In the next three weeks, we send two missionaries and a pilgrim out into the world. The Rev. (as of June 9th) Stephen Mazingo will travel to South Africa to work on the poorest continent on earth. Even in South Africa, one of the most developed countries in southern Africa, poverty and disease claim far too many lives. There is perhaps where the good news of Jesus for the poor is most desperately needed and most heartily embraced. The African church is growing by leaps and bounds as people search for hope, joy and peace in the midst of much misery.

Dr. Charles Sawyer will be leaving on his second medical mission to Costa Rica. Sandwiched between Panama and Nicaragua, Costa Rica is the only Latin American country with no standing army and has had a stable democratic government for decades. Bananas and coffee are their leading exports but tourism has surpassed these as the leading industry of the country. One quarter of the land is protected from development. Although their per capita GDP is a respectable $8,000 a year, the gap between rich and poor is vast.

The Rev. Richard Elliott, rector of St. Andrew's on-the-Sound, will be walking over sixty miles from Melrose, south of Edinburgh, Scotland to Holy Island, just off the coast. Sponsoring his pilgrimage will aid the Farmworkers Ministry, a joint venture of the Dioceses of North Carolina and East Carolina. Having completed my Lenten fast, I know that such spiritual journeys can be life changing. Let our prayers be with Richard on his journey.

Missions and pilgrimages are similar in that they are a response to the urgings of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit of Pentecost spreading the good news is the same Spirit that brooded over the waters of chaos and brought forth a new world. The Spirit moves us, creates and re-creates, constantly transforming, transfiguring and reconciling the present order into the Kingdom of God, where love, justice and freedom reign and death is no more. Missionaries spread the gospel they know to people who may not have heard it and pilgrims seek to know the gospel more intimately. Pilgrim and missionary walk the same path, for in the end, they will find Jesus, not only in themselves, but in the faces of the people they meet and whose lives they share, even for a moment. May the Spirit of Pentecost move our feet, enliven our steps and embolden our hearts.

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little, when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wilder seas where storms will show Your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes; and to push back the future in strength, courage, hope, and love. This we ask in the name of our Captain, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Carpe Diem!
Jeff+