April 2009

Dear friends and family,

In today’s Gospel reading, two very different and antagonistic groups approach Jesus, the Pharisees and the Herodians. We could call it a rare moment of religious and political bipartisanship. They begin by lavishing on Jesus all types of praise, but the writer of Matthew notes that their motive was malicious and their question was designed to entrap Jesus.  Jesus could not win. He is asked whether or not taxes should be paid to the empire.

Although I am a U.S. American and live in Ecuador, during the week of your election I attended meetings in Brazil with a group of Christian leaders from many parts of Latin America – Brazil, Chile, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, Panama, Ecuador. We are indigenous, mestizo, African descendents, European descendents. It was an enormous privilege to experience the U.S.election there, with Latin American sisters and brothers, seeing this incredible event in a different way, through different eyes.

It has begun to rain in the afternoon or evening about every day and get a little colder here in Quito. The days are usually sunny and warm, about 70°, while the mornings and evenings get down to about 50°. In the towns and villages in the higher altitudes it gets a bit colder than that, though nothing like winter weather in much of the U.S. right now.

The Diocesan library continues to be a main project for Trish, as she sorts through several boxes of donated books.  She also finds herself starting to seek funding for the refugee project for 2009, as well as attending to the daily, continual needs of people with scarce resources and the constant issues of how to pay for rent, food, and the routine needs for their families.

These times have been very significant for both the visitors and Ecuadorian companions as we together are challenged, empowered and changed by the relationships of eating, working, living and sharing together.

When we started a new letter about things here for us in Ecuador, it was April, but clearly now it will be a May 2008 update.

Holy God, faithful and unchanging: enlarge our minds with the knowledge of your truth, and draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love, that we may truly worship you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Trish is going to have surgery on Monday morning at 9am to remove a kidney stone, widen the tube that runs from the kidney, and take out a section of the tube.