Dear Beloved Friends,
With our trip to the WMF Staff Gathering around the corner, we are getting excited about traveling to the US. Not only are we gifted the lucky bonus of trading a frigid Buenos Aires winter month for a warm Northern hemisphere summer, it is always such a blessing to be in the presence of so many amazing colleagues and friends, many of whom we’ve known for more than a decade.
Walter and I are nearing almost 12 years of service with Word Made Flesh. During these years we have done our best to actively follow Christ by serving among the most vulnerable of the world’s poor. As we’ve opened our lives to many marginalized children and young adults, we’ve grown in our individual vocations as missionaries and advocates. It is our heart’s desire to continue deepening our commitment to communion with God, community and ministry. So we are grateful and blessed to be entering into a time of thoughtful reflection on vocation and would like to begin sharing with you our upcoming plans for sabbatical.
Much like God’s command in Leviticus that the land should rest from its toil every seventh year, Word Made Flesh provides sabbatical leave for staff after six years of service. We have put much thought into the timing of requesting our sabbatical and while we have been eligible for sabbatical for some time now, we felt it would honor our local community to wait until they have had more experience and time on the field. With their blessing and the support of our WMF Community Care Center in Omaha, our request for sabbatical has been approved and will be granted to us this December.
During the coming months, we’d like to share with you our plans and hopes for sabbatical through these monthly letters. We would like to begin by expressing that we are not in need of an extended leave such as this because we are experiencing burnout. For the past few years we have been very deliberate about incorporating healthy rhythms for ourselves, our marriage and our family in the midst of very challenging ministry among the poor. It is our prayer that sabbatical would be an extension of this. In caring for ourselves we believe we are in turn caring for those we serve.
We also believe that sabbatical is intricately connected to our vocation. Through sabbatical we hope to renew our imagination for ministry and prevent the risk of growing complacent and stale in our calling. We’ve invited members of our local community to be a part of our Sabbatical Planning Team. Together we have begun to set goals and expectations for those who will be leading in our stead. We take this opportunity to also invite you as our extended community to begin praying for us as we prepare our local, regional and international communities for our creative absence.
Thank you for journeying with us, encouraging us with your kindness, and sustaining us with your prayers. We are so grateful for the many years of partnership with you. It is with honest reflection that I once again say, we couldn’t do this without you.
Love,
Adriana