I will never forget my first day. I had just finished college, started my first full-time student pastor job, got married, went on our honeymoon, moved to a new city and had officially begun “adulting.”

When today’s headlines shout about the unraveling social connections, division and political chaos in our world, we can be tempted to get discouraged and overwhelmed.

The last time we corresponded with you we were packing our apartment and moving from Philadelphia to Phoenix, AZ. That was May.

This past summer, Boyden Myers, Ben McCloy, Nola Merlino, Juanita Bryan and a team from Michigan called “Michigan Servants for Christ” have made imprints in Bolivia, Haiti, Honduras and Japan.

It is a great joy to be visiting home! We are soaking up the hugs from family, friends and church family.

On one of these days, we went to San Juan Sacatepéquez, and we heard the voices of the communities that make up that municipality, their sorrows and their hopes.