neuva dia (new day)

This morning is another beginning to a new day. While preparing to leave my temporary home in Mexico with the morning view of the fog nestled into the mountains and the sounds of roosters and burros, I thought that I might have a difficult time (if not at least hesitant) with the return to normalcy. There are many things that are happening and need to happen (that I should really be working on now, but not) that I am not interested in - but what I want lies on the other side. But I went to work yesterday and will go today and continue on, just as if Mexico and Poland were distant dreams. The weekend after this, I am going on a short trip to the east coast of Texas to help with hurricane recovery, which I have been waiting for; then comes Guatemala again; then Berlin. But these too feel very distant. Am I really living my life?

My sister told/asked me the other day (more likely yesterday considering I have only been back two days thus far) if I would be willing to share and motivate congregants of her church. While talking with her head pastor and mentor about me (apparently), he asked my sister if I would consider presenting something to the church in Austin. And also something was mentioned about his connections to German pastors and my speaking with them when I am over there or something very fantastical on that line of thought. Seriously!? What an honor that I do not know how to fill. What could I have to say to show people the world's needs and instill within them a desire and a way (application is important, otherwise it is empty, meaningless words) to be a cause of change - and do this for my neighbors up in Austin and my very far away (six time zones and completely different climate region) neighbors? I have this to offer that I formulated while in Poland when asked why have we come such a distance and paying money and time to help these people who knew us not the day before: God has blessed me with a radical freedom to be and do at greater distances than others can, so my neighbors are just a little further away, while others (because of various responsibilities and callings) have smaller ranges of neighbors but can be equally fruitful.

So that is this mornings ramblings for working on a couple hours of broken sleep. I will continue to post stories and pictures of Mexico's adventure, while I work feverishly (procrastinating feverishly at least) writing a research paper for the Mexico studio (that is 30% of the final grade, I believe) and sometime before that actually completing the research that goes along with the topic of the paper - because that tends to help make the paper, well, a research paper.