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Dear friends,
Adam and I wanted to share a story & short video from our friends in Alamar that brought us a lot of encouragement, and that we hope will encourage you, too!
June 10th—A Story of Hope from Alamar:
I was reminded of the deep bond in Christ—a kinship that transcends all borders and circumstances—that we share with our friends in Alamar, when Adam and I received this video from Arturo on June 10th. I was reminded that our hope in God is secure in the midst of our desperation.
I was also reminded of one of the lessons that Adam’s and my pastor, Josh, taught us while we were at Rice. All of the amazing ways that Josh demonstrated discipleship among us and our fellow Rice students, he demonstrated most intentionally in his relationship with his children. His relationship with his four boys was his most important discipleship relationship, and it was in that relationship that Adam and I saw the universal beauty and applicability of the principles of discipleship that Jesus lived out among His disciples, that Josh lived out for us at Rice, and that Arturo lives out in Alamar.
“Even years after you graduate and move away,” Josh would tell us, “my sons will still be in my home, and it will still be my primary responsibility and joy to teach them about Jesus and the Scriptures.” We are so grateful that Arturo, like Josh, in the midst of his sports ministry to the teens of his community being put on hold, has leaned even more deeply into his primary joy and responsibility of discipling his children.
In a country with no Zoom; with no air conditioning; with no computers for the kids; with a government that has been broken for a long, long time; with lines for food getting longer and longer, and the possibility becoming more and more present that there might not be food to bring home to the family; with all of these factors and more, what have our friends in Alamar been up to? Cultivating a family garden.
Arturo and his wife Norys have 4 kids—Zamyra turns 15 years old next month (and Arturo and Norys are praying and thinking hard of how they can bless her with some kind of Quinceañera despite the state of crisis their country is in), Daniel (Arturito) is 8 years old, Samuel is 7 years old, and David is 5 years old. Their side yard ("patio" in Spanish) is much bigger than the house in which they have been forced to social distance for the last few months, so it makes sense that Arturo and Norys would try to find ways to get their kids out of the house while still following the stay-at-home orders from the communist regime.
What better way to step into all of the difficulties of COVID-19 in a "second world" country—as Christians living in hope (and resourcefulness), to lean into the "teacher" role for their kids, to remember with their hands and dirt-filled fingernails, to experience the goodness of God, as new seedlings sprout from the earth? Arturo, Norys, and their kids certainly changed my perspective in many ways, and reminded me of the goodness and faithfulness of God, in what has been an eventful last couple of months of life for me.
Some reflections from my own life and these last couple months:
I recently completed my spring quarter of law school—two months that was all done virtually, through Zoom. Most days, Madeline would sit right across our little table from me, just on the other side of my computer. She would work on her computer, and I would go to class on mine. It wasn't how I expected to finish my second year of law school. It was strange. It was hard. But it was also full of rich blessings for us in our marriage and in our friendship with each other.
I can only imagine the blessings and challenges that each of you faced, too—taking on the role of teachers, coaches, full-time stay-at-home parents, and so many other things, all the while dealing with totally unprecedented changes to every aspect of life.
Then, when Madeline was supposed to go back to work on June 1st in downtown Chicago and slowly find a new sense of normalcy as a dental hygienist, her work was canceled for another week due to protests, riots, and looting in the main part of the city where her offices are. And we entered together into a time of soul-searching, lamenting, important conversations, and reckoning with the messy racial injustices that remain with us today in the United States.
In addition to these months of COVID-19 and racial injustice during this past month, Madeline and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary, mourned the passing of my paternal grandfather (“Pop”), attended his funeral, and I wrote the longest philosophy essay of my life (31 pages)...
As I have put it elsewhere (a couple of Facebook statuses), it has been a month of remarkable joys, and remarkable sorrows for me. The key has been learning to hold them both together. In doing so, I discover more of God's love and faithfulness, and more of my own limits and fallenness. I find myself in a beautiful, tender place, spiritually and emotionally, and it is in that space that God holds me close and speaks gently to my soul. I feel the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge (Ephesians 3:19), the peace of the Father that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7), and the joy of the Holy Spirit inside and all around me.
I imagine that for each of you as well these last few months have been full of remarkable joys and remarkable sorrows of your own.
We'd love to hear from you sometime, to hear what the Lord has taught you through these last few months. Through it all, God is faithful. He created us for daily, intimate relationship with Him—to be His disciples—and I believe He wants to speak to each of us, when we take the time to slow down and listen.
I am grateful that God ministered to Adam's and my hearts, and hopefully to yours, too, through our brothers and sisters in Christ in Alamar.
Grace and peace,
Chas and Adam
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