A letter to our supporting congregations

Dear friends:
     While many of us worried about whether our computers would boot up on January 1, a majority of the world's people greeted the new millennium without such technological angst. When you don't even own a can opener, it's hard to worry about whether the digital clocks on microwaves are going to cease to function. And so the new millennium began, for most not that much different from the last, plagued by injustice and poverty.
     We rejoice, however, over meager but powerful signs of hope that things change. Admittedly small, they are nonetheless subversive moments when life breaks through, when God's reign gets glimpsed, however meekly. 
     On October 31, we shared with Deliana Juarez the dedication of her new house, a year and a day after Hurricane Mitch ripped away her old one. She and her husband and kids lived for weeks in emergency shelters, but finally began building a new house with the help of other women she met in the shelters. They received building materials and other assistance from the Christian Commission for Development, the United Methodist-supported development agency with which we work. Deliana and the other women finally finished her house, and are currently building homes for other women in the small support group they formed in the shelters.
     The dedication was a tearful event, where the joy of a new home mixed with the still palpable terror of the storm and the struggles of the past year. It was also a moment in which Biblical words took on flesh. We couldn't help but think of Isaiah's words, "They will build houses, and live in them." Such a simple statement, but for the majority of people in the world, a profoundly revolutionary concept. 
      It was a privilege to be present as prophetic words were incarnated in the life of one woman and her family. Thanks for giving us that privilege. By supporting our ministries here, you make possible our involvement in a variety of activities, many of which put us in places where we can glimpse those small moments of hope, of change, of God's reign being realized in the lives of people we've come to know.
     Any hope that the new year was going to bring us relief from our post-Mitch out-of-control calendars seems to be rapidly fading. Paul is preparing for trips in the next few weeks to Venezuela and Vieques, both places he visited and wrote about last year. He's also reported from Cuba, Guatemala, and Nicaragua in recent months. His book on Guatemala is beginning the process of becoming a PBS documentary, a project Paul has been asked to work with as a consultant. And he's sinfully proud of his first coffee crop, which so far has yielded about one-half pound of coffee. He's still searching for a name for it before he begins a marketing campaign.
     Lyda begins January by leading a retreat in Guatemala for Mennonite Central Committee staff working throughout Central America, then travels to Nicaragua for a gathering of women theologians, then at the beginning of February to Washington for a retreat with other UM clergywomen. Lyda's work of empowering peasant women to "do theology" got public notice in November when she and several peasant women did a major presentation for a theological conference here on "hope in times of reconstruction." Among those present were the general secretary of the World Council of Churches and ecumenical leaders from throughout the region.
     Our kids continue growing. Lucas, 13, enjoys skateboarding and Abi, who turns 11 this month, loves horseback riding. Both accept school as a necessary endeavor.
     Thanks to those of you who sent us Christmas greetings or who have communicated your encouragement and support in various ways over the past months. Please know that we appreciate your prayerful support for us, and constantly lift you and your ministries up in our prayer. May all our lives be filled constantly with God's wonderful epiphanies.
 

 Lyda and Paul