Lyda will take a leave of absence as a missionary and be appointed as associate pastor of First United Methodist Church in Eugene, Oregon. At Lyda’s request, it’s a three-quarter time appointment.

Although based in Eugene, Paul will continue as a missionary for the General Board of Global Ministries, writing and photographing for Response, the magazine of United Methodist Women, and serving as a member of the rapid response team of Action by Churches Together, the international network of church emergency agencies.

Our decision to move comes after years of struggling with our daughter’s learning challenges. We finally became convinced that she needs an educational environment with specific resources that aren’t available here. We spoke and corresponded with educators in several areas, and finally decided that the schools in Eugene–a town located between where our parents live–offered us what we needed. At the same time, our son will be able to enjoy a variety of educational opportunities he doesn’t have now. We are honored that the bishop of the Oregon-Idaho conference offered Lyda an appointment there.

Our decision to move comes after months of discernment and prayer. The staff of the General Board of Global Ministries has been very supportive, and we’re pleased that they’ve asked Paul to continue to help United Methodists understand the world around them through his articles and photos. (As we write, Paul is in Haiti, doing just that.)

We also appreciate the friendship and support of our own Bishop Elias Galvan, who has helped shepherd us through this trying period, beginning one morning last December when he sat on our patio here in the mountains of Honduras and helped us discern where the Spirit was leading. Although living in Oregon, we will continue to be proud members of the Pacific Northwest Conference.

Although we are leaving Central America for now, we are not ending our careers as missionaries. In four years, God willing, both our kids will be through high school and into their university studies, and we look forward to dialoging with the GBGM about where in the world our particular talents can best be utilized to further God’s reign.

In moving to the States this summer, the four of us are not “returning home,” but rather moving to a foreign country. We therefore approach what’s ahead with a bit of fear and trembling, yet also as a new adventure of mission. We look forward to expressing our love and solidarity for Latin America in a variety of new ways. We’ve long preached about the myriad connections that join north and south together, and for the next four years we look forward to exploring some of those connections from the other end. Along with some hammocks and wonderful weavings, we take with us a passion for justice as the foundation of peace–something we’ve experienced over and over in our sojourn here.

We left the U.S. in 1984 to spend just six months working as volunteers with the churches in Nicaragua. We were fascinated from afar and wanted to learn close up what this theological and political ferment was all about. When we prepared to return to the U.S. in 1985, our Nicaraguan colleagues asked us to stay a while longer. We hemmed and hawed, and finally agreed to stay on one more year as United Methodist missionaries. That one year stretched on quite a bit, and in the years that followed we also lived in Guatemala and Honduras. Through it all we’ve continued to hold on to that sense that we came as pilgrims, open to understanding the new things that the Spirit is doing here in these days. In the same sense we now prepare to move to the U.S. As pilgrims, we go forth to rejoice in the new things that God is doing among the poor and marginalized in the north.

In the months ahead, we hope to visit each of your congregations to personally thank you for your generous and prayerful support over these past years. Since we’ll be moving in the summer, Lyda starting in her new pastoral appointment and Paul covering the World Aids Conference in Bangkok and other events, we want to delay our itineration until the autumn. We’ve heard from several of you that you’d prefer a visit then to one in the summer. So we’ll be in touch in a couple of months about setting up dates during the last four months of the year.

We know that our move raises questions for you about your financial support for our work. Paul will continue with the GBGM and if you wish you can continue to support him as you have in the past; he’s even scheming of ways that he can add value to the relationship. Yet we also realize that some of you may want to switch to supporting other missionaries who work outside the U.S. In that case, we would be glad to suggest names of colleagues whom we’re confident will provide you with a meaningful and challenging relationship. One way or another, we hope you’ll stick with the GBGM, which is just emerging from a very challenging financial crisis. As we hope we’ve demonstrated in our ministries here, your “second mile” support for mission can go a long way in nurturing a maturing church and bringing those at the margins of society into the fullness of life that’s promised to all in the Gospels.

These 20 years in Central America have not been easy. We’ve lived through war and childrearing. We’ve made many friends and mourned the deaths of several. We’ve witnessed the underside of dirty wars and seen the consequences of unrestrained free trade. Yet we’ve also been encouraged by how the Spirit moves to change lives, often leading the faithful into greater sacrifice, even martyrdom. We’ve been blessed by the hospitality of the poor, welcomed over and over again into the humble urban shacks and simple rural adobe homes of those who live at the margins but who gracefully share all they have with strangers. It has been in their homes, in their faces and lives, that we have known the Christ. We thank you all for making our sojourn possible, for granting us the painful privilege to have shared these years of kairos in Central America.

As we move into a new adventure, we ask for your continued prayer for our lives and our ministries. In the same way, know that we continue to hold you and your work of mission close to our hearts in prayer.

Lyda and Paul