Snow to Ash to Sulpher Steam - within a week!! - and a few nice people as well.

2 weeks ago I left the UK. We drove to the airport through a snowstorm (OK - more like a snow shower!) and 24 hours later, back in Guatemala I was experiencing a different sort of shower. I was clearing up the garden (after 5months of being unattended) - and thought to myself  'I´d forgotten how dusty it is in Guatemala'. Reading the news later, I realised that it wasn´t just the normal dust - but also a showering of volcanic ash from Fuego Volcano, which isn´t too far away. The ash is great for the garden - as it provides extra nutrients and creates very fertile soil - but not to be washed down the drains, where it can cause blockages. Fuego is one of the active volcanoes in Guatemala - and has an almost constant display of rising smoke and occassionally of lava flares. But it has been more active over the last week. The airport was closed for about 24 hours to clear the runway of ash.

Thankfully it was open again by the time I went to Nicaragua for the Central America team conference. We experienced a volcano there too, when we visited Volcan Masaya - another active one. This one is surrounded by a barren landscape as in the earth resulted from the sulphur deposits that this volcano expelled in an eruption rather than the fertile type! And there is still sulphur steam rising from the enormous crater.

Whilst we were there (in Nicaragua), we had a great time for the other Latin Link members in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Mexico....

 All together.

Guatemala and Mexico.

Towards Authentic Community

I like airports.. they are always places that I can be by myself and reflect. Or at least, when I travel alone (which is mostly), it´s always a good time to reflect on what´s gone before and what´s coming next.... Here´s a few thoughts that I wrote down yesterday at the airport... 

Over 6 months ago, I wrote a few blog posts about friendship. I admit that they make fairly depressing reading. Since then, I´ve been gradually working through where all those feelings came from and where I go to from here.

I´m recognising that many times, we feel disappointed with things, not necessarily because we´re rubbish at them, but because we have a longing for something more or better. For me, I think my reflections about the difficulties of friendship stem from (and is just one part of) a desire for authentic community. My previous blogs focussed on the need for friendships where you know others deeply and are deeply known yourself. 

But then I´ve also experienced being in a community, where I don´t have many friendships like that, but where I actually feel very much 'at home' because we connect on a different level; of shared values of how we see and understand the world around us, and a shared desire to see transformation in our communities and relationships, and where there´s an intentionality and accountability about how we connect together. 

So I´m realising that community happens on many different levels. Maybe finding authenticity and acceptance is easier at some levels than others. Some of it seems to be as a result of proactively creating an environment where community can grow. But there also seems to be abit of an unknown to it too - a chemisty - or a connection - that can´t be explained or programmed or manufactured. Maybe it´s just something about being in the right place at the right time, which sparks something good - and with the right encouragement it grows and develops. 

There is so much in our societies today that prevent or actively discourage community. Our hyper-consumerist and individualistic cultures promise us self-fulfilment and satisfaction but (even if you can afford all the things they´re selling, ) they don´t deliver. They only result in a shallow and superficial veneer of the real thing; all spin and no content; 'Dissatisfaction Guarenteed'. Even when you recognise your dissatisfaction with the last thing, the advertisers will attempt to convince you that the 'next thing' will be the solution. So many of us fall for the same trick again and again. 

I wonder, is there a correlation between longing for and creating authentic community life, and rejecting the consumerist merry-go-round and getting out of the 'rat-race'. I have a feeling there is - and that´s something that I´m excited about studying further in some way or other. 

But in the  meantime, I´m determined to put my 'discontent' with the way things are, to good use. As far as it´s up to me, I want to do whatever I can to create authentic community, or to at least create an environment in which authentic friendships and community can germinate and grow. 

Who´s with me?