
Last week, Susie and I enjoyed a long weekend in
Virginia. We spent that time with some
friends (the Grizzles) that we have known for over 30 years. They invited us and a number of other people
to their retreat home called the
Bellfry. Even with seventeen of us, there was plenty
of room at the Bellfry. The home and its
rustic setting were perfect. It is
nestled in the foothills outside of Lexington, Virginia with beautiful views,
hiking trails, a labyrinth, and more.
The home itself had plenty of bedrooms for everyone, a dining room table
large enough to accommodate everyone, and food that made us want to gather
around the table frequently.

The group consisted of people who are involved in one way or another
with the
Amistad Mission. Other than the Grizzles and the director of
the Amistad Mission (Chris), I had met none of them before the weekend. Generally, I am not great at warming up to
new people. This group, however, was easy to become friends with. That
may have been due to where we were (the Bellfry and its environs),
the special people in the group (such as Father William, the founder of
Amistad), and the common cause we all cared about (Amistad, which is Spanish
for Friendship). I came away, however,
feeling that there was more to it than that. This
week’s sermon at church may have provided me with the answer. Pastor Doug spoke on John 15 which includes
the parable of the vine and the branches as well as Jesus’ exhortation for
Christians to be known by their love for one another. Christians are called to “abide” in Christ as
branches rely on the vine for nourishment.
That abiding should then lead to us loving one another. While that has sadly often not been the case,
that is very much what I felt during this weekend. It was a group of fellow Christians, trying
to better abide in Christ and in so doing being able to love one another. Most of us left talking about ways to get together again in the future, whether in the cities we are from, a reunion at the Bellfry, or in Bolivia. I am looking forward to it.

I came away from the weekend with one other thing I wanted to do--tell about my trip to Bolivia. A year ago, I spent two weeks of my company’s seven-week
sabbatical program in Cochabamba, Bolivia with the Amistad Mission. The time I spent in Bolivia at the orphanage
that Amistad runs had a real impact on me.
As much of the trip was outside my comfort zone and outside my control,
I really had to rely on God rather than my skills, my resources, and my
technology. I also learned to relax (at
least a little bit) and just enjoy simple pleasures like playing basketball
with the children.

I’ve included a
couple of pictures here from my trip. The picture above left is of Zulma on her favorite perch. The one on the right is of one of the girls from the orphanage dressed up for one of the
Stations of the Cross performed by the children on Good Friday.
I
put my journal entries from that trip into blog format. Since I can’t figure out a way to list the
entries with the oldest first, start from
this
entry and then use the links on the right to navigate the entries in
chronological order. While it may be
more than you want to read, it will hopefully give you a bit of an idea about
my trip. Maybe it will even encourage
you to push yourself outside of your comfort zone and control.
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