Tadpoles

by Andrea Gibson

A tadpole doesn't know

it's gonna grow bigger.

It just swims,

and figures limbs

are for frogs.

People don't know

the power they hold.

They just sing hymns,

and figure saving

is for god.

¡Acompáñame!

I spent some time with, Juli, one of my housemates today. We walked through a shopping area and then she showed me Plaza Moreno, which is the center of the city. There is a giant cathedral there and it is unbelievably detailed. So beautiful.

When we got back we were tired from all of the walking. She suggested that we drink some mate because that is just what you do here, so we sat down at the dining room table with our computers and started sipping away.

Juli offered me some of the little cookies she bought at the corner on our way home. I ate one because I want to try everything, but then I stopped because I didn't want to eat them all. Juli noticed and said, "Amanda, ¡acompáñame! ¡Coma!" So I did. I accompanied her while we ate cookies and drank mate.

This is what accompaniment looked like for me today. Juli accompanied me in figuring out where the heck I am in this little city and I accompanied her in eating cookies.

Bienvenida

I arrived in La Plata on Saturday! I am very excited to be here and to unpack my bags, literally and figuratively. My housemates had a party for my arrival, complete with pizza and music. I ducked out early to sleep, but they sounded like they had a pretty good time.

Sunday evening I went to my first culto, or worship service, at my church placement. They are small in numbers but great in welcoming hugs and smiles. They have received volunteers before, so they all kind of understand what I'm going through right now. Maybe even better than I do.

I've been kind of struggling with what it actually means for me to be here at all. The fact that I have a blue passport is kind of a big deal, in that it gives me the freedom to travel pretty much anywhere I want to go. Sometimes I feel like being here is just showing off these things that I have, simply by being born in a certain place, that people in most parts of the world do not.

And then I remember that I didn't just decide one day that I wanted to leave my friends and family for a year and move across the world. I was called here. And I believe that the God who called me here will make something good out of it. I have to.

Sometimes that still feels selfish and silly, and I think those times are when a welcome banner or a reminder from my housemates to eat dinner mean the most. Being welcomed by a community in some ways makes God a little more tangible.

Welcome Amanda

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.

Monies

I have sent out fundraising letters and talked to a few important people and have raised roughly 3/4 of my fundraising goal! Hooray!

If you think you would like to support me and my fellow YAGMs financially, here are the rules:

1. Make the check payable to Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
2. Write "YAGM- Amanda Martin- GCS3079" in the memo line.
3.  Send it to:

           Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
           PO Box 71764
           Chicago, IL 60694-1764

I also have a GoFundMe account, however, it is not tax-deductible. If it would be easier for you to donate online and you aren't concerned about tax-deductions here is the link.

I am so thankful for all of the support I have felt so far. I really couldn't ask for better friends and family. I recently read a quote from Maya Angelou that says,

I am grateful to have been loved and to be loved now and to be able to love, because that liberates. Love liberates. It doesn’t bind. Love says, “I love you. I love you if you’re in China. I love you if you’re across town. I love you if you’re in Harlem. I love you. I would like to be near you. I’d like to have your arms around me. I’d like to hear your voice in my ear. But that’s not possible now, so I love you. Go.”

This is the love that I have felt from you all this summer. I am so incredibly thankful for your love that frees me to go where I have been called, and I hope that I can return the favor someday.

¡Vámonos!

Things got real today. In less than a month I will be leaving Seville for Chicago. Then one week later I will fly to Argentina to begin my year of service with Young Adults in Global Mission through the ELCA. Today I got my placement!

I will be living and working in La Plata, Argentina, which is just an hour south of Buenos Aires. It is a university city, and my first placement, San Timoteo Congregación, is a church who ministers to college students. I will be joining them in their young adult ministries and aiding in plans for a new homeless ministry. I will be living in a student residence connected to the church (sound familiar?). 

My second placement is a comedor which is a safe space where children in situations of poverty can study, play, snack, and be kids. It sounds like I will be doing work similar to what I did with La Casa de Panchita in Lima. 

Basically, this is all very exciting news and I am relieved that it somehow fits me so well. I'm looking forward to meeting my new friends and family! 

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.” Luke 18:29-30