the*ends*of*the*earth: A Fork in the Road

A lot has happened since the last time I posted here!

I went to Washington DC on August 15th to enter into Formation with the Franciscan Mission Service. I am living in shared, intentional community with 14 other people. 5 of us are in the Overseas Lay Missions program, 8 of us are in domestic service programs, and 2 are house managers.

As you can see, we are almost all women this year plus our brother Fede, and it's been a lovely house. We've had the blessing of building and living a full life together, even as we feel the constrictions and isolation of a pandemic. Here's a shot from a pirate mystery dinner we had recently--note the impressive commitment to character roles!

credit: me

Formation includes daily prayer and various sessions to prepare us for overseas service. The sessions were wide-ranging to capture the complexity of overseas service and included topics ranging from power and privilege, sexuality, self-care, white supremacy, compassion fatigue, liberation theology, and more. Our overseas lay missions class this year has very different backgrounds and personalities that added precious richness to our Formation, and I feel very blessed to have them in my life.

As you may know, I have been weighing 2 options: FMS and a Peace Corps position in Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan was the country where I became a Christian and I have had a persistent, even annoying, yearning to return over the last 14 years. I've been able to do so on a number of occasions, but it was never long enough or deep enough. On the other hand, FMS has been an ideal sending organization that matches my own values and approach to service. A few weeks ago, we received final country invitations from FMS, and I was invited to serve in Bolivia!

At this point, it was finally the time to choose between the options. In Formation, this time was called Discernment, where we tried to gather more information, talk to others, search our own hearts, and pray to God to discern our choice.

It was a tough discernment for me. I have been intermittently, in the background, discerning this choice since last February, when I first applied to FMS. I'm generally a decisive person, so having a truly mysterious and unresolved major decision for almost 8 months was, at times, a trying situation. However, I really appreciate the slower process where I had time to gather significant information on both programs and make relationships with people who were involved in both.

In the end, I chose Kyrgyzstan. FMS is the best possible fit for a sending organization I could hope to find. But after seriously considering and even trying to go forward with FMS, I discerned a strong, unmovable desire to go to Kyrgyzstan. I'm not calling it "a calling" or "a mission"--too many connotations that I'm not sure about nor in agreement with--but I do think this desire is approved by and somehow connected to God.

So I'm committed to going with the Peace Corps as a K-12 English teacher trainer, whenever they determine it is safe to send volunteers. Right now, the estimated time frame is June 2021. I will be staying with my parents in Santa Monica until I depart.

In the meantime, want to learn more about Kyrgyzstan? I'd love to share with you some of my favorite aspects about Kyrgyzstan!

- Its amazing, untouched natural beauty and remoteness. I want to go here.