MAZ 2015 - In Summary

Sunrise on Vah Ki

Please let me put my little summary of Mission Arizona 2015 (MAZ ’15) into perspective from where I'm sitting now and then I’ll follow this up with specific thoughts about this year’s trip in a couple of following posts.

As I write this I am able to look up and out of windows that give me a panoramic view of Oregon mountains and the pine forest dotted with madrone and hung with Spanish moss that surrounds my parent’s home. The clouds that had graced the area with rain the night before are scattering about now and I’ve been reminded that less than a week ago I awoke early in the Arizona dessert one morning after it was washed by an overnight rain. Before thoughts of MAZ ’15 get too diluted by the activities of carrying for my dad following his heart attack on the night that we returned to our La Crescenta Valley I am offering my summation of the trip, such as it is.

          There are so many points of interaction during a week with nearly thirty people that you can lose the constellation for the Milky Way. Summing up such a week is a difficult task at best.

          Sure, I could list off all of the projects, big and small, that went on during the week; replacing a plastic sign-cover strewn with graffiti, cleaning an 1890’s adobe church for an upcoming revival, replacing bathroom fixtures with waterless (and working) units, building and painting a new rostrum for the large meeting arbor, building a new ‘vatu’ for shade with a concrete floor, or a dozen other small kindnesses done to, in, and around the Vah Ki and Stotonic Church campuses. Oh, I must not forget the weeding after a season of rain to help make the grounds presentable for the people. The dessert grows in a rush with any rainy weather and the growth was prolific, even in the tiniest crack between building wall and concrete walkway.

          I could list all the good things kids and adults did through the week for each other; the fry-bread dinner fixed for us by our Pima friends, our kids carrying small children around on their backs for hours after a long day of hard work, the simple consolations of one person to another in moments of need…

          I could tick-off the quiet time lessons and evening fellowships about wise words and making wise decisions, or I could summarize the revival sermon, and even pick out the keynotes from prayers spoken through the week, both from our team and from others on our behalf.

Even with all the lists and summaries poured into a mixer and shaken, not stirred, of course, I could scarcely describe or capture the week in a brief post. It’s best said by the expressions of our kids and the fountain of words and emotions as they reconnect with their families and as they part ways with mission teammates, even if only for a night. When you connect those dots the constellation that shows MAZ for what it is becomes clear.

In His Grip,

jerry