Messages from Monte

One of my favorite bands from the Eighties was Men at Work. Though hard to pick a favorite song of theirs, this particular one is somewhat relevant: I'm not tryin' to impress you with my lines. They don't mean nothin' at all. It's just another expression of mine. It don't mean nothin' at all. Epiphany: e·piph·a·ny  [ih-pif-uh-nee]  noun - a moment in which you suddenly see or understand something in a new or very clear way. That is a word that would have made my older brother accuse me of being a sesquipedalian . Only he wouldn't have used that word, he would have just told me I was trying to use big words - which I did, often.   In my previous blog post, I ended with these words, “Yet, I still feel like a fish out of water in this country. …  I still feel like I've only just come back to the States.” And now here's   my   epiphany: I hope I always do. I hope I always feel like a fish out of water. A stranger in a foreign...

I started this blog to post updates about our work during our time in El Salvador and Honduras. I stopped writing in this blog for reasons that escape me now. I feel like posting again. Maybe it is a bit of longing to be back amongst my family in Central America, but today I feel compelled to post. So, I guess I should do a short recap: In January of 2010, Lori and I decided we might want to be missionaries in El Salvador for a year. In March of that year we visited El Salvador for several days, just the two of us. We were hooked. We moved there in July of 2010 bringing Ruth Erin and Nate with us. We worked primarily with the La Palma congregation for most of our stay, though we worked some with the San Ignacio congregation, and more and more with the Ocotepeque congregation, in Honduras, as our time there came closer to an end. We returned to the U.S. in July of 2011. Lots happened between those two Julys. Wonderful, marvelous, dreadful, spiteful, happy, joyous things. Now, it is...