Welcome to our blog!

Our departure is fast approaching - on Friday July 27, 2007 we fly from Atlanta to Guatemala City! Our plan is to spend the first two weeks in the city of Antigua, Guatemala living with a host family and taking some intensive language courses in an attempt to linguistically prepare ourselves for the coming months. I will be working on my Spanish, and Shom will be learning Kaqchikel, the Mayan language spoken in the region where we will be living this year.

I am thrilled to finally begin this journey we have been planning for and talking about for so long. I am also feeling a bit anxious, an emotion that often surfaces whenever I am faced with situations that are new or difficult to predict. I am finding comfort, however, in a prayer that a dear friend of mine gave me when we said our goodbyes a week ago. The prayer is written by Joyce Rupp, and comes from her book, "Praying Our Goodbyes."

A Prayer for Moving On

Guardian,
Guide,
No pillar of cloud by day
Nor fire by night,
Yet I sense your presence with me,
God of the journey.

You are walking with me
Into a new land.
You are guarding me
In my vulnerable moment.
You are dwelling within me
As I depart from here.
You are promising to be my peace
As I face the struggles
Of distance from friends and security,
The planting of feet and heart
In a strange place.

Renew in me a deep trust in you.
Calm my anxiousness.
As I reflect on my life
I can clearly see
How you have been there
In all of my leavings,
You have been there
In all of my comings.
You will always be with me in
everything.
I do not know how I am being
resettled,
But I place my life
Into the welcoming arms of your love.

Encircle my heart with your peace.
May your powerful presence
Run like a strong thread
Through the fibers of my being.
Amen.