Try to Remember … September

This month Emily and Kelli have been visiting various mission sites. So far they have explored Hospice, Casa de Mujer (social services for women), The Commission on Social Justice, A literacy program with the Good Shepherd sisters, Casa de Juventude which is an after school programs for youth, Casa Lench - a program for kids that work in the streets, confirmation and English classes at the parish and we have met with the Associates of the Incarnate Word sisters; an organization that supports the various ministries of the Incarnate Word sisters. Emily and Kelli do not have a medical background so they are mainly interested in parish work and social services. I imagine they will be deciding in the next week after we get in a few more visits.

We also have a new member in our house - welcome Kathleen! She is our fourth missionary in the house and is a nurse from Catholic Medical Mission Board. Kathleen is 25, from Washington state and will be working in Cambio Puente on a maternal/child health program. A giant among Peruvians – she is 5 ft. 11 inches tall.

There have been many changes but the community is starting to form strong bonds. We have a prayer wall in the house to write our intentions and have been meeting most nights for prayer and sharing. An interesting note, on the Meyers-Briggs, we are all introverts.

Below is a paragraph that will be part of a larger blog surveying various Incarnate Word mission sites in Africa, Mexico and Peru found on http://www.iwmissions.blogspot.com/ where you can read what the other missionaries I live with are writing and what other mission sites are writing as well.

Theme: Transitions

I guess you could say I began my transitioning for the new missionary year in July when I began to orient in my current mission site for the chronically ill home-bound patient – Programa Madeline. I had been working as a nurse in Hospice and made the change to take over for two missionaries that were finishing their time in Peru. It was in July, I also began to feel the stress of the previous community dissolving. I went from being in a house of five missionaries to living solo. A week before I picked Kelli and Emily up in Lima, I found myself orienting a new volunteer into the Madeline home health program that I had only been working in for one month. Change and challenges have been a constant in my life for the past three months.

Going into my final year, I know that I enjoy what I am doing, realize how far I have come and how fast this coming year will fly. I have many unknowns before me that I would normally stress about but I have learned that what I expect or worry about does not happen here. I have learned that no matter what the transition, to trust that things will work out, pray, relax and let things unfold. To let people be and just be present to them. To steal a phrase from Kelli’s blog – I have been “learning to waste time with others”. An outlook on life that one does not easily comprehend in a goal oriented culture such as the U.S. and a valuable lesson to take with me on life’s journey.