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Thursday, 02 September 2010 14:56 |
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August 16th, Dan Sutton, Patrick Budde and I traveled to San Lucas Toliman, a town on the shores of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. We were returning to the mission at San Lucas where 14 of us had worked the year before. The mission is headed by Catholic priest Greg Shaffer who has been working among the people of Guatemala for almost 50 years. The mission has a school, clinic, coffee production facilities, builds houses, has a re-forestation program and several other projects.
In June, the area of San Lucas was severely hit by tropical storm Agatha. Over 150 families lost their homes, roads were washed out and the lake sits 6 feet higher due to the heavy rains. We worked alongside a group from Engineers Without Borders from Marquette University. The project was to continue to bring electricity to a small village outside of San Lucas called Nueva Providencia. The village was a result of efforts by the mission to help villagers who had been displaced by a bankrupt coffee finca find a permanent home. Located about 5 km on the road toward the Pacific Highway, Nueva Providencia was now only accessible on foot over two hastily cobbled together footbridges made from found boards and fallen trees. The concrete bridge which had led to the village was destroyed, a victim of a raging river trying to find the fastest route to the ocean. In this case the fastest route was through the approach road to the bridge. The road leading to and from the bridge is now gone. The bridge barely visible under a wall of debris and rocks.
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Wednesday, 25 August 2010 17:48 |
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As all construction workers know, the most important part of a building is what will never been seen when their work is done. The foundation is the base upon which everything else rests, and its soundness and strength, or lack of them, will have far-ranging consequences for years to come.
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Thursday, 19 August 2010 19:39 |
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My daughter Katie and I drove on a dusty, dark road late Friday night to arrive at Enmahgabowh house, nestled into a hillside between the lapping of the waters of a beautiful lake and an exquisite expanse of stars and a view of the Milky Way only seen far from the city lights we left behind. We joined our fellow parishioners from St. John's and prepared for a wonderful weekend at White Earth.
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Thursday, 19 August 2010 19:38 |
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I have worked with people at White Earth for 10 years with my former business. The people I have met have always been welcoming, but I have never felt as welcomed as we did this past weekend with our St John's group. Every part of the weekend was fully inclusive and wonderful. Each one of us was treated as a special visitor and as part of the greater Episcopal community of faith.
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Thursday, 19 August 2010 19:34 |
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As often happens on such a pilgrimage, we as a group bonded as we experienced the hospitality of our friends in the North and West. We shared meals, communion on Sunday and a Pow Wow on Saturday and Sunday. I was transported into another kinder, more gentle world for 48 hours.
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Thursday, 19 August 2010 19:33 |
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Thirteen of us from St John’s traveled to White Earth Reservation near Detroit Lakes, answering an invitation to visit the Episcopal mission there.
Saturday morning the four White Earth congregations (St Columba, St Phillips, Samuel Memorial, and Breck Memorial) gathered at St Columba church to share breakfast with us and for conversation sharing about our congregations. We talked about important customs, traditions, church history and programs in our congregations. Several members explained the Pow Wow tradition and gave instructions on dance, and explained that at certain times in the Pow Wow we would be invited to dance.
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Thursday, 12 August 2010 18:44 |
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Whenever we find ourselves at a significant crossroads or life transition, we ask ourselves, consciously or not, two fundamental questions: what of my past do I need to take with me into the unknown future? And, how must I adapt and change to meet the challenges ahead.
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Thursday, 05 August 2010 16:34 |
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One of the first things an ordained person is expected to do is to offer words of blessing—at the end of worship, over meals, in people’s homes, for pets on St. Francis Day, for babies and those at the hour of death. I didn’t receive any formal instruction in blessing, nor had I given much thought to it before it was expected of me. For a long time, if I didn’t have specific words of blessing in front of me, I would panic. Once, I arrived at a house blessing without my prayer book, and I drove back home to retrieve it. It occurred to me then that I had a lot to learn about blessing, and I longed for the day when I would be comfortable speaking a blessing from the heart.
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