Word Made Flesh

May 15, 2009

Where no oxen are, the manger is clean… Proverbs 14:4, NASB

Dear Friends and Family,

I listened to a sermon podcast this week based on the above passage, given by the pastor of my Seattle home church, Richard Dahlstrom (search: Bethany Community Church, 2/25/09). Podcasts are my favorite way to wash dishes, generally listening to sermons or NPR or my new favorite, APM’s Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippet. But on Tuesday, my listening was about oxen and barns and the mess that life and producing life makes. “Cold, stinking, messy,” Richard comments and goes on to talk about the life of faith, fruit, obedience. 

The details of our life and ministry are complicated these days. Our barn is not clean. We returned this past Monday after a few days of rest, relaxation and fun visiting our friend Brent in the eternal summer paradise of Cochabamba, Bolivia. We were greeted by freezing temperatures and an early morning phone call from a friend who had left her home on Saturday after a beating and needed to go back for her son who was with the violent husband. We arrived at the Casa de Esperanza to find a message that Wes’ visa is in observaciones, loosely translated problems, meaning he had to appear at immigration with yet another series of documents. We spent the rest of Monday between police and social service offices, Wes accompanied our friend and two agents to the home to recover the child, while I cleaned up the vomit of the younger daughter who I had taken home to wait. At the end of it all, our friends arrived late evening to bring us the news that our move into the house we have been waiting on and dreaming of for the last two months, couldn’t happen, that they were in legal issues with the current renter who is essentially refusing to leave. The last few days have involved continuations of said dramas and today we sit, homeless, illegal, much of our earthly possessions in boxes with no where to go. Cold. Stinking. Messy.

One of our dreams for this sweet, simple house we’re not moving into today involved a yard and a garden, maybe a couple chickens. Wes has been affectionately dreaming of the blisters he would acquire and how to ready the land for planing come spring (which, for us, will follow the winter we now find ourselves entering). As we crossed the boulevard a couple weeks ago to wait for our bus, we walked half through, half past a very large pile of fertilizer (the natural, cow kind) that had recently been delivered. Cold. Stinking. Messy. I, having grown up in the suburbs, generally concede to my farm-raised husband on themes like this, and has we waited for the bus, I hesitantly asked if we would need such a load for our yard, if we were intending to plant. I was trying to imagine living with that smell day and night.

I suppose it helps to remember that it was a barn that Jesus was born into, and that his barn wasn’t without oxen. It helps to remember that he spent a good portion of his time homeless, wandering through countries not his own, where he wasn’t always welcome. It helps to recognize the time he spent with abused women and vomit-breathed children. And it helps to think that these are the ways and the places in which Life comes forth.

• Pray for our friend, M, and her two children as she attempts to wise, safe choices on behalf of her family, under the careful watch of child protective services. She was supposed to return to our home Tuesday afternoon, her CPS approved refuge, but aside from a couple vague phone calls, we haven’t seen them.
• Pray for our visas, that the run-around we’re in with immigration (largely a reluctance to deal with us as U.S. citizens thanks to political animosity), will resolve and we’ll both (my process is yet to really begin) be given the status we need to continue the work here.
• Pray that we’ll find home here, somewhere.
• Pray for our community as we continue to grow in breadth and depth.
  • For the Baker family as they await the birth of twin boys, for Andrea and the babies’ health, for the preparations they’re making as a family (Pappy Andy and brothers, Elias, 6 and Luke, 3).
  • For Veronica, who has been hired as the new program coordinator for the Casa de Esperanza. She will begin June 1. They she will find welcome and fulfilment in community and service.
  • For Alicia Bunch who will be returning to Bolivia in August now with a Social Work degree in hand as field staff! For her support-raising, goodbyes and transitions.
• Pray for Wes and I as we attempt to trust in the midst of much uncertainty. Health, patience, peace, sleep and resolution also come to mind. J

We continue to be overwhelmed by your faithfulness to us and pray for all of you – that the Lord would bless your obedience and generosity in the face of much economic uncertainty. As a Bolivian community, we pray for those who love and support us. Our Bolivian friends and community know poverty, loss, uncertainty in ways that are only now becoming real also to others in our world. I find their prayers for all of you sweet and solid. Know you are in our thoughts.

With love and sincere gratitude,

Heather and Wes Goertzen