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>
<spinella@alumni.rice.edu> <lauraspinella@gmail.com>
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