Emerging

Two and a half years, I didn’t realize it had been so long! This space has been neglected, so many posts never found their way from my mind to the page while I navigated the beautiful entanglements of motherhood and then the waters of grief after my mother’s death. And this year my daughter started preschool and we’ve had the typical parade of minor illnesses rolling through the household. It’s been a challenging time and I finally feel like I am emerging into a new season, bringing my head up to take stock of where I am and reintegrate myself with my surroundings in a new way.

Today I simply want to share a few links as a way of catching up in case you aren’t on my newsletter list and include some other pieces that might be of interest.

At the end of April I had the privilege of moderating a panel workshop for Ecumenical Advocacy Days titled “Part Way There – Swords Into Plowshares: The Case of Colombia.” You can read a bit about it and another workshop led by my colleague Jed Koball in this article. There is also a recording available for those who might like to take a look.

One of my favorite projects early in the pandemic was working with colleagues in the Presbyterian Mission Agency and ecumenical partners around the world to create videos for World Communion Sunday 2020. If you missed them and would like to take a look or potentially use them in worship they are available on the Special Offerings Vimeo page. There are shorter prayers as well, but I am particularly fond of the communion liturgy which was created by a group of musicians and liturgists from across Latin America.

You can find all of my official mission co-worker newsletters on my Mission Connections page. I have not been writing as often as I’d like in this season in general, but have added a few of those since my last blog post:

• Tenacious hope, a reflection on Martha Lugo’s Easter 2021 sermon and the social protests across Colombia. I helped gather images and information for this piece published by Presbyterian News Service on Colombia’s social protests in 2021. A big celebration is coming soon because Pastora Martha will be ordained in July, in the first women’s ordination in the Urabá Presbytery!
• Resting in the mystery, Epiphany greetings 2022 reflecting on the previous year of work and motherhood.
• Cloud of witnesses, giving thanks for a few of the saints of the church we lost in 2020-2022. This is my first newsletter to be published both in English and in Spanish, as they all will be going forward.
• My latest newsletter s now online as well, reflecting on the image of the wolf and the lamb in the peaceable kingdom from Isaiah’s vision. If you’d like to receive future newsletters via email you can sign up on the PCUSA mailing list here.

If you check out the piece on Advocacy Days and my latest newsletter, you will see some discussion of the current political landscape in Colombia, with the first truly progressive presidency. I don’t have links handy but you can find lots of information, news, and opinions about Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez if you search, and I’ll try and put some links together for a future post because this is a major shift.

So much more to be said, but I’ll leave it here or else this will never get posted! Thanks for reading.