and healthier global community where dignity for all is our top priority:  “One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for ALL.”

Peace,

Emily

we are a resurrection people

I’m so sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written! I didn’t realize. There have been so many occasions in which I thought about writing, or had something to share, and just never got to it…. But here I am!

We just got back yesterday from our annual retreat. We went to Tortugas, a little beach town about an hour south of here. It was really rejuvenating to have the ambiance of the ocean waves and tranquility of Tortugas to facilitate a few days of reflection and prayer. It was led by Herman Katty, one of the Incarnate Word sisters here. She is our age but much older in wisdom and at the same time much younger in the childlike joy that she finds in everyday life. She is also Peruvian so the retreat was led in Spanish which was an exciting challenge for us. I could share lots of details but overall I feel like I have a new energy for my service sites and my house community! You can read a small piece of my reflections at the IWM blog, where we posted personal versions of the Beatitudes that we wrote during the retreat.

We celebrated Easter here with lots of enthusiasm! A Peruvian (and widely Latin American) tradition is to act out the Way of the Cross through the neighborhood streets on Good Friday. Good Friday is actually a bigger celebration than Easter, I think because for a people who have suffered or are suffering greatly, it is easier to identify with the crucified Christ than with the Risen Christ. And with all the killing in the world, whether it be the slow and subtle murder of a malnourished child by an imbalanced society or the direct and calculated murder of an identified individual in the midst of war, it is easy to see Christ being crucified in our world today. The difference is that we weren’t there when Jesus walked the way of Calvary, so we couldn’t take a stand, though we like to think we would have. But today we can. That’s why we are called to accompany those who suffer most—so that we can say no to the suffering of Jesus in our world today and all rise up in the Resurrection together.

Back to the story… the theater group I participate in in our parish coordinated the acting and I played the part of a bad person in the pueblo, yelling “Crucify him, crucify him!” through the whole process. Since we rehearsed the Vía Cruces, as it’s called in Spanish, for weeks beforehand, I felt like I was living the Passion of Jesus for a long time, and was thus really ready to live the Resurrection!

To celebrate the Resurrection we planned an all-night vigil/retreat for the youth movement. It started with the Saturday night vigil Mass at 8… though for me it started Saturday morning with a market run to get all the supplies. Saturday afternoon we started cooking the lamb and unleavened bread. After Mass we did some icebreaker-type games and then sat down to share a Jewish-style Passover meal—a very cool experience. The rest of the night was filled with more games, a movie, and a campfire. Around the campfire each individual got to share a bit of their testimony… or really how they were drawn into the parish. It was a really neat time to hear their stories and reflect on how God’s call is uniquely designed for every one of us. We ended at 6 a.m. with a short prayer… then I went home and slept for two hours before returning to the church for First Communion class, which was also really fun! We have class from 9:30-11, and at 11 we have a children’s mass. We still have communion, though obviously there are only a few of us who receive it. That day I went up to receive communion, and when I went back to my seat two of my 9-year-old girls turned around to face me. Their eyes were filled with curiosity and they excitedly asked me, “Does it taste good? Is that what we’re going to get?” I said yes, it tastes like happiness and peace, and yes, you will be able to receive it in November, and they looked at each other as their eyes and smiles widened. It reminded me of my own excitement to be able to walk up with all the grown-ups and receive the Eucharist, and even though I had a very simple understanding of what was happening, I think we would do well to share a bit of that childlike excitement as we walk up to communion!

After First Communion I went to theater practice for a little while, which was a celebration of the completion of the Vía Cruces and Easter—also lots of fun, because I just love being with the other members of the group. I left early to return to my house for Easter lunch… lasagna and brownie sundaes! It was a WELCOME treat after our Lenten diet. In the afternoon I was able to talk with my family and in the evening went to a meeting with the Confirmation catechist team before going to Mass in the evening. By that time I was started to crash but the whole day was very joy-filled and I wouldn’t change a second of it! (Re-reading this paragraph I realized it was FULL of exclamation points… and still has lots… but that’s because it was a very exciting day, even meriting multiple exclamation points in true Peruvian style!!! (sorry, Ginger ))

It’s a crazy thing to write a message to the general public, never knowing who might read it, but whoever and wherever you are, thank you for reading! We share our experiences so that we can all become better at loving and serving our neighbor, and we all have a perspective to offer. I thank you for considering mine and would love to hear from you as well!

I wish you joy and energy during this Easter season and beyond, and wish you the strength to respond to the call that you feel in your heart!