[TEAMspinella] Incarnation

[I'll send out a Christmas Letter in a couple days. My nearest and dearest cultural insider patiently explained to me that this is not that letter! ... Merry Christmas!]

Is entering a new culture and community a bit like incarnation—coming in the flesh? We are invited to humble ourselves and become like those we want to join. We are challenged to leave behind the role, status, and identity we've developed where we're from and start from the beginning. If you'll bear with me this Christmas season, I'd like to take this in two different directions.

First, I'm realizing a bit more as I grow older that I can't be someone else, so I'm only tasked with being the best Steve I can be where God puts me today (but never quite arriving.) In some ways this is releasing. I'm not going to be Jesus, or even my namesakes—Steven Paul, thank you, mom and dad. And while I'm going to suffer, it won't be just because I'm God's ambassador, but also because of my own faults, flaws, and failures. That's okay. Wherever I am, each day that I have, I am only tasked with being Steve (me!) as unto my Lord and master. Of course, I can't pull that off, but it's a lot more doable than all the other people I have tried to do and be. I'm not a saint or a messiah. I can't rescue people. I can only come alongside as God gives me grace, sympathizing and empathizing, and loving as I have been first loved. This is the joy of Christmas present.

Second, I can understand a bit of what it meant for Jesus to come into this human world, humbling himself and becoming personal, because of the opportunities I've had to enter worlds and communities other than the ones from which I've come. The challenge of communicating, the search for the one right word or story that might make a lasting impact on this person, family, or group, the difficulty of living well in systems that overlap, intersect, and ultimately conflict, with values like truth and love that always seem to be in tension. As I watch the delight with which our granddaughter Evangeline engages our world, I can only imagine the joy and excitement with which Jesus, entering a specific family, culture, community, and era, began as a baby and stamped his unique identity and style on what it meant to redeem our world—to the surprise of almost everyone, except maybe the Father God and Holy Spirit, who must have felt it all more intensely than we can conceive. This is the joy of Christmas past.

And as we celebrate the incarnation again, whether spiritually or profanely, and most likely both, I hope and long for the joy yet to come…the joy of Christmas forever.

Merry Christmas! May the Lord's peace be with you!

Steve and Laura Spinella

US: 1930 Springcrest Rd, CO Springs 80920

mail: 9685 Otero Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80920

Steve cell 719.355.4809, Laura cell 832.755.4261
<spinella@alumni.rice.edu> <

lauraspinella@gmail.com>

--
--
This is an email list for friends of Steve and Laura...
To reply to a posting, send email to steve.spinella@gmail.com or just hit reply to email Steve and Laura
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to TEAMspinella-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
To see past emails, pictures, et al, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/TEAMspinella?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TEAMspinella" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to teamspinella+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/teamspinella/CAB%3Do-CFBLrj4DA%3DT0%3DgJos6C5xY%3D-aBsQjmi_Tc5fvUGtbrxrQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[TEAMspinella] Coping with the ordinary, making choices

In the movie The Incredibles, Dash says to his mom, "If everybody is special, then nobody is." 

Tigger says to Winnie the Pooh, "The most wonderful, wonderful thing about Tiggers is 'I'm the only one.'"

King David of Israel says in Psalm 139, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb....all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

As somebody who grew up in California, Texas, Costa Rica, and Venezuela, I'm definitely a little susceptible to thinking I'm unique. But perhaps that's not why!

A counselor in Taiwan told me, "I can care for ministry workers. They're just people. We all have the same problems." This got me thinking--am I uniquely put together to do what I do, or do I just like the thought that I'm special? Doesn't everyone want to be special? Don't we all have our reasons why? And if everybody's special, then maybe Dash is right and nobody is.

This is definitely something I wrestle with--being special, but also being ordinary, just one more of the billions of people living today, in the stream of billions who have lived over the course of history.

Perhaps ultimately the relationships we have, with God and others, are what give us unique value. Certainly the fact that Evangeline is my granddaughter means something to me, though I notice much more all the other babies I see because they remind me of her. And if I had another grandchild, could I love them as uniquely? I certainly hope so!

I had a great visit to Taiwan, thoroughly enjoying the conversations God gave me there, with the unique and special people with whom he connected me. But were they more special than all the other people? Well, I guess they were to me, because I got to be alongside them for a time! At the same time, it meant leaving people here, including Laura, and also Evangeline, not to mention a generation in between, my dear companions here in the journey, and so forth.

For now, we feel Laura needs to remain mostly here, but I will be making two more trips this year, first to New Mexico and Indiana (it's only one trip if you don't actually come home in between!) and later to Sonora, Mexico, and Arizona. I know there are many other trips I could make, and that staying here could be just as meaningful, but somehow we have to choose where to invest, and I am delighted that we have this freedom both to invest here and also to invest in those who are in faraway places, especially those who make those choices in order to have an impact for the King of Kings.

And how do we know where and when to go? Well, it's never sure, because we can't read that book yet with all our days described before one of them came to be. But we certainly can consult, can't we?

In him who keeps us, with love for the far side, Steve and Laura

PS Happy Thanksgiving! We'll be together here in Colorado Springs for that, Lord willing!

Steve and Laura Spinella

US: 1930 Springcrest Rd, CO Springs 80920

mail: 9685 Otero Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80920

Steve cell 719.355.4809, Laura cell 832.755.4261
<spinella@alumni.rice.edu> <

lauraspinella@gmail.com>

--
--
This is an email list for friends of Steve and Laura...
To reply to a posting, send email to steve.spinella@gmail.com or just hit reply to email Steve and Laura
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to TEAMspinella-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
To see past emails, pictures, et al, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/TEAMspinella?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TEAMspinella" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to teamspinella+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/teamspinella/CAB%3Do-CHJDgYrXdbKiF9%2B%3Dag081bUu8nc_149%3D6tNy3ix01zADg%40mail.gmail.com.

[TEAMspinella] Changing weather, changing climate

[I tricked you, this isn't about global warming or climate change!] I'm thinking about the trip to Taiwan I'm making next week, as well as the adjustments we're making as we transition to life without Bob. 

One thing hasn't changed--we're still not really "empty nesters." Instead we're something like "family extenders!" Which is to say, our daily life involves an extended family, not just Laura and me by ourselves. I just looked back and realized the last email update I sent was just before Bob died, which was on August 23. The journey was long, but at the end, suddenly it was over.

Us "family extenders" welcomed all of Bob's children and their spouses, and all of his grandchildren (short just one spouse, in Europe,) so we had quite the clan, and our remembering culminated in a well-attended memorial service on a weekday at Martha's church, Front Range Alliance Church. Many cards were received, as well as memorial gifts to ministries dear to Martha and Bob. Thank you for your prayers and remembering. We all appreciated the care and encouragement.

As well, there has been much to do, and ministry is going on also. Things have gone well, but not without complications. For instance, there was the new stove that we purchased and installed on the day Bob died, just in time for all the people, just after the old one irreparably quit. And there was the load of trash we hauled across town to the transfer station in a Uhaul trailer, to be greeted by a sign "We are closing at 1230pm today. Pardon any inconvenience." This week we finally found time for another, more successful trip :-), just before we're supposed to get a big snowstorm. These are just some of the funnier moments. Really all has gone well.

Of course, Martha misses Bob and so do we all. Grief is not something we manage, rather it is something we recognize and respond to. We know it is a long journey, one we have taken before, but one that is different every time and for every person impacted. Of course, it's also different from moment to moment. A common feeling is just an elusive fatigue.

I've gone on a bit about this because for me it is also a pattern for how we deal with international ministry. If births and losses are the changing weather in our lives, moving internationally is like changing climates. Both matter, perhaps one is more personal and the other is more communal. 

As we come alongside others, we also want to welcome others to come alongside us, so that we can share our journeys with each other. Thank you for being part of the far flung community God has gathered around us.

As I head to Taiwan and Laura stays behind, please remember us--for good conversations, for appropriate recognition and responding, and for much love, starting first from above, and then passed back and forth, round and round. Also remember the details--with so many, it can feel overwhelming, but details matter too, both in ministry and in family.

In the God who keeps us, wherever we wander, Steve and Laura

Steve and Laura Spinella

US: 1930 Springcrest Rd, CO Springs 80920

mail: 9685 Otero Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80920

Steve cell 719.355.4809, Laura cell 832.755.4261
<spinella@alumni.rice.edu> <

lauraspinella@gmail.com>

--
--
This is an email list for friends of Steve and Laura...
To reply to a posting, send email to steve.spinella@gmail.com or just hit reply to email Steve and Laura
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to TEAMspinella-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
To see past emails, pictures, et al, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/TEAMspinella?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TEAMspinella" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to teamspinella+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/teamspinella/CAB%3Do-CHSSm3C%2BDqbgcSN6b6z8_ND1hLn%2Bv4SMjYHt3TkNNyiNA%40mail.gmail.com.

[TEAMspinella] Remembering Bob Ramage

Robert "Bob" Richard Ramage died in Colorado Springs at age 88 Friday, August 23, 2019. Bob was born September 24, 1930, in Yonkers, New York, to William Earl Ramage and Julia Vanderwynde Ramage. He grew up in Yonkers with one older brother William (Bill) and started work in New York City with the company now known as ExxonMobil, for whom he worked over 40 years. At age 24 he married Martha Susan Dehler, and settled in Queens, New York, until Esso (Exxon) moved to Houston in 1961. He has three daughters, Nancy Ramage Jones in Friendswood, TX, Laura Ramage Spinella in Colorado Springs, and Barbara Ramage-Thornton in Roanoke, VA, as well as nine grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

Bob loved to read the Bible, many times through. He ran thousands of miles, including many marathons. He loved and served God, deeply loved his wife and family, and cherished his longtime running buddies in Houston. He also loved Exxon, where he worked his whole career, rising through many positions through faithfulness, good performance, and professional development. After he retired, he traveled with Martha, planted trees and tended bees, volunteered, and exercised at the Y. While generally quiet, his sense of humor was delightful and often self-deprecating.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts will go to ministries dear to Bob and Martha's hearts, including FRAC's international ministry outreach and sending international kids to Christian camp. For more information, call Steve Spinella at 719.355.4809 or email stevespinella@gmail.com. 

PS We are excited at the number of family who are gathering and if you would like details about the memorial service in Colorado Springs, just let us know.

Steve and Laura Spinella

US: 1930 Springcrest Rd, CO Springs 80920

mail: 9685 Otero Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80920

Steve cell 719.355.4809, Laura cell 832.755.4261
<spinella@alumni.rice.edu> <

lauraspinella@gmail.com>

--
--
This is an email list for friends of Steve and Laura...
To reply to a posting, send email to steve.spinella@gmail.com or just hit reply to email Steve and Laura
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to TEAMspinella-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
To see past emails, pictures, et al, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/TEAMspinella?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TEAMspinella" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to teamspinella+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/teamspinella/CAB%3Do-CG1oC2QR7dj1A8cOc3P%3D9thgn8wi6Tm%2BHjTFBQ9yRau1g%40mail.gmail.com.

[TEAMspinella] Approaching the end of an era

Specifically, we are told to anticipate that Laura's dad, Bob Ramage, will finish his journey in this world in the next few days. It's been a long journey, including 65 years of marriage, and the anticipation, arrival and now first steps in the past year of OUR first grandbaby in his house. Bob would sit at one end of the table with Evangeline at the other and they would wave!

The journey has not yet ended, but the end is near. This month we moved Bob first to respite care, while Laura and I were on vacation here in Colorado with our three kids, their two spouses, and of course Evangeline. When we returned, with reservations, Martha and Laura concluded Bob should remain in the nearby "cottage" facility through the end of the month.

But as can happen in these situations, what had been a painfully slow progression in dementia and loss of capacity became a frighteningly fast succession of complications and losses this past week. Pray for us as we seek to be alongside Bob and everyone else involved in a time of grief and goodbyes.

As we have matured through the years, I (Steve) have become increasingly aware of how much Bob and Martha have given through the years to empower us to do the ministries and live the lifestyle to which we felt called. Of course this began with the very foolish decision to entrust their daughter into my hands (after "carelessly" allowing young Steve to share many meals, hang around the house, and join the family even in a few holidays and vacations.) When I look back at the young man I was, it's a lot easier to see concerns now they certainly must have had back then :-). I know this was done with a lot of prayer on their part--and likely their friends and family, too.

Other significant moments along the way include when they mobilized to help us move from NJ to CO with two one year olds and a three year old. And then within a year actually moved into our basement, volunteered in the ministry to which we were committed, and filled in the gaps as we parented three pre-schoolers. When they fell in love with a too-big house four miles away the next year and settled permanently, we had little idea how much that would mean to us.

But of course we left them in Colorado and moved to Taiwan just over three years later--after they helped us bury my father and move my mother with ALS to Colorado (stopping over in their house for several weeks). Then we proceeded to base from their home (and usually borrow their cars) every time we returned to the US for the next 15 years.

Small wonder then that in 2010 we moved back to CO, then into a home around the corner, knowing that a journey through dementia appeared to be looming for Bob. By God's grace Bob was able to stay in his home with Martha as his primary caregiver and a growing team of assistance all the way up to the beginning of this month.

So there is much to celebrate and also much to grieve. We are just taking things one step at a time, as we have all along, and seeking to be generous and adaptable as each new day arrives. We are grateful for God's grace in the journey this far, and adjusting our expectations one day, and sometimes one hour, at a time.

For now, Bob is resting peacefully and Laura and Martha are at his side in the Freedom Home on Lexington, which provides a family-style environment of gentle and professional care. Those that can come from far away are mobilizing. We are waiting, praying, and remembering.

With love from this side of eternity, Steve and Laura 

Steve and Laura Spinella

US: 1930 Springcrest Rd, CO Springs 80920

mail: 9685 Otero Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80920

Steve cell 719.355.4809, Laura cell 832.755.4261
<spinella@alumni.rice.edu> <

lauraspinella@gmail.com>

--
--
This is an email list for friends of Steve and Laura...
To reply to a posting, send email to steve.spinella@gmail.com or just hit reply to email Steve and Laura
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to TEAMspinella-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
To see past emails, pictures, et al, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/TEAMspinella?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TEAMspinella" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to teamspinella+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/teamspinella/CAB%3Do-CEE4WQzXBad97EKnKtHxxFVWx1K%3D3VCg-5uz8Pyt%2B7MWQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[TEAMspinella] Central Ohio in July--with a bunch of people you might never expect

Tomorrow I'm heading to central Ohio for two weeks--to watch the corn grow. (Just kidding.) This will be the third year I'll help staff an MK Transition Seminar as a counselor/coach/small group leader. (MK=a kid raised in an international ministry family, sometime also described as a TCK, because they grow up in a contest that is neither totally local nor totally foreign, making a "third culture" somewhere in between.) You can find a description of the event at https://www.barnabas.org/member-care/events/mk-transitional-seminar. Hopefully I'll get to see some growth--besides the corn! My son-in-law John's parents are here visiting (and will move into our house while I'm gone!) He said something along the lines of "we just dropped our kids off and let them swim." This is, of course, the most common strategy for sending MKs to college (and perhaps kids of every kind,) but just as orientations are highly recommended by most colleges, so also a big transition like this--leaving a country, community, family, and more to return to a "passport country" as well as entering a new environment, typically with high performance and social expectations.

My daughter, the psychologist, says she would have wanted to go to a transition seminar, except for the money, and she thinks she would have loved it. Most who show up do seem to love it, and of course it's almost always their parents and their parents' orgs and ministry partners who are paying for it. (Well, not totally, all of you who are our ministry partners are helping too!) We definitely try to keep it as affordable as possible, which means I'll also be enjoying the "college experience" in many ways ;-).

My kids once said, "[The US] is a nice place to visit for vacation." Situations vary--some kids have dual or even multiple citizenships, others cannot even qualify for a residence visa in the place they've called home. Some have a calling card that gives them instant, if external, acceptance, others really don't, and some, if you asked their preferences, don't even care. So a transition seminar can mean a lot of different things, but more than anything it's about intentionally choosing a new identity and entry posture for a new experience, one that will require focused attention that might be lost unless we also take time to acknowledge and release the experiences and people we are leaving behind. The community of gathered MK's is almost always more important than the guides, but I and the others--MK staff (just a few years older,) college professors, facilitators, and local Christians, are there to love and to reflect, meeting each one wherever they are at, listening deeply to what they're bringing with them, and anticipating the challenges around the corner.

Meanwhile, "back at the ranch*" Laura faces a full slate of visitors, family engagement, and planning for the Internation Women's Connection this coming fall, each with their own joys and demands. We'll have to see who's more depleted when we get back together, having passed this year's anniversary at least in the same country, if not side by side. We have some time planned in early August for a family getaway with our adult kids--and of course Evangeline, our now 9 month old granddaughter.

Please remember us in prayer, and thank you for the unique part you each play in our community of support, which, as an MK myself, I don't take for granted! Steve and Laura

PS *Back at the ranch=an example of how you can be quite fluent in a language, but there are always more pieces. Many MKs would not recognize this as a reference to scene changes in TV westerns. At least, I think that's what it is....?! Of course, maybe people don't even use that phrase any more, and I'm stuck somewhere in the outfield again. This last year we discovered that neither my kids nor my son-in-law knew what a "front porch" was. Do you?

Steve and Laura Spinella

US: 1930 Springcrest Rd, CO Springs 80920

mail: 9685 Otero Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80920

Steve cell 719.355.4809, Laura cell 832.755.4261
<spinella@alumni.rice.edu> <

lauraspinella@gmail.com>

--
--
This is an email list for friends of Steve and Laura...
To reply to a posting, send email to steve.spinella@gmail.com or just hit reply to email Steve and Laura
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to TEAMspinella-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
To see past emails, pictures, et al, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/TEAMspinella?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TEAMspinella" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to teamspinella+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/teamspinella/CAB%3Do-CEMo3R4P75fDEd17%2BxitrFx732GkNKoxmTHXdipaRcQhA%40mail.gmail.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[TEAMspinella] What makes us part of a culture?

Laura and I just got back from a great trip to Taiwan, where we lived from early 1996 to December 2010. It was both profitable for ministry as well as personally fulfilling. While I had last been there in November, it had been four years since Laura's last visit.

We were able to re-invest in relationships and invest in new relationships as well. Along the way, we were able to re-experience the mountains where we fell in love with biking, eat again many foods that have gone from strange to cherished (and a few not so much!), and even do some medical tourism. Laura got successful cataract surgery on her right eye. She not only has relief from encroaching blindness, but also just passed her driver's license exam without glasses for the first time ever. 

The city of Taichung, where we lived 15 years, is bigger and fancier than ever. Unfortunately, the pollution was also worse than we've ever experienced it. Thank you for partnering with us in this ministry and these adventures.

I find myself reflecting again on our respective identities as we re-encountered Taiwan. Laura and I formed deep relationships there. Certainly Taiwan became part of us both, and we a marginal part of Taiwan. Over those 15 years we changed. Some of our changes were adjustments--we didn't change inside, but we adjusted the way we coped with different everyday realities. Others were adaptations--we conformed ourselves to that world, even to the extent that when we returned to the US we no longer fit here as well as we once did. There were also some re-orientations--we began to interpret that world differently as we encountered not just appearances, but underlying realities that were not as they first appeared. And perhaps there were some transformations--ways we fundamentally grew and changed through what we experienced, including the radical interdependence of families, clans, and communities, the profound earthshaking and world altering earthquake of 9/21/99, the urban density of the concrete canyons, and so much more. Ultimately we can't sort out how Taiwan has shaped us just as we also can't clearly identify the shaping influences of our US residence and acculturation. 

It is life lived in context that acculturates us, and for us, Taiwan will always be part of that. In her doctoral research, our daughter Sarah (Forcey) tried to get at this cultural participation by looking at practical things. For instance, how do we use transportation? On this one trip, we rode scooters, drove a car, used two MRTs, high-speed rail, Taichung city buses, taxis, and uber. We do exactly one of these things in Colorado and that is not the same.

Or how about food? Many of our pictures from the trip were of food we eat there but not here. We got this food from grocery stores, markets, 7-11s, open air store fronts, restaurants of many kinds, and a food fair, all differing from the options here in Colorado. These directly observable differences are coupled with underlying differences that are even more significant.

One friend and researcher likes to talk about this as joining a community not originally our own, first by connecting with one person, then with some groups, and slowly developing an authentic and increasing participation in the community we are joining. I find this a helpful model of becoming part of a community, which is itself a unique instance and expression of language and culture.

We are embraced and included by people, groups, and community both here in Colorado and also in Taiwan, as well as other places, and for that we are very grateful. This participation defines and transforms our lives! What communities and cultures enrich your life? Are you frustrated by them, grateful for them, both, or something else altogether?

Happy Mother's Day, mothers, 

Happy Birthday, Laura (and the rest of you May people!), and 

Congratulations, Robby, on your Taekwando black belt ;-)

Here's to more authentic participation, meaningful conversation, and mutual relationship, in all our complex identities and affiliations.

Steve and Laura

Steve and Laura Spinella

US: 1930 Springcrest Rd, CO Springs 80920

mail: 9685 Otero Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80920

Steve cell 719.355.4809, Laura cell 832.755.4261
<spinella@alumni.rice.edu> <

lauraspinella@gmail.com>

--
--
This is an email list for friends of Steve and Laura...
To reply to a posting, send email to steve.spinella@gmail.com or just hit reply to email Steve and Laura
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to TEAMspinella-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
To see past emails, pictures, et al, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/TEAMspinella?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TEAMspinella" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to teamspinella+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/teamspinella/CAB%3Do-CGzhepcGGNrxYFXeoc6e94WC-K-seZTJWLnA_Uu3u4xfw%40mail.gmail.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[TEAMspinella] Living in between

At the end, there are some requests for you to lift up. Thanks for walking alongside us!

And the news--Evangeline, our granddaughter, is 6 months old. No, wait! That just slipped out. I meant to say that Laura and I are planning a trip to Taiwan. We have tickets to arrive 4/20 and depart 5/6. Also, while I haven't been writing updates since Christmas, there have been trips to Hawaii (vacation), Texas, and Maryland (the latest trip, and that one just Steve). Good trips, good conversations, we're grateful!

But I called this update "living in between," because that's such a constant theme for workers in international ministry, maybe even more than for some of the rest of us. A while back someone (I know who!) coined the term "third culture kid" to get at the idea that there are a whole group of people that are neither fully "from here" nor "from there." In our daughter Sarah Forcey's doctoral research she identified two primary aspects of this--mobility and identity. It was interesting to me the practical things she found to measure mobility--it's not just where we've been, but how we've participated. Last week I was in DC along with many tourists, as it was both spring break and cherry blossom festival. But I got to buy groceries, walked, rode a bike, drove a car, and rode the trains. I was in a number of people's houses, stayed with a Latino pastor, and deeply engaged with a local church community. All these things made my visit more significant for me--perhaps a bigger part of my life journey. And yes, I did go to two museums, saw the Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt memorials, and took pictures of cherry blossoms. The more we participate in more than one world--communities, cultures, languages, and relationships--the more we find ourselves living in between. It's a cost we pay for the journeys and relationships we enjoy.

I think that is why we find ourselves both grateful and stretched, both excited and weary, both connected and isolated. It's the best of lives, it's the worst of lives. (I think that's adapted from Dickens, the TCK thing actually goes back to a researcher named Ruth Unseem.) And as I promised above, here are those requests:  

1) We are grateful we can be alongside Laura's aging parents, as they have been alongside us for so many years in our ministry and family life. Bob is now in late stage dementia, at 88 years old, being cared for at home. Martha is two years younger and still the primary caregiver for Bob, but also needing much support and people alongside as well. Please lift up our family, and especially Laura and I as we seek to be patient, kind, generous, wise, and loving alongside them, no matter what the journey includes.

2) Steve's ministry is coming alongside, looking for good conversations, that empower people to stay, flourish, and contribute in international ministry. (And Laura is also alongside Steve in this as much as possible.) Ask for wisdom in knowing where to go, when to come, how to initiate, how to respond, and how to be a good ambassador for the one who has loved us all first. Ask that God would bring those he wants to be part of those good conversations together with us, remove barriers, and open possibilities for more meaningful moments and lasting results.

3) (With a time dynamic!) Laura is an active facilitator for "International Women's Connections" here in Colorado Springs. It is structured as a club with a monthly meeting and meet up activities. This is a critical time in the life cycle of this group, so lift up not only the individual connections and relational ministry, but also the leadership and directional questions for this ministry.

With love from somewhere in between! Steve and Laura

PS I was going to share some photos from MD, but I googled "jefferson memorial cherry blossoms" and those are much better. The museums I visited were "Museum of the Bible" and "National Air and Space Museum-Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center".

Steve and Laura Spinella

US: 1930 Springcrest Rd, CO Springs 80920

mail: 9685 Otero Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80920

Steve cell 719.355.4809, Laura cell 832.755.4261
<spinella@alumni.rice.edu> <

lauraspinella@gmail.com>

--
--
This is an email list for friends of Steve and Laura...
To reply to a posting, send email to steve.spinella@gmail.com or just hit reply to email Steve and Laura
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to TEAMspinella-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
To see past emails, pictures, et al, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/TEAMspinella?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TEAMspinella" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to teamspinella+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.