...The End Of The Matter...

The Silent Summons.
A summons, surely, but not so silent right now.
A screaming call of desire to see the heart come alive.
Finally arriving at a place of understanding.
A heart reaching out to the past and finding the present.
A Zealous Lover who will not leave me as someone I am not.
Oh the delight of being alive. The joy of breathing.

And so begins the quest. Or the journey.
The quest was begun years ago and what was lost is found.
And now begins the journey of living that life.
The summons. The summons to live again with my Beloved as ...
... the 10 year old who spent her spare time on a roof in prayer and contemplation...
... the 11 year old who started a church in the backyard fort and was "the priest"...
... the 12 year old who asked her parents for a Strong's Concordance and a Vine's Expository Dictionary for her birthday so she could "study the Word in the original languages"...
... the 17 year old who began to study Amy Carmichael, a Protestant Mystic...
... As the child and teenager who loved life, loved friends, and passionately lived it all.

All the things that were full of Jesus and full of life before things got...
hard.

To fully live the journey that was glimpsed again years later, when life seemed that one day it could be more than just grasping His hand and surviving.
To live out completely as...
... the 27 year old who began to study the Catholic Mystics because they were so in love with Jesus...
... the 28 year old who knew that one day she would be martyed in the Middle East...
... the 30 year old who took her monastic vows in a ceremony before God in Honduras because she could not bear not being fully His....
... the 37 year old who realizes that life really is full of Jesus. That there is no greater thing for her than to sit at His feet in various ways and worship. That life is about love. Loving Jesus and loving friends and loving "family". That it is ok to do only that which He places in her hands...nothing more and nothing less.

That her desire is to follow the Lamb wherever He goes.

Life, life, abundant life.
Joy. Unspeakable joy.
Jesus.

La Estacion, Mexico Pictures

Praying & playing in the C-HOP


The old train station that gives "La Estacion" it's name


Houses in La Estacion


More of the neighborhood


Larry prayer walking in La Estacion


Typical shrine to the "Virgen"


Another shrine


Worshiping in La Estacion


With the children

Praying, Teaching, Worshiping Mexico IV

Leigh playing keyboard and singing


Larry praying on the mic


Leigh praying on the mic


Larry teaching

Mexico Pictures III

These Pictures are a bit obscure...sorry...they were taken last night after dark and the flash on my camera doesn't go as far as I might like it to sometimes. Next week, Larry & I are planning to start going down to La Estacion on our own and doing some worship/prayer sets, etc, so I will have clearer pictures then!

Mexico Pictures II

Leonard praying on the mic...


At the Cuernavaca Pastor's Assoc. Prayer Meeting


At dinner - Leonard & Lesly - Our C-HOP Missionary Friends

First Pictures From Mexico

Our Cute Little Bungalow that has become my contemplative house


Larry in front of the bungalow


La Estacion - the slum


La Estacion

Surely He Has Borne Our Griefs & Carried Our Sorrows....(Isa 53)

Great Thief of Hearts, the strength of Your love has broken even our hard hearts. You inflamed the whole world with Your love. Wisest Lord, inebriate our hearts with this wine, burn them with this fire, pierce them with this arrow of Your love. This Your cross is indeed a crossbow that pierces hearts. Let the whole world know that my heart is striken. Sweetest love, what have You done? You have come to heal me, and You have wounded me. You have come to teach me, and You have made me like someone mad. O wisest madness, may I never live without you. Lord, everything that I see on the cross invites me to love; the wood, the form, the wounds in Your body; and above all, Your love invites me to love You and never to forget You.

(St. Alphonsus Liguori)