Preparing to Fly south....

Dear Friends,

"we are only truly free or liberated

when we are securely wrapped

in the arms of God Almighty."

Grace and Peace to you in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I am currently still at North Park, finishing up the semester and preparing to leave for Peru next week. Together with the excitement that comes with purchasing a pack that will hold everything I will need for three months, comes this really strange sensation that I have just committed to leave everything I know for this next season of my life--and journey on knowing nothing but "the arms of the Lord Jesus."

It is a little nerve wracking...a little scary...and I must admit that I KNOW Mexico, but have no idea what to expect in Peru.

Another thing I DO know is this: That I can Trust the testimony of those who have gone before. I walk in the footsteps of the greatest men and women of God: men and women who have given their entire beings to loving the Risen Christ through taking care of His beloved children in Latin America.

I will end today with a quote from Bishop Oscar Romero, one of the few Giants of the Faith who dedicated his life to freeing the people of El Salvador from oppression: both spiritually AND socially speaking.

"It helps now and then, to step back and take the long view. The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection,
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

"This is what we are about:
We plant seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capability.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
Amen."
--Oscar Romero

Praise the Lord.
May you all be blessed with abundance,
Your sister
Allison Crino