Dear Family and Friends,
Our family wanted to send you our love and gratitude during this season of anticipation and
preparation to receive the birth of the Jesus whose incarnation left nothing the same ever since. May God's mystery of the
incarnation bring deep meaning, reflection and joy to our celebration and time of communion with one another. We recently returned from visiting the Word Made Flesh community in Lima, Peru. It is hard to imagine spending more than 10 days away from home, but a 10 day visit to Lima seemed short. Having lived there nearly 6 years, there are so many friends that we want to spend time with when we're there. It was great to visit with old friends and we were so encouraged to see so many of them doing so, so well. Patty, Menudo, Robertito, Marco, Veronica, Edith, Tuany are maturing and in a really good place in their lives. Undoubtedly, they still struggle with the pressures of life that we all face but they are deciding to make choices for life instead of death. We visited the children and youth on the streets a couple of evenings. But as ugly and dark a place as this red-light area is, it's always so beautiful to gather together in that area to talk and sing with the youth. It blesses us so much to see that the WMF community is still a presence there and accompanying those who still struggle to break free from those things that bind and oppress them.
It's amazing how God continues to affirm our decision and commitment to live and serve among the poor and marginalized here in Buenos Aires. We've mentioned before of how God has brought a worshipping community into our lives that seeks to live it's faith authentically and relevantly in the context of argentine society. as a community of believers they are striving to be obedient to God's command to love our neighbor as ourselves and especially our neighbor who is poor and needy. As a result of this, a friend (who happens to be the pastor) has committed himself to accompany me one afternoon a week to love on and build relationships with the children and youth. He is a great blessing and his love and for the poor and Jesus continues to challenge me. Also, just yesterday another friend from church came with us to hang out with the kids and she really wants to create space to building relationships with them. She works as a special needs educator so she wants to accompany us once or twice a month to love on the kids. Early on as we as we prayed and planned to pioneer a ministry here in Buenos Aires, God gave us a vision of Argentines serving Jesus with us among the poor . It is so exciting to see and experience how He is fulfilling that vision in beautiful ways. God is faithful and good. To him be all the glory and honor!
Amazingly, Christmas is in just a little over a week. Because of this, I have been asking our friends on the street what they will be doing on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Several have said that they will be returning home to be with their family and some even already have gone back home. As I thought about this a little more, I was reminded of how important it is for them to not be and feel alone during this holiday. Despite the fact that they may have fled their homes because of difficult relationships and family problems, trauma, extreme necessity and not have been back in a long time, some of our friends are going back to their families for Christmas. Just as I do, they also do not want to experience a deep sense of aloneness during Christmas. They too wish to feel surrounded by love and the closeness of relatives and friends; to feel the kind embrace of a mother, father or sibling; and perhaps even to experience a sense of home. Just like any one of us would. Our friends who do not live in homes, who many think are so hardened and unreachable, also want to give gifts and receive them. Just like any one of us would. As human beings created in the image of God, we share a common humanity that binds us together no matter how hard we try to separate and distinguish ourselves from the rest.
I admire my friends because they show me what courage is, they demonstrate how important family relationships are, marred and broken as they may be. And as difficult and humbling it may seem, it is possible to put differences aside, to forgive and celebrate together even if it is for just one day, for a few hours. There are seeds of Christmas hope in this. Jesus was born to reconcile us to the Father and to one another. This is the beautiful hope and joy that history has been offered as a result of the incarnation of Jesus.
Our prayer is that together as we reflect upon and receive the mystery of God incarnate, it would create a space in our lives throughout this new year to receive Jesus through the broken and needy among us.
Peace,
Walter