Nosotros Vamos! We are Going!

Nosotros vamos!  We are going...to Costa Rica and Panama and the Dominican Republic, and we are living it in Espanol! 

You have been following our mission/travel blog since 2012 when we received our first Mission Corps assignment and started packing for Riobamba, Ecuador.  That was an unforgettable experience, teaching in grades 1-12 in a Nazarene school up in the Andes.   There were few Gringos in Riobamba, but we didn't mind.  From there each week, the two of us welcomed the spirit of adventure.  Fueled daily with pollo y Arroz, we escaped wild dogs on a biking tour in the Andes and traveled by canoe down the Curaray River with the Auca Indians. We walked 40 miles a week, and we struggled to understand and be understood.  It was an amazing adventure where we made life-long friendships, experienced a world of acceptance and protection and saw Jesus unashamedly exalted in a way that we Gringos had never before seen or felt.

Then, we went to Germany/Switzerland for three months, a civilization far away from the drizzling cold Andes and burning hot jungles of Ecuador.  We lived on a college campus located on the banks of the Rhein River and met professors, missionaries, pastors and lay people dedicated to sharing the gospel.  This was a fourth-soil, storybook environment.  And, we learned and we worked.   A lot.  The world's history surrounded us in the form of age-old castles, magnificent cathedrals, a rail system that beckons the wayfarer to come and see and go and tell.   And, we learned to come and see and go and tell.  Jesus is alive and thrives there, but moves in quieter and more gentler ways.  Oh, Christ is there; He has to be introduced differently.

Now, we are packing again - this time, for several assignments.  First, our love for the Spanish culture and people has invited us to learn more, to go a little deeper.  And, so we are...in June. We have enrolled in a Spanish Immersion Program and will sit in a classroom for 5 weeks...on a seminary campus in San Jose, Costa Rica. We have a teacher,  textbooks, and assignments!

This is a new kind of adventure for us, but we are good for each other in this way.  We have taken Spanish classes and private Spanish instruction and have been in Spanish Bible studies.  Nosotros practicamos (We practice) our Spanish with a Spanish conversation group.  God has warmed our hearts, so we know that He will open our right brains to creative patterns that will help our left brains receive and retain the Spanish language.   Operation Immersion!


Then in September, we go to the Dominican Republic to play a small role in missionary training.  Here is where our classes bump into reality as every responsibility there has to be fulfilled in Spanish.
Life is an adventure, and Jesus is in the driver's seat - and we are along for the ride. Possibilities are like a heart and soul endorphin for us.

Finally, we invite you to follow our blog and wade on steppingstones into fresh water with us.  We will blog every ounce of our newest journey.
 
Keep Looking Up!
                                                                                               J:m and L:nda

The Last Supper: Where Will We Sit?

Located within the busy city of Milan, Italy, sits the unassuming Church of Holy Mary of Grace (Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie).  At first glance, it seems casually placed, another church in the city of churches, the most famous of which is the impressive Duomo Cathedral with its 135 spires that reach up toward heaven.  But this simple church holds a significant painting that covers an end wall in its dining room.  Imagine dining three times a day within sight of Leonardo da Vinci's magnificent 15th-Century mural, The Last Supper.  Well, that's exactly what the brethren did after it claimed its space of 180 inches by 350 inches (15 feet x 29 feet) inside their dining room.

We traveled to Milan last summer with the hopes of seeing this painting...our one goal.   Tickets had to be purchased up to three months in advance.  We took a chance.  We were blessed. One tour company had two empty seats.  Before viewing the painting, we were placed in a small group of 25. We were moved into a humidity-controlled chamber which was connected to the climate-controlled environment that hosted the mural.  Once inside the dining room, there, the Last Supper invited us to partake of its holy significance.  No cameras clicking, no voices, only quiet wonder for only 15 minutes.  Everyone wanted to remember everything.

The Last Supper portrays the different reactions of the disciples as Jesus, in the center, tells His disciples that one of them will betray Him.  Leonardo da Vinci places the disciples in groups of three and shows on their faces their confused hearts.

Believers know the story.  Judas' hand clutches the money bag. He betrays Jesus.  In only a few days after the story we see in this painting, Jesus is betrayed, arrested, judged, and crucified.

There is beauty inside this painting as Jesus gives thanks and offers bread, which is the most basic necessity of daily nourishment and which is symbolic of His body offered up for us on the Cross.  Jesus offers the cup, which signifies the spilled blood during His suffering but points to the lifeblood of New Life offered through His resurrection.

Here is the Easter message: a verse, like the Santa Maria delle Grazi, easy to miss, unassuming and so simple that we almost overlooked it.  Matthew 26:29, written in red, "I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom."  
 One day, believers will sit at the good table with Jesus, and we will partake with Him a meal that celebrates the holy event that took place only a few days after His Last Supper, His resurrection. 

By the way, during World War II, in August 1943, this church was struck by bombs and almost destroyed.  However, a protective structure had been built and placed against da Vinci's mural, protecting and preserving this one wall for us in August 2013. 

Jesus' death and resurrection is our protective structure.  His Easter message asks us all, "Will you sit with Me at the good table in My new kingdom?"

Blessings to you during this most Holy Week.

By the way, keep looking up!  And, thank you for following our blog!
J:m and L:nda