It has been a very busy two months, but it is coming to an end tomorrow when I fly back home to Greensboro. The weather here in Merida has been surprisingly cool—a few days over 100 degrees but most between 80 and 90. I’ve been able to get out almost every day for my 12-25 mile bike ride, but not once was the weather hot enough to entice me into my favorite swimming hole, Noc-ac cenote. The weather and busy schedule have even kept me from my annual weekend diving in Cozumel—but there is next year!
I have finished the three classes I was to teach. Homilética IV (fourth year Preaching) was a small class, with students I have had previously. Las Cartas Paulinas was much larger, with second year students, an in Extension I taught Las Parábolas de Jesús to a group of eight interested and engaging pastor. The preparation work for these classes involved creating PowerPoint presentations for the class sessions, preview presentations for the students and a final presentation which I posted on the web. For the Parábolas class I also put together a small booklet on the parables. And all in less than perfect Spanish. Adding to the mix was grading and testing. In short it has been a very busy time! But a wonderful one…
In between class work I did have wonderful opportunities to share in the life and ministry of the people and churches here in Merida and the villages of the Yucatan. I was invited almost every weekend to preach in one of the local churches, and accompanied my hosts Dave (Bito) and Jean Legters on several of their trips to big and small churches all around the state and beyond. I was the chauffeur a good deal of the time, including every Thursday night when I took Jean downtown to her choir practice, where she has served Divino Salvador as accompanist for many years. On those nights I ritually marched down to the center plaza of Merida to a small pizza place and enjoyed what I consider to be the finest pizza in the city. Bito and Jean enjoyed a piece or two as well. I was able to attend a 50th wedding anniversary celebration in one village (as I related last entry) and a 3 year old baptism (which was riotous as the one being baptized was so terrified that he fled the sanctuary just when he was to be baptized…) in another. I ate at the festivities and watched as children and adults scrambled for the goodies pouring out of a broken piñata.
Nancy was with me for about half the time I have been here, but had grandma duties back home plus a TESOL conference in Boston. Of course life is better when she is around, but sometimes other duty calls.
The highlight of the two months has to have been the short visit of all the family. Emily, Steve, Jacques, and Colette were here for a short 5 days, and JJ was here for the weekend they were here. JJ´s coming from San Francisco was a surprise we arranged for the Content family—they did not know that she was coming. I wish I could have seen the face of the two little ones at the Houston airport when they turned around and saw a very familiar face (tía) in a very strange airport and learned that they were all going to be on the same flight! In any case we spent one day in Celestún, on a boat seeing the flamingoes and maneuvering through the jungle to the Ojo de Agua where we could swim in the place the springs fed fresh water to the salty sea marsh. That plus ruins plus hunting down acquaintances Emily had made while here on mission trips—it was a full and wonderful time.
As life goes on I continue to revert to the same theme, that our sojourn on earth is made up of chapters, each with a beginning a middle and an end. Some are short and some are long, some are wonderful and others are challenging. And now this short chapter ends and another begins. It is always a joy and honor to be received in this part of the world. The Legters are an example of faithful ongoing service that challenges me, and their deep friendship and amazing hospitality (including let me invite 20 or more students over several nights to watch a movie) means much to me. The commitment of the seminary faculty and staff, and the hard work of the students, inspires me and makes me grateful to be able to say that I am a part of El Seminario Teológico Presbiteriano San Pablo. And the life that people live here, often a hard life, but one that with faith in Christ has hope and meaning—that is something to marvel at.
In the class I taught on Paul´s letters, I once again was challenged by his writings, and particularly by his final letter, 2 Timothy. That letter contains little systematic doctrine or correction of church life, it is a farewell from a senior church leader to his most beloved companion and apprentice. It is a book to be felt more than to be analyzed. It is a book of pain (he is in prison, deserted by many, and awaiting his execution), but one of tremendous hope as well. Much of that hope is in the promise of God to him, the promise we all have been given and which we read about in Paul´s writings. But much of that hope and confidence was also in his ability to look back at his life, with its various chapters, and say, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith… To be able to say that at the end of life ought to be our goal at the beginning. When the gun sounds and race begins we should keep our eye on the finish line and run towards it. And when the way gets hard and the energy gets low, we should keep our eye on that line as well. That is the purpose of life, and that purpose gives it meaning—plus what Paul soon received, the crown of righteousness.
