Elpis – Page 2 – These Sacred Threads

Feb 11

by Elpis in Places 1 comments

Imagine

I have a warning for all of you: we now expect to be greeted by a drum corps, dancers, songs, and flowers everywhere we go. If you can make that happen, feel free. That was, in essence, our day. In between we heard stories of schools and building churches and faith and hope and possibility. We saw boarding homes for orphans or semi-orphans where the children are loved and safe. We were delighted by dances at the teachers college run by the Arcot Lutheran Church. We were given sugar cane. We paused at a church that is finishing its building and one that is just starting. And each place came with a story. Can you imagine what it takes for the poorest and lowest caste people of a society to raise the money, buy land, and set about building? Holy Cross can. The cornerstone was first laid 10 years ago when Bishop Wollersheim was here. The layout of the coming building is now set, markers and signs designating every room and wall laid out carefully in a field. With pride they showed around this dream, and with pride they told us how hard it has been to get to this […]

Feb 09

by Elpis in Places 0 comments

Let the children come…

Or at least, Lord, show us where to find them. A full day here. Very warm and beautiful – oh, wait, I probably shouldn’t mention that since I hear there’s a touch of snow at home. 😜 We were at a wonderful event this morning, but stories will have to wait until we get back. What I can share is that we delighted in the gifts anf hospitality of many, many beautiful and energetic children. A grade school. A middle school. Preschoolers joined the middle school kids and smiled and hid and kept trying to catch us looking at them. Children everywhere. They greeted us with flowers. They performed folk dances. They rushed to shake our hands and practice a little English. They sent presents back for the students at Alpine Academy in Rockford. They tried to be next in line as Karen introduced the to a kaleidoscope. And they rushed at Cole, Heide, Elyse, and Dakota as they handed out candy. Love everywhere. Some of these students were at day school simply for education. Others are orphans, living and learning right where they are. Many are dalit – the untouchables who otherwise might be already begging for food. But […]

Feb 09

by Elpis in Places 2 comments

Tsunamis and Barettes

You read that right. Tsunamis and barrettes. After an official welcome and visit to the Arcot Lutheran Church offices in Cuddalore, we drove further south along the Bay of Bengal to Parangipettai. Search back in your memory to 2004, when most of us first learned what tsunamis could do. This area along the ocean was devastated. People, communities, livelihoods washed away. Some of the most vulnerable in the world had to start over from less that scratch. The world stepped up. And ALC did some incredible organizing and helping at that time. Lutheran Disaster Relief worked with them and the ELCA raised millions of dollars. Today we saw what the long range work of that money has been able to do. The ALC Community College, built with those funds, provides one year training programs for nurses assistants, 2 cycle and 4 cycle mechanics, and tailoring. That training goes to those who cannot go through more education, due to finances, social mobility, family concerns, or simply because school has not worked for them. They are people of the least opportunities in a region that has struggled to recover. Now they will become sold employed or engaged in public health work or […]

Feb 07

by Elpis in Places 1 comments

Arrived!

The Northern Illinois Synod pilgrims have made it to New Delhi and are crashed at our hotel for the night. We head back to the airport early for a domestic flight to Chennai in the Tamil Nadu district and begin our time with the Arcot Lutheran Church. More to come when we have more to say than “We survived the plane rides!”

Jan 31

by Elpis in Places 3 comments

Coming Soon…India

Stay tuned…blog posts from the Northern Illinois Synod companion trip to the Arcot Lutheran Church, India, will show up here!

Mar 22

by Elpis in Nature 0 comments

Prairie Night Moonshine (Our Lady of the Prairie)

Poem (the spirit likes to dress up) by Mary Oliver The spirit likes to dress up like this: ten fingers, ten toes, shoulders, and all the rest at night in the black branches, in the morning in the blue branches of the world. It could float, of course, but would rather plumb rough matter. Airy and shapeless thing, it needs the metaphor of the body, lime and appetite, the oceanic fluids; it needs the body’s world, instinct and imagination and the dark hug of time, sweetness and tangibility, to be understood, to be more than pure light that burns where no one is — so it enters us — in the morning shines from brute comfort like a stitch of lightning; and at night lights up the deep and wondrous drownings of the body like a star.

Mar 19

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Pushing through to Spring

It will come. Some days it feels like it won't, some days it feels like pushing through to it is just too hard. But spring comes. Resurrection comes. New life breaks through.

May 24

by Elpis in Nature, Sabbatical 0 comments

Marking Holy Ground (Pentecost 2015)

Cairn: a mound of rough stones built as a memorial or landmark, typically on a hilltop or skyline. Cairns have been used throughout history in ways both sacred and profane. They can be seen as simple markers on a trail, left by one hiker for another to another to mark the way. They have been used as memorials and boundaries. They are everywhere in our national parks. They serve as trail markers, tended to by Rangers, but also appear in places where no trails can go. Places where trails aren’t needed. Places where people have simply stopped and felt the need to mark an experience of the divine – to set apart the space where they have experienced the sacred. They are marks of holy grounds. Look through the gallery and you will see them all over. On this day of Pentecost, may the holy blow through where you are, and may you know holy ground. Psalm 1 Redux (from Psalms Redux, Poems and Prayers, by Carla A. Grosch–Miller) Delights is born of discipline chosen. Contentment grows with wisdom. Deep listening leads along a cairn marked trail, dew clinging to grass bent by pilgrim feet. The sky is blue here. […]

May 23

by Elpis in Places 3 comments

Breathing and Breathtaking

From Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire: “A man could be a lover and defender of the wilderness without ever in his lifetime leaving the boundaries of asphalt, power lines,and right-angled surfaces. We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may never need to set foot in it. We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope…” Over the last week, I cannot count the number of times that the beauty of creation has taken my breath away. Desserts. Canyons. Flowers. Mountains. Snow and sun. Internet has been rare and random, but I am slowly uploading some of the pictures. These are from Arches National Park, Utah – see the gallery section for more.

May 18

by Elpis in Nature, Sabbatical 2 comments

Welcome to Utah!

on the road to Moab.