Issue 1: November 4, 2006
Posted Nov. 4th, 2006
Dear family and friends,
It is with great joy and anticipation that we share the news of the upcoming changes in our life as a family. We wrote this letter sitting in our cozy little room in “Asia”, one of the guesthouses at Mennonite Central Committee’s (MCC) Welcoming Center in Akron, Pennsylvania. We just finished two weeks of orientation as we prepare to depart for a three-year service commitment in Kigali, Rwanda, where we will be Capacity Building Advisors with the Friends Peace House.
Orientation was an inspirational learning experience, as we explored in-depth the mission of MCC and how it is manifested through the organizational structure and priorities. We attended great workshops on racism, peace theology, the global economy, and cross-cultural communication to name a few. We also got to know an amazing group of people preparing for MCC service. There were about 50 orientees total, with about half of those preparing for international service. Developing friendships with some really inspiring individuals was a wonderful way to prepare ourselves for our journey to Rwanda. David and Eli also had a great time in Akron, running around with a pack of other child orientees in the large grassy space, playground, and woods of the Welcoming Place. They loved the children’s orientation and even got to visit the nearby Hershey’s chocolate factory. We went for a delicious dinner at an Amish home, and had another international feast at Ten Thousand Villages. By the way, Ten Thousand Villages is a store run by MCC that sells beautiful fair trade items and helps to support artisans around the world. Check out their website for your holiday shopping, tenthousandvillages.com, and help contribute to the effort to end poverty.
It is a time of both sad endings and new beginnings in our life, and we wanted to take a few minutes to share with you a little bit more about this decision and invite you to walk with us in the coming months and years. As many of you know, we have always shared a vision of international service, ever since we met on our way to Japan in college ten years ago. Perhaps it was because our love was first kindled in the Judean Hills, for some reason we have always believed that God would call us back to live out our faith and marriage vocation through international service. Some might remember that it was just about three years ago that we announced that we would be moving to the Philippines, to the island of Mindanao, where we were preparing to work with MCC as Peace Facilitators between Christians and Muslims. It was with great pain and confusion that our plans fell through at the last minute, when MCC decided that it was too dangerous to send our family there and rescinded the invitation. Confused and somewhat discouraged, we chose to move to the US-Mexico border in El Paso, which has been our home for the past three years.
El Paso has been a wonderful community for us; we will miss it. This has been a time of nesting and nurturing our little ones. We bought a beautiful little home that sits on the hillside and looks out over the border into Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Elijah was born in our bedroom, and we have watched him grow into an adventurous two-year old who now sleeps with his big brother and runs away from mom and dad more often that he runs toward us. David, now five, is articulate, intelligent and mischievous. He has been attending the Children’s Garden Dayschool for the past year and a half and adores his teacher, Ms. Julie. Celeste brought her gifts and training to fruition while working as the field coordinator for unaccompanied immigrant children who cross the border alone. And Aaron has been lovingly nurturing his own freelance web business, working out of the garage and therefore being able to stick close by the boys. We have many dear friends and have felt very blessed during our time on the border.
Yet throughout these three years we have also spent many hours exploring and praying about the future of our family and the work God is calling us to. There is a great quote from Aristotle, who said: “where your talents meet the needs of the world, there lies your vocation.” Although simple and profound, it is certainly not easy to discover this for oneself, and even less so for a couple or a family. Another mentor to us, Richard Rohr, used to say that “when you give your life to God, it’s not the road in front of you that becomes straight and clear, but the road behind you.” We stand on this threshold of a new and uncertain life, but we come to this point with a strong belief in God’s providential guidance and care. Our passionate hope for peace despite the tragic violence and division in our world goes back to our time in the Middle East. We continued to explore reconciliation and trauma healing with amazing mentors during our studies at seminary and graduate school in Chicago. We are immensely grateful and humbled by the opportunity to continue exploring the challenge of peace by sharing in the Rwandan reality and the work of the Friends Peace House. It is a great gift to hear God calling us to Rwanda, and we ask for your prayers on our journey.
Rwanda experienced horrific devastation in 1994, when nearly one million people were slaughtered in a period of three short months. In reading about the war/genocide, its aftermath, and the legacy of colonialism, we have wondered time and again what we could possibly offer to a people who have suffered so much. And in fact we believe that it is healthy to ask this question; tremendous damage has been done over the past few centuries by well-intentioned “experts”, many of whom would have been wise to remember the old adage that we have two ears and one mouth for a reason. We also humbled as we contemplate our assignment in Rwanda, because we know that we will receive as much (and likely more) than we will give, and be served as often as we serve. It is this mutuality of shared experience and humanity that we seek, and have little doubt that we will find. (By the way, fortunately Rwanda has seen increasing security over the past 12 years, and Kigali is quite safe at this point in time.)
We invite you to join us on this journey through our new family website, at http://thefroehlichs.org. It is a small beginning to what we hope can become a bridge between our friends and loved ones in North America and our experience in Rwanda. Right now, you will find a few pictures of our family at the MCC orientation, and some at home in El Paso. We have also put together a few resources that we hope will grow over time. Enjoy!
For email, please use our new address (mail@thefroehlichs.org). We will still have access to our old email accounts, but we will likely begin using them less and less. Our mailing address will be through the Friends Peace House at:
PO Box 4678
Kigali, Rwanda
Most importantly, we invite you to sign-up for our newsletter! We hope to send out about one newsletter per month, so we won’t be clogging up your inbox. That will be the best way to stay abreast of any interesting developments in our lives, and we would be honored to be able to share with you a glimpse into our experience. Go to thefroehlichs.org to sign up for our newsletter. We arrive in Kigali on the 16th of November. Please also check back at our website over the coming weeks to see photos as we get settled in our new home.
Much love and blessings to all of you. Please keep us in your prayers, and absolutely stay in touch!
Peace,
Aaron, Celeste, David and Eli
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