Ghost Adventures

I have had a lot of new experiences this last week, and I truly think most of them are more important than what I am about to share with you. But this also should be said.

The seminary we are staying at could be haunted.

ISEDET is an ecumenical seminary and it has a good history. I haven't learned anything very comprehensive, but I do know that most protestant pastors in Argentina have studied here. During the dictatorship in the late 70s to early 80s, the library was burned down. People probably got really upset about that. Someone could have even been hurt. I don't know. 

Pondering these things when walking down the dim hallways on a windy night is probably not good for your blood pressure.

Our very first night here, Maddie and Sally heard a piano playing very loudly around 11:30. No one is very sure where it was coming from.

Another night, I went into the women's bathroom, leaving the main door open and closing the stall door. While I was in there, the door quietly closed itself. OKAYYYY.

A few days later, we were all hanging out in the girls' room because that's where the best wifi is. The door was open, and then it closed. We all looked at each other. No one said anything. We went back to what we were doing.

Another day, I was walking to one of the classrooms by myself and the lights all turned off and then came back on. I thought the power went out, but when I asked, no one else had been affected.

Most of the time, when we leave the bathroom closest to our room, someone will hit the light switch and the lights will turn off, only to come back on moments later. 

I think I have figured out explanations for most of these things, so I'm not too freaked out. Most of the windows don't close all the way so it is very drafty. This tends to make doors open and close on their own. The wiring is old and doesn't always make sense. I figured out yesterday that there are two light switches next to each other in the bathroom and they both control the same light. So when you leave and flip them both, you turn the lights off, then back on. Many families live in apartments in the seminary. That means you might wake up in the middle of the night to loud piano music.

As you can see, my Nancy Drew skills are coming in handy here.

Passover Remembered

by Alla Bozarth-Campbell

Pack nothing.
Bring only your determination to serve
and your willingness to be free.

Don't wait for the bread to rise.
Take nourishment for the journey, but eat standing.
Be ready to move at a moment's notice.

Do not hesitate to leave your old ways behind-
fear, silence, submission.
Only surrender to the need of the time-
love justice and walk humbly with your God.

Do not take time to explain to the neighbours.
Tell only a few trusted friends and family members.
Then begin quickly, before you have had time
to sink back into old slavery.

Set out in the dark.
I will send fire to warm and encourage you.
I will be with you in the fire, and I will be with you in the cloud.

You will learn to eat new food
and find refuge in new places.
I will give you dreams in the desert
to guide you safely to that place you have not yet seen.
The stories you tell one another around the fires in the dark
will make you strong and wise.

Outsiders will attack you, and some follow you
and at times you will get weary and turn on each other
from fear, fatigue and blind forgetfulness.

You have been preparing for this
for hundreds of years.

I am sending you into the wilderness to make a new way
and to learn my ways more deeply.

Some of you will be so changed by weathers and wanderings
that even your closest friends will have to learn your features
as though for the first time.

Some of you will not change at all.

Some will be abandoned by your dearest loves
and misunderstood by those who have known you since birth
who feel abandoned by you.

Some will find new friendships in unlikely faces,
and old true friends as faithful and true
as the pillar of God's flame.

Sing songs as you go,
and hold close together.
You may at times grow confused
and lose your way.

Continue to call each other by the names I've given you
to help remember who you are.
Touch each other,
and keep telling the stories.

Make maps as you go,
remembering the way back from before you were born.
So you will be only the first of many waves
of deliverance on the desert seas.
It is the first of many beginnings-
your Paschaltide.

Remain true to the mystery.
Pass on the whole story.
Do not go back.
I am with you now and I am waiting for you.