The SPY heros

The wonderful young people from St. Peter's who made the trip to Puerto Rico are the heros of the blog. Each of these wonderful people made what we did as a group possible. They were responsible, engaged, and engaging. They were great ambassadors for St. Peter's and for Christ. They prayed, sang, worked, learned, goofed off, and were caring of one another and of the whole. We became a community in these eight days. The picures are of: Alex, Matt, Monica, Lydia, Tyler, Montana, Sabrina, Ian and Grace.

"O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and those who are near: Grant that people everwhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." (From Morning Prayer, which we said daily on the trip.)

Here is the whole gang, and with them a special person, Sr. Angel Santiago. He is the security guard at the Center San Justo, an active member of the church and was our friend and supporter all the days of our trip. Sr. Santiago was a jockey who raced at major tracks all over the US.

So, how did we do?

When we started putting this trip together we wrote a series of objectives. They were as follows:

Mission begins with learning, listening and cross cultural connections. Our first mission priority is to enter and engage the community in which we find ourselves.

Mission is not our agenda, it is God's agenda for us, so mission requires we be open to what we understand God is doing. That means we will reflect each day on the experiences we have had and join the biblical witness, the witness of those we meet, and our witness together. So in our mission we will do bible study together.

Mission is about the need we all have for the good News in Jesus Christ, and about how we bring who we are to that need. So we will work with young people in Puerto Rico at a common task, both bringing and receiving the Good News of God's love for us all in Jesus Christ.

Mission is about becoming part of a community of faith, a community always changing and growing, living and dying, finding itself and losing itself. While we are on this trip we will participate in the joys and sorrows of those we meet. It will change us and them both.


So, now that the mission trip is finished, how did we do? Well, here is one evaluation (by Marko.) Others may follow...

From the beginning we worked to make connections – we worked hard at crossing the cultural and linguistic divide. The "plunge" experience on Monday (where we were given tasks to do in Rio Piedras), dealing with getting lost, learning about the Diocese of Puerto Rico and the history of Puerto Rico, visiting historical sites and important churches and going where people gathered (Bebo's BBQ, Rio Piedras Park, the Playa, town squares, etc.) were all part of this process. We did a lot of emersion engagement! On the first objective, we did very well indeed.

Prayer, biblical reflection and worship: As a group we met for Morning Prayer and Compline daily. Morning Prayer was accompanied by a group reflection on the scripture reading, and as the week went on more and more SPY members contributed to this reflection. Compline included a time for reflection on the day and that became a form of spiritual thanksgiving for the surprises of the day. We worshiped with the people of San Pablo's Church, Arecibo, twice. Fr. Hernan lead us in midday prayers on Wednesday and Fr. Caesar celebrated the Eucharist on Sunday. We got some wonderful examples from Fr. Munoz of contemporary Christian music (his own work) and were taught to sing a song with him. We had several reflections from PR clergy on the witness to the presence of God in various ministries. We did not have opportunity to do bible reflection with young people in Puerto Rico. As a community we did very well on this, but did not get as much chance to understand PR and youth perspectives on the bible and religion. We did well, but we hoped for more.

We had several occasions to meet and work with young people in Puerto Rico. Working with young people in Puerto Rico was mostly in the context of work with groups – on Wednesday in Aricebo (working on landscaping and clean up) and Thursday (working to clean up the rooms used by Episcopal Social Services) we worked with groups of church people, including some young people who we then had a chance to meet. On Friday we met the fourteen boys at the Hogar San Miguel in Ponce. Others may come in the comments.)That meeting, without work attached, was difficult because of the many barriers we had to cross in order to be present with each other. We continued conversation with those young men who accompanied us to get something to eat. That the meeting with the young people from Hogar San Miguel happened at all was the real work we did together. The Eucharist on Sunday provided an opportunity to be with a whole community, and therefore with young people as part of the Sunday life of the church. There were wonderful moments of fellowship in the service and after. There were chance contact with young people elsewhere – at the Center San Justo (participants in a summer program), in Old San Juan (skateboarders), with Head Start kids in Ponce, with people at the beach.

When we met young people in doing a common task contact was easiest – we could relate around work.When we met in worship and church community it was more or less natural. When we met without a focus it was difficult. One of the difficulties of planning this trip was that summer programs in the church in Puerto Rico take place mostly from the second week of July to the middle of August. So we were out of sync with some of the normal program work of the youth in Puerto Rico. We did very well with the contacts we made. It would have been wonderful to have had more. Working together on common tasks made those contacts easier, but we were ready to meet directly, without the need for work. By the end of the week I think St. Peter's Youth were ready to begin just being with others.

The real test of engagement is compassion –the feeling that we participate somehow, on a gut level, with the joys and sorrows of those we are with. The willingness to engage with, spiritually reflect about, and work with others leads to this, and we did enough of these things to bring us to be compassionately present. In the reflections each evening there were always comments by SPY members about the delights in meeting people, the joys in sharing (even if just a little bit) of the life and culture of the people, and the sorrows in experiencing some of the difficulties of the society and the poverty of some of its people. They became part of our prayers and reflections each day. On the goal of participation we did what we hoped would happen.

So, over all, I think we packed a lot into a week and were all changed by it. Perhaps we changed some things in Puerto Rico (we certainly cleaned up some rooms and some church grounds). But mostly we changed the world, one small bit at a time, by making our unity in Christ more central than our separation by culture and language. That unity was confirmed by the Sr. Warden and the Vicar at San Pablo's Church on the last full day in Puerto Rico. There was real joy in the connection between us. On Monday, The Rev. Ivette Linares summed it up: She said she has been Episcopalian all her life and she is proud of her church and that we too should be glad to be part of this wonderful community of faith. The wonderful work of the Church in Puerto Rico is part of who we are, and now we are (even in some small way) part of who they are.

Sunday, the first day and the last.

The entry tonight begins with a picture taken of the youth on the trip of themselves, signing on to the whole engagement. This will be the last sizable blog entry for the trip, although I will post a final note about the trip home. The picture tells a thousand things and signals a real joy in this mission trip, one I believe will bear much fruit in days to come.

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It's Sunday, the first day of the week. This morning we arose early and drove to Arecibo where we joined the people of Iglesia Episcopal San Pablo for the Eucharist. The service was at 9:30. The Senior Warden, Sr. Fernando Stevens, introduced us at the beginning of the service with very kind words of greeting. The Vicar, Fr. Hernan Villalba, was supposedly on vacation this weekend, but sat in the back while a young priest, Fr. Caesar, preached and celebrated. At the close of the service Fr. Hernan came forward and he too gave us a gracious welcome. All of this was followed by an exchange of gifts (we received cups celebrating their 40^th year and we gave them two rakes – replacing ones we broke earlier in the week) and by a mutual promise to pursue the possibility of some sort of companion parish connection – prayer and interest across culture and language. We both agreed that one place to begin was also with common work in mission, and Marko suggested that perhaps we might together do something to support the work of Hogar San Miguel in Ponce. Fr. Hernan said the parish of San Pablo already has agreed to support to one of the young men there, so there is a start already. After the service I was able to get a picture of the Vicar, here with our own Senior Warden, Lorianne Papp.

The social hour after church was busy, with lots of parishioners about, with coffee and chili hot dogs, lots of conversation and laughter. The SPY group reconnected with some young people there and met some others. The adults on the team continued conversations with some of the parish leaders. Fr. Hernan's wife was there and we heard from her and the wife of another priest the difficulties faced by clergy families that move from outside the US into the US immigration system. Neither of the wives could work in the US, although their husbands could, since as clergy they could claim to be providing for Hispanic ministry when there was a dearth of Spanish speaking clergy. The wives, one of whom was a civil engineer in Columbia, could not make similar claims.

The Priest and Senior Warden of San Pablo Church both impressed upon us the importance of our coming, not only as visitors, but as people willing to join with them in doing the ordinary things of parish life – a parish clean up day and today, the Eucharist. What began as an opportunity to visit with people in a local church has quickly grown into a relationship based in Gospel hope – that what we share in the faith is so much greater than all that separates us, and that that faith is grounded in a love that is nourished in freedom but founded on self-giving. (Fr. Caesar preached on this in his sermon.)

We were finally ready, more or less, to handle the whole of a service in Spanish. We all muttered through parts of it and we had trouble making all the connections in the sermon, but we were all willing to work at it and loved being there. It was an affirmation of all we had been working for this week.

We left Arecibo about noon to return to Old San Juan, to finish the trip to the fortifications at El Moro and to have a celebration lunch in the old city.

For those who have been following along, here is the basic log of the SPY Puerto Rico Mission Trip, June 24 – July 2:

Events in Purple, Worship, in Red, Culture, in Brown, History of Church/Society, in Blue Work Party or Mission experience, in Green, recreation.

Sunday, June 24:

Church, St. Peter's Lewes, blessing.

Trip to Philadelphia Airport.

Flight to San Juan.

Dinner at Bebo's BBQ – first taste of Puerto Rico.

Compline at Chapel

Monday, June 25:

Morning Prayer at Chapel

Meeting with Diocesan Staff- History of Puerto Rico and of the Episcopal Church in Puerto Rico.

Lunch at Center

Plunge experience in Rio Piedras

Dinner at Center

Compline and house meeting

Tuesday, June 26

Morning Prayer at Chapel

Visit Cathedral and Santurce area

Fort San Cristobal, Old San Juan

Playa Isla Verde

Dinner at Center

Compline and house meeting

Wednesday, June 27

Morning Prayer at Chapel

Arecibo, San Pablo Church, working party.

Lunch at San Pablo

Arecibo Telescope

Playa Arecibo

Dinner at Center

Compline and house meeting.

Thursday, June 28

Morning Prayer at Chapel

Episcopal Social Services Center, work party

Lunch at Episcopal Social Services Center

Late afternoon half day off.

Dinner at Center

Compline and house meeting.

Friday, June 29

Morning Prayer in Center

Travel to Ponce,

Visit to Hospital and St. Luke's Church, Ponce

Visit to Holy Trinity Church, Ponce

Visit to Hogar San Miguel, Ponce

Late afternoon visit to Ponce center square

Dinner at Center

Compline and house meeting

Saturday, June 30

El Yunque Rain Forest, AM

Liquillo Beach, PM

Dinner at Center

Compline and housemeeting

Sunday, July 1

Drive to Arecibo

Holy Eucharist at San Pablo Church

Meeting with congregation after

Visit El Moro Fort

Late celebration meal, Old San Juan

Pick up supper at Center

Compline and housemeeting

Monday, July 2

Morning Prayer, Chapel

Pack to Go

Meeting with Diocesan Staff

Travel to San Juan Airport,

To Philadelphia and Lewes.

The basic design of the trip, with lots of variations that came in the actual life of the trip, was built around the hope to build community among SPY-PR, find community in the people and church in Puerto Rico, appreciate the church and culture of Puerto Rico, be of service to the church in Puerto Rico and by our service to witness to our faith in Jesus Christ, and to find enjoyment of life with others in Puerto Rico.

Ponce on Friday, and then a day of rest (sort of.)

We have been making a big effort – and sometimes it takes a big effort – to get around Puerto Rico. The effort seems to lead to blog blahs… Sorry for not blogging yesterday. And, no Sue, we weren't lost, at least in big important parts of the trip. On the other hand we were spectacularly lost when we could not find Holy Trinity Church in Ponce even when we were only four blocks away, and later could not find our way back to our parked cars. Today, no problem, save missing the turn off to Loquillo Beach.

Now it is Saturday evening. I am sitting on a retaining wall at the Centro San Justo, where the reception for the wireless service is better, and listening to the frogs and locus in the trees. It is damp and warm out to night, and indeed the whole day was humid and relaxing.

Yesterday, however, was not. Yesterday we got up early and got out on the road to Ponce where we had a series of remarkable and wonderful experiences. The road to Ponce passes through the central mountains of Puerto Rico on a wide road that takes us up and over rather quickly and then runs parallel to the Caribbean to Ponce. The scenery is wonderful, changing from lush green mountains to arid coastal lowlands. Ponce was hotter than the north side of the island, but much drier.

Our first surprise was the visit to St. Luke's Hospital. The Hospital itself is an amazing undertaking for a diocese, but the way in which that hospital is in turn leading to other work is what is most important. From that base a variety of health services to the people of Puerto Rico have been developed.

We met three different but quite extraordinary priests at the hospital. The first, Fr. Juan Munoz, is the vicar of a new church, built at one end of an office complex belonging to the Hospital, most of which is rented out for professional offices. The church itself is quite striking in design and has a wonderful set of stained glass windows. The surprise was to discover that Fr. Munoz is a talented guitarist, singer and writer and an artist. After his introduction to the hospital and his work with the new church he offered to play some of his music. It was amazing! At the end of this post is a minimal clip of him trying to teach us a song.

He in turn invited another priest, who it turns out is a priest and engineer both, and was a primary mover in the design of the hospital professional center, the parish church and the renovations of the hospital. Again his witness was a combination of deep spiritual development and actively engaged talents in unexpected areas. He told us alot about the windows in the church that tell the Gospel according to Luke and about the willingness to take bold steps for the expansion of the church's ministry. On the left is a picture of the main windows of St. Luke's in Ponce.

And just at the end of our visit The Rev. Jose Irizarry walked in. Fr. Irizarry has been a primary mover in the social outreach efforts of the Episcopal Church wherever he has been and is one of the most thoughtful theologians I know.

The youth in our group really liked the contact with Fr. Munoz. He immediately drew the young people in to his music and got us all to join him. The trip to the Hospital took longer than we thought it would.

From there we went to Holy Trinity Church, which we have been told several times is the "Mother Church" of non Roman Catholic worship on the island. The visit was short, but we did at least get to "connect the dots" relating this historic church to the pride and life of this vibrant diocese. It did strike me as interesting that the bell in the front yard that was rung for the first time when the US government took over from Spain, and was therefore the signal of religion freedom on the island, is actually a very small bell. In a place where there was state religion any relaxation was a danger, even the ringing of a small bell. The picture on the left is us trying to find out just where we were in relation to the Church, which was not where we were....) Also on the left is the high altar of the church.

Now, about two in the afternoon, and running late, we crossed town and had the most important contact of the day – with fourteen boys between eight and eighteen who live at Hogar San Miguel. These boys were placed here by the State for a variety of reasons – abandonment by parents, HIV, learning or mental disabilities, other health issues. They live here for as long as the state will provide help, usually until they are 18 years old.

After a brief meeting with the social worker our young people came into a room where the young men were seated on several couches. There was an initial awkward silence, then some handshakes, a tentative exchange of names, and then the beginnings of conversations – about little things, but things that connected. In a short time there was a sense that barriers had been broken and small connections made. The SPY group began for the first time, as a group, to work with their ignorance of Spanish with young people who speak Spanish. They exchanged words, ideas, likes, dislikes, and all with the phrase book going back and forth. There were lots of smiles, and lots of interest. Several of the young men from the Hogar took us downtown to find a place to get what was now a very late lunch…about 3:30. They joined us for soft drinks before heading back to the Hogar for their dinner. We have no pictures of this visit which says something about the intensity of the time together. It didn't seem the right time or occasion to take pictures.

After a quick walk about the town center, which includes the Cathedral and the Fire Hall, famous for its black and red painted exterior we headed back to Saint Just and the Centro, getting there about 8 PM. Here we are at the fire hall, now a museum.

Each night we have a house meeting and prayers (usually compline). At the meeting last night the SPY-PR folk talked mostly about the young people in the Hogar, the sense that the Hogar was a loving place and they were a family, and the sense that the young men were really being helped in the midst of difficult life situations. They felt the breaking of the barriers was possible and important. We want to follow up in some way with the Hogar, the work and the boys.

This morning we got out about 9:30 and went to El Yunque Rain Forest and then about 1 PM to Loquillo Beach. Both are nature at its best, and both are much appreciated by the people of Puerto Rico. They were also both crowded! The path to Mina Falls, in the Rain Forest, was very popular as a destination for visitors to PR, but also for people from Puerto Ricans as well. The bathing pool at the bottom of the falls was an international community, with SPY right there.

Loqillo Beach is a favorite destination for local folk on their day off. So Saturday it was filled with people at rest, at peace, and at play. That was us as well – taking a bit of time for play. It was glorious.

Tomorrow we are off again to Arecibo to the 9:30 service and with another chance to meet that growing congregations.

It's hard to believe the trip is almost over. We fly back on Monday afternoon. More tomorrow.

Manana is a promise

Today is Thursday, yesterday was Wednesday. No blog yesterday, a fact already commented on by the cognoscenti. Glad they are reading the blog! Why? Because yesterday we went very early to Arecibo, worked a long morning, had lunch with people of the parish and then began a long afternoon of travel to the Arecibo Telescope and home. We didn't get back until about 8:30 PM, pooped.

So what was that all about? Well, our plan was to spend the first two days getting an overview of the Church in Puerto Rico, the history of the church, and the getting our bearings in the culture. So on Wednesday we began to put the whole thing to work. The Rev. Ivette, our mentor and guide, sent us off to the parish of San Pablo in Arecibo to meet the priest and people there and work on a common project in the parish. The common project was to do lots of work on the grounds. It was a parish cleanup day. As folks in Lewes know, clean up day is a great way to get to know others.

In addition to the vicar, the senior and junior warden and several lay leaders, children of the vicar and other young volunteers were there. (picture of the Senior Wardens, St. Peters and San Paulo's to the left) All told we numbered about twenty-five people. The parish has a fine social hall and rents space to a head start program. They have an outreach ministry to a retirement community and a government home for the elderly.

(Pictures of many hands working, to the right, and of workers repairing part of the parking lot.

Fr. Hernan Villalba, vicar of the parish, is a wonderfully kind and humble man. One of the signs of that is that we have no picture of him, at least by himself. He was on the move constantly, digging, mowing, moving rocks, getting things arranged for lunch, and on and on. Originally from Columbia, Fr. Hernan began as a Roman Catholic priest and was a missionary in a town near the border with Venezuela. He joined the Episcopal Church and his ministry was accepted in our church. He served in the Dominican Republic prior to coming to Puerto Rico a year and a half ago. His is vicar at San Pablo in Arecibo and has started another mission in Utuado. The parish has been through problems not dissimilar to some in our own diocese and lost many of its members over issues of local governance. Now, with Fr. Hernan there, and with a strong vestry and lay leadership the parish is growing again.

Puerto Rico, particularly down on the coast, is both warm and humid and we worked up a considerable sweat. After three hours we were surprised by a fine lunch and following that, several games of dominoes, a game taught to our youth by youth in the parish. We had noon-day prayers led by Fr.Hernan and he was very gracious about our visit, saying what we hoped was true, that this visit gave both them and us new energy and hope.

The trip to the Arecibo Radio Telescope fulfilled the dreams of several science geeks, some of us interested in para-normal fits, and the sons of engineers (that's me). It is quite an amazing engineering feat, and no, they did not find definite signs of extra-terrestrial life while we were there, but I was ready with a theology to match (not to be outdone by the Rector of all Lewes).

Getting there and getting back to Arecibo was iteself a feat! Coming down the mountain roads to the main road we got seriously turned around and once again found familiar land marks on our right, and later on our left, and Mark even found a dead end (right in front of him) that said (in Spanish) "This road ends here."

Along about 4:30 we ended up at the beach, hot, sticky, and ready for a bath. Trying to avoid the massive traffic jams of rush hour in San Juan we dallied about and got headed back in after dark. Not the best time for the pooped. But we got back to the center, safe and sound. After dinner and a house meeting, and simple prayers, it was time to give it all up and collapse.

This morning we had a more leisurely start, although some of us had to do some shopping for breakfast stuff. By 9:30 we were at morning prayers (led by Lydia and Montana) and off to today's Ivette assignment – to work with the people at the Episcopal Church Social Services agency headquarters, helping them prepare several rooms for use as the food and materials storage bank for the Hogar de Ninos and several centers around the island. We completely cleaned up five rooms, arranging huge numbers of boxes of files, sorting things to be saved and things to be thrown away, cleaning windows, mopping floors, and generally turning the place into something new. (Picture on the left of hard working young people in front of dumpster of thrown out stuff.)

We worked with The Rev. Ana who put us through our paces. Again, SPY folk worked with adults at the ECSS office, but also with other young people, in this case two wonderful daughters of one of the staff there. And again, at lunch (provided by our hosts) they shared with our folk all sorts of things about life in Puerto Rico and the US. (Picture on the left is lunch with new friends.)

We returned in a rain storm to the Centro San Justo on roads now becoming more familiar to us (that is to say we didn't get lost at all.) It's been an afternoon of rest, getting ready for tomorrow and a long trip to Ponce. There we hope to see even more that connects all our experiences together.

In Ponce we will visit Holy Trinity Church, the oldest Anglican church on the island, whose roots are in settlers from the Caribbean islands. We had heard about this from both the Diocese and the Dean of the Cathedral. It turns out the Senior Warden from San Pablo's in Arecibo is the grandson of one of the founding members of Holy Trinity. Connection number one.

We will also visit Hospital San Lucas (where Marko once taught professional ethics to nurses – what did he know? Not much.) San Lucas has since moved into new quarters. They are connected, of course, to the diocese as a whole, and in our introduction to the Diocese we were told of the really extensive work of this Diocese in health services. So there is a second connection.

Then we will visit some young people in a home for children with HIV in Ponce. That home is directly part of the Episcopal Church Department of Social Services, whose offices we helped clean today. So there is a third connection.

It is a little bit like weaving together things past and present, things as near as yesterday and today with the moments that will come tomorrow.

The pay off of all this wandering around and visiting and looking and tasting and engaging in conversation, and praying together and with others, is to weave a net that makes us somehow one with the people of this wonderful church here.

Mission, as we are beginning to realize, is not about doing things for other people, but doing things with others in Christ's name and presence. We were particularly conscious of that in our visit with Fr. Hernan and his people yesterday and with Rev. Ana today in her work on behalf of the poor and those without resources. But mostly it was the young people we met that made the best connections of all for us, in little ways and smiles and tentative questions and games and presence.

So, there it is work, work, work and play. And on the way a greater sense of God's pulling us forward into a different way of being with others and each other.

We are more or less pooped out, but happy to be here.

More tomorrow, maybe.

If not, on Saturday.

We’ve been doing some hard trav’ling, I thought you knowd…

Today (Tuesday) we said our morning prayers and hit the road with Rev. Ivette the wonderful youth minister for downtown Santurce and the Cathedral. We met there with the Dean, David Howell, and were shown around the Cathedral and got some history of both the current church and its predecessor churches in the San Juan area. He took us to the Santurce Mercado where we all had fruit frappe and one chilled raw coconut for the winner of yesterday's prize for getting lost, namely Jody.

From there we headed out to the Isle Verde public beach for what we (or perhaps only Marko) thought would be a two hour time out. Well, for a start we did some hard trav'ling around the San Juan International Airport. We saw Bebo's BBQ (see our first day's report) three times in transit, and one particular interchange in Isle Verde four times, but finally we made the right (or perhaps left) turn and wam…out we were on the way to the beach. Schmuck award of the day went to Marko.

The beach was, by all reports – ALL – wonderful. Water was warm, beach clean, shade of the tree perfect. There was no way to get the gang out of there before three-thirty.

Several adults learned again how to change in their cars, some of the guys discovered the joys of changing in port-a-potties. Some enjoyed using a bathhouse that had not been in use for a looong time. But who cared – the air was clear, the beach perfect, and several folk ended up with sunburn (not too bad since Nurse Jody and Mom Sheryl made everyone use sunblocker.)

We then went to San Cristobal fort, part of the San Juan fortifications, and we then walked around old San Juan.

We got back in time for Carmen's second great dinner and an evening of post card writing. People are taking baths and getting ready to go to Arecibo at 7:15 tomorrow morning.

Great day. We learned a lot, inspite of our best efforts to eat a lot, lounge around on the beach and generally goof-off. The Cathedral and the Old City's history intersect in odd ways. The old city has all sorts of residue of the Catholic Church, but less and less reality of its presence. The Cathedral has started a ministry to mariners and fishers in the old city. The multi-cultural and bi-lingual ministry of the Church in the city continues.

More tomorrow.

Getting lost and getting found

OK, so much for playing around. Today, Monday, we are at it. Learning, exploring, getting lost, getting found….sort of like salvation, you know…with Jesus as our leader.

It all started innocently enough. This morning we gathered for breakfast – pan fried bread, guava jelly, strong coffee (for the strong among us), various juices, corn-flakes and milk…the whole catastrophe. We then went over to the chapel for morning prayer and a reflection. Then we went up stairs to meet with members of the Diocesan staff and got an overview of the Diocese and its history (awesome) and of the history of Puerto Rico. Then we organized for lunch, took a small rest and when on out on the adventure of the day.

The afternoon activity was a "plunge" into the life of the community and people in greater San Juan. We went to Rio Piedras central – to the park – around which there are many shops. We broke up into groups of three and went out into the neighborhood to find various things we needed (newspapers, fruit to eat (not stuff we knew anything about), clothes-line and ice cube trays, post cards and stamps, but mostly to meet people. Some even took time to look through the gate at the statue of Mary with neon lights draped over her hands. It turns out Drew draws street people like a magnet. Four in one hour!

One group got itself really really lost in getting to the park and got there an hour late, having had a large number of encounters with people only some of whom knew how to get from where they were to the part. Unfortunately the group did not know just which advice to take. But, they got to the part eventually! Everyone learned a lot about getting around in a place and culture not their own. We also learned just how much we were dependent on others and on each other. Somewhere in the midst of all that they had a wonderful encounter with someone named Jesus.

Jesus turned out to be a guy named Jesus (pretty common in Puerto Rico) who came to the rescue of the lost group and drove his motorcycle leading them back to the park. He was even willing to stop on several occasions to take directions himself (proving he wasn't just any guy). So Jesus led them home, so to speak. We, of course, knew how to end the afternoon… by getting milk shakes at a local place near the plaza. Here the hungry youth of SPY wait, drooling, for their place in line.

We ended the day with a wonderful meal provided by Carmen who has been contracted to cook for us this week and a long time in the pool here at the center. At this posting people are unwinding and settling in for the night. It has been hot and humid all day and now in the distance we can hear thunder. Perhaps tonight there will be cooling rains. Compline coming up, and then to bed. Here are greetings from this morning at chapel. St. Peter's can be proud of this wonderful group of young people (and the adults that are with them.)