November Newsletter - Karin in Argentina

ARGENTINA UPDATE
November 30, 2007

Fireflies
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it”

By Karin

As a child, some of my fondest memories were made on warm summer nights in western Wisconsin at the lake cabin. Hours of softball games, card tournaments and watermelon seed-spitting contests would draw to an end while the setting sun drew shadows on the ground as the light of the campfire gradually took over. This is when they would come out. Mayonnaise jar in one hand and a perforated-lid in the other, I would go in search of magical fairies and the fairy dust they carried close.
I was reminded of this on a recent trip to Centro Emmanuel, an organic farm in Colonia Valdense, Uruguay. The YAGM volunteers met there in mid-November for our first reunion since parting directions three months ago. While walking back to our cabins after a packed day of traveling, laughter, tears and story-telling, we came across it: a field full of fireflies. It is always on the darkest nights that they shine brightest.
November included a Lutheran ‘Life and Mission’ assembly, retreat with YAGM friends, a surprise visit to Montevideo and two beautiful additions to the Lorentzsen family: Lily Maren Gruber and Andrew Jacob Gerbig. For these gifts, and so many more, I am grateful.
In addition to being refueled by my fellow YAGM volunteers, I continue to be encouraged by those in Comodoro who have offered their homes, hearts and Spanish-learning materials to me.
As the Advent season begins, I wish you many snowfalls, nights by the fireplace, scrabble games and mugs of hot cocoa. Meanwhile, I will be celebrating with shorts, sunglasses, swims in the Atlantic Ocean, fireworks on he beach, and Comodoro’s infamous ‘del viento’ ice cream.
Ten years and five thousand miles later, fireflies hold the same enchantment and promise as they did in my youth: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.” John 1:4
Karin


Petroleum Day
Following Route 3, 1100 miles south of Buenos Aires, surrounded by oil rigs and windmills, sits Comodoro Rivadavia. The growing city of 150,000, regarded as, ‘the city with its own energy,’ was originally established in 1901 as a transport hub for ranchers in Sarmiento. The town discovered gold six years later while workers were drilling for water – black gold. Today Comodoro remains a powerhouse in the oil industry.
On December 13, 2007 Comodoro will celebrate the anniversary of the first oil rig that struck oil exactly one-hundred years ago. With school projects dedicated to it and a parade soon to come, the influence of the industry in Comodoro is obvious.


Pry Me Off Dead Center
O persistent God,
Deliver me from assuming your mercy is gentle.
Pressure me that I may grow more human,
Not through the lessening of my struggles,
But through an expansion of them
That will undamn me
And unbury by gifts.
Deepen my hurt
Until I learn to share it
And myself
Openly,
And my needs honestly.
Sharpen my fears
Until I name them
And release the power I have locked in them
And they in me.
Accentuate my confusion
Until I shed those grandiose expectations
That divert me from the small, glad gifts
Of the now and the here and the me.
Expose my shame where it shivers
Crouched behind the curtains of propriety,
Until I can laugh at last
Through my common frailties and failures,
Laugh my way toward becoming whole.
Deliver me
From just going through the motions
And wasting everything I have
Which is today,
A chance,
A choice,
My creativity,
Your call.
O persistent God,
Let how much it all matters
Pry me off dead center
So if I am moved inside
To tears
Or sighs
Or screams
Or smiles
Or dreams,
They will be real
And I will be in touch with who I am
And who you are
And who my sisters and brothers are.


Ted Loder
Guerillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle