The Holidays and Day to Day Life

Bienvenidos!

This holiday season was brimming with blessings and tasks! This was our last Christmas with family for a while, making it a bittersweet one. But it made each moment more intentional, and every family tradition enjoyed all the more whether that be decorating the fifteen foot tree, building lopsided gingerbread houses, or baking Christmas cookies for loved ones.

Daniel and I traveled to Wisconsin in the middle of December to celebrate Christmas with family, and intend to stay here until the last day of January as we reach out to various churches and schools in Wisconsin. So far, God has blessed us with the opportunity to go to St. Andrews in Kewaskum, Camp LuWiSoMo for their winter Joyful Hearts program, Living Word in Jackson (our home church!), Living Word High School, St. Paul’s in Oconomowoc, LuWiSoMo again for their youth recharge event, and we are soon to visit Living Christ in Madison! It is incredible to return home to see the churches we grew up going to, and the camp we used to work at, and be able to spread the message of what the LCMS is doing abroad.

When we’re not presenting, we have been upping our Spanish lessons and hearing as much Spanish as our brains will allow. One of my favorite ways to do this is to watch old Disney movies in Spanish–specifically the Lion King–or have merengue music playing in the background as we answer emails.

The highlight of my day is reaching into what we call our “DR Jar” and pulling out a topic we want to learn more about. So far we’ve learned more about the Taino people, private vs. public healthcare, safety tips, merengue, religious history, poverty rates, Padre Nuestro (The Lord’s Prayer), revolutions, dining etiquette, and famous sites in the Dominican Republic .

Daniel and I also spend lots of time with our noses in books, preparing and learning. We’re excited because we get to be enrolled in a Missiology course through the Fort Wayne Seminary, which furthers our knowledge on the mission. I’ve been able to finish our assigned book, Mission of the Cross by Klaus Detleve Schulz, which I recommend even if you’re not going into international mission work! Another fantastic book is, In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, which is a story about four sisters known as Las Mariposas–the Butterflies–who were leading opponents of General Trujillo’s dictatorship in the Dominican. We have also been inching through a workbook called Preparing for Your Move Abroad: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture. I will say, the workbook makes me so grateful for all the LCMS does for her missionaries to ensure a smooth transition into living abroad!

Throughout the readings, I have picked out various quotes or ideas that were either thought-provoking or simply enjoyable, and I hope you enjoy them as well!

“In fact, 57 percent of the world’s population–three billion souls are completely without Christ. Of this percentage, about 1.6 billion people continue to lead an isolated existence without the Bible and the Christian faith presented in the native language.”- Mission from the Cross, page 4.

“Justification is missiological in its very essence...” Mission from the Cross, page 69

“A chill goes through her, for she feels it in her bones, the future is now beginning. By the time it is over, it will be the past, and she doesn’t want to be the only one left to tell their story.” - In the Time of the Butterflies, page 10.

“George, Margrave of Brandenburg, spoke boldly for the Lutherans. He refused to concede to Charles’s demands, saying, ‘Before I let anyone take from me the Word of God and ask me to deny my God, I will kneel and let them strike off my head.’ The emperor, clearly taken aback by George’s boldness, sputtered in broken German, ‘Not cut off head, dear prince. Not cut off head.’” - Introduction to the Augsburg Confession

“138. What is God doing about all the suffering and death in the world?
A. God does not allow evil to have the final word. He daily brings forth new life in the midst of and in spite of all the sin and death in the world.” - Luther’s Small Catechism, page 152.

“If in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about–but not before God.” Romans 4:2

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

You can also read more about our mission on the Reporter!

https://reporter.lcms.org/2026/from-the-mission-field-preparing-to-deploy/