Christmas 2004

Holiday Greetings!I received a poignant Christmas card in the mail this month. In it,Mary and the baby Jesus are nestled in a refugee tent on the sandsof Gaza. Behind them, a military bulldozer approaches to tear downthe tent. What a powerful reminder that Jesus was a refugee in theMiddle East two thousand years ago, and I believe would still cometo us as such today.I had hoped maybe now that I was back in the States and had a postalservice not inhibited in its function by warfare, that I would beable to send all sorts of cards and correspondence out this fall.However, in the past five years I've lost some of my sense oftiming. Fortunately, I notice that some cards from others are stillfiltering in, several days after Christmas. That is a sign ofgrace. Still, it is time to face the facts. I have put away thehigh ideals and for the most part I am resorting to email thisyear. Maybe next year I'll be fully back in the swing of things.Perhaps the big news is that I will be starting candidacy in theMetro Chicago synod and be training for ordained ministry. Some ofyou know that my synod in Iowa told me six years ago that peacepeople like me were not needed in the parish and that what we neededwere rural pastors, not urban or international pastors.Fortunately, I think I finally found the right crowd of people atseminary and in Chicago to tell me that this was not the case. I'mreally excited by the open thinking and being surrounded bysupportive people who know how to get things rolling.I am very much in love with seminary living and can't imagine livingin the States during these times were I not in this community.Since getting to campus I have been staying in trouble by organizinga peace and justice group for both the Lutheran and Presbyterianseminaries on campus. A Presby girl I was working with on theU.S./Mexico border this summer is at McCormick and we are co-conspiring on all of this. It's been a good way to channel myactivist energies. I've also been writing a number of articles forthe seminary newspaper, mostly about peace issues but also some oncampus issues and some humor articles just for fun. It's beenincredibly therapeutic, and I have learned once again that writingout the thoughts crashing around in my head keeps me from ruminatingon them all day and getting nothing else done!I am now living in a third-floor apartment across the street fromthe seminary. They are early 20th-century brown brick buildings andI share with two other single female roommates. Kimberly is 35 andfrom Cleveland, and Alissa is 22 and just graduated from LutherCollege. We are getting along mostly pretty well and enjoy theliving arrangements. Weekly, the `girls' get together to snack andwatch `Desperate Housewives' and appreciate that we are all stillsingle. There are two families in our building, one from SouthAfrica and the other from Korea. Both have young girls who like tocome visit and make cookies and watch videos often.Otherwise, I am also singing in the Chapel Choir and the GospelChoir, which meet on Monday nights. Chapel Choir is a moretechnically difficult choir, which makes me realize how out ofpractice I've been since high school. In Gospel Choir , I only haveto worry about singing loud. And hitting the high note when themain high-note singer isn't there. Ha!Most of you will be overjoyed to hear that I will not likely be backin Iraq anytime soon. I have recently resigned from three years inCPT and will be looking at next steps when I get back to campus. Itwas definitely getting time to move on, for my own health, energy,and well-being. I am still hoping to run delegations toPalestine/Israel with different groups that are going, but maybealso branch out into totally different areas. Still, I miss Baghdadliving terribly, especially the winter weather there–and friends ofcourse, and the wonderful grilled fish. I am coping with thecultural re-adjustment by shopping with my best Palestinian buddyDina at the Arab groceries and attending Arabic-speaking church afew times a month. I'm up to reading and writing basic Arabicthrough my class and this helps a lot, too.

My hope is that we may all work towards peace in this new year!Blessings,Le Anne