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Our blog, with musings, photos, links, and other digitized thoughts on our journey.  We update this fairly often, so check in regularly, or subscribe to get notified about updates.

Prayer Requests:

* Continued prayers for the family and community of Rogelio Martínez Mercado - for their loss and comfort, for their safety, and for the recuperation of the land they have been fighting for.

* Gratitude for the continuing support and assistance of people at PC(USA) in World Mission, Peacemaking, and more.  We are richly blessed.

* For positive changes in Colombian policy and actions with the installation of the next President, Juan Manuel Santos, on Saturday, August 7.

* For a positive response to the displaced farmers in Piojó as their request for land languishes in the Ministry of Agriculture.

* For the people of Urabá Presbytery who treated us with such kindness and hospitality in our visit there in June and July.  We learned a great deal about hospitality and generosity in their midst.

* For us as we enter the last month and a half of pregnancy and look toward Sept 21 and the emergence of a new  Peanut!

To Reach Us:

For parts of June and July Richard and I were traveling in the Presbytery of Urabá, getting to know the churches there better and listening to the stories of Presbyterians who have been affected by displacement and violence.  Urabá is the most rural and least economically well-off presbytery in the IPC, but it has a gracious spirit to it that seems like its own miracle given the atrocities people there have lived through. 

Richard and I had visited Urabá before so we had an idea of the conditions we would be facing, but we had not done so pregnant...and we were prepared for me to have to leave early if things were too difficult.  And it was not simple.  The accompanier apartment in Urabá was superb (air conditioning and all!), but I am convinced the mattress was made of granite.  When we began staying in the communities themselves we encountered sheets that actually felt like they were biting us, maze-like pathways to get to outdoor bathrooms, and a heat that followed us as closely as my growing belly. 

Literally to get to one bathroom (3 times in one night, of course), I had to find may way out from under mosquito netting, search for a flashlight and toilet paper and key, make my way through a dining room to the locked gate that kept folks from entering the church, walk across a patio to the toilet that required bucket-flushing, and do all that in reverse to get back to bed.  Needless to say I had a lot of extra opportunity for thinking and prayer as I worked to fall back asleep each time.  But all this we could have predicted...

What we could not predict was the rich blessing we would receive from staying in each of these communities for several days at a time.  We had the chance to get to know people and listen to their laughter as well as their pain.  We helped women with cookie making over an open fire and a whole group of folks with their weekly plantain harvest - both projects to raise money to support the church.  More extraordinary were the little things - a little girl who bought us lollipops, a pastor who gave us soup with chicken meat while she ate it with the legs for flavoring only, members who brought fruit to "Mani-cito" (Peanut, in Spanish) as a special treat, a little boy who rode 2km to get me a chair to sit in, and much, much more. 

We relish the blessings of our time here, of connecting deeply with the members of the IPC and accompanying them in their walk of faith and diginty and justice.  We are truly grateful for their hospitality and welcome, and in turn, we can share these stories of overabundant blessing on with you, for you to use and share in your community of faith.  It is wonderful to be in the work of sharing what the ever genenerous Spirit is doin amongst us.

While we have not had the chance to put up much about our time in Urabá on the blog, we do have other stories and pictures there: 

We appreciate your support, prayers, actions, and blessings during this not so ordinary time, and remember that we're always up for a visit!  It was good to see you Chicago Presbytery and Westminster Presbyterian in Dayton, OH!

Peace~
Mamie and Richard
(and Peanut)