And we are looking forward to celebrating with you soon as we will be arriving for a visit on July 12th after nearly a year of being away. We will begin in Rochester, but will also visit family in Indiana and Michigan. John is looking forward to attending his class reunion in Paw Paw, Illinois (we’ll let you guess how many years). It will be a visit filled with joy and connections. And then, we will be returning to Guatemala on August 18th but we hope to see as many of you as we can while we are stateside.
This past year has seen many changes come to our country, to our world, and in our personal lives. It has been difficult to deal with many of these changes as they prove, at least to us, that our country is not where we thought it was. Issues regarding civil rights, climate change, immigration and healthcare makes us wonder where our current leadership is taking us. Seeing the current climate of fear and hate saddens us deeply. Yet, in the midst of it all, our family is keenly aware of God’s presence and guidance in our lives. Here in Guatemala, we live in the midst of extreme poverty, yet the people here firmly believe God will and does provide for them. We share that belief in good times and bad.
For us, some changes in the past year have been very good. Our son, John Edmund, has found a school that suits him. He has expressed a desire to finish high school here in Guatemala and, after much prayer, we have decided to do our best to accommodate this request. We have also learned that Project Salud y Paz will have a new executive director and we are praying that she will lead us in new directions that will help us to better serve our neighbors in this primarily Mayan area.
We invite you to join us in a Forum on Sunday July 23rd at 10:10am at Christ United Methodist Church where we will share how God’s call in our lives has changed us through the last 2½ years. We eagerly look forward to spending time with you. We will share more about Project Salud y Paz and how it continues to evolve to best serve the people of Guatemala. We will talk about people who work shoulder to shoulder with us, that live in conditions rarely found in the US since the 1800’s. You will hear us thank God for the opportunities he has given us to answer his call to serve. We will ask you for your constant prayers and for you to consider providing additional financial support as we have used nearly all of our non-retirement reserves during our time here. We truly look forward to your many bright smiles and warm hugs as we are grateful for the privilege to greet you once again. Please call, message or email us so that we can arrange to meet up with as many of you as possible. We look forward to seeing you very soon!!
Jan, John Edmund and John Lage, Jr.
