zip-zop-zoom

Well, I have now been home for -- has it really only been one week?! Yes, I guess so, because I just took my second dose of chloroquine, and I've got one more to go. It's taken my body and my digestive system a while to adjust to the temperature and the food. So I've been eating lots of rice, beans, and tortillas instead of all those interesting foods I was looking forward to... I thought it was supposed to be spring here in Oregon! So why does it keep snowing? I know that March and April are often cloudy and rainy and cool--but snow? Let's hear it for global climate change...

I got home late Wednesday night, and life began again right away! Thursday evening was a Maundy Thursday service with dinner. There was something meaningful about holding that service in a home rather than at a church; a meal with friends in a house: the last supper wasn't held in a synagogue or the temple! Friday evening I went to Eugene with some other CoHo people in an unsuccessful attempt to see Barack Obama. Saturday, which was a beautiful, sunny first day of spring, I participated in a peace march with 450 other people here in Corvallis.

Sunday, of course, was Easter, and a long day at church in Sweet Home with my mom: 7am sunrise service (preceded by a 45-minute drive), then breakfast, sunday school, and 11am worship followed by a tasty coffee hour. It was nice to have an Easter where the "Resurrection of Jesus" was not rammed down one's throat. Instead, the emphasis was on new life, witnessing to Christ in our lives, and choosing life over death. And living out that choice by speaking out against violence and war. I love that congregation. They are such wonderful people to be around and worship with; they have such a closeness and earnestness; are so spirit-filled, alive, generous and loving. And of course they are full of humor. I think my time in Honduras gave me an even greater awareness of the importance of community and the need for communal worship in our spiritual lives. It's just not the same when there's only two of you...

So now it's time to be thinking about the big question: what next? It's what everybody keeps asking me, and what I keep asking myself...