Looking back on a Decade

2000

Spent Y2K with Lori and the first Presbyterian Church Youth Group. Nothing shut down and the world did not end.2001

Sold, stored and shipped all of our earthly possessions and moved from Ohio to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. We joined the Hanlons and the Striblings and became part of Team Spain with International Teams.
2002

Our first daughter Abigail Belén was born in Santiago. Abigail means her Father's delight and Belén is the Spanish word for Bethlehem. Our team was joined by the Hellmanns.

2003
We slowly learned about ministry within the Spanish context and while hosting short term teams teams we started doing research and fund-raising for opening a cafe in Santiago de Compostela.

2004

Our second daughter Isabel Nora (Isabel means consecrated to God and Nora means light) was born and we opened Cafe Terra Nova with our friends.

2005
The Baileys joined our team in SdC and I began to learn a lot about business, while continuing to be stretched in my understanding of ministry, the church and community.

2006
Our third daughter Eden Olivia was born. Her name signifies Shalom and in a world full of war and conflict we wanted to remember that this is not the way it's supposed to be. We worked very hard at the cafe and connecting with good friends in SdC.

2007
We sold Cafe Terra Nova and said goodbye to many dear friends. We made a second International move to the NW Suburbs of Chicago where we were welcomed by new friends and joined the ministry at Harvest Community Church.

2008
We acclimated to life in the USA and enjoyed having family closer.

2009
Privileged to be part of an amazing team at Harvest Community Church where I continue to grow in my understanding of the Christian faith and who Christ is.

2010

Merry Christmas from the Swain Home

Happy Thanksgiving!

(More photos here)

Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
For the LORD is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;
for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.

Psalm 95

Photo of the Week

I paparazzi'd my wife last year when she was reading.

Photography Fun: Sisters

A year ago after some saving and some birthday cash I was able to purchase a Nikon D40 DSLR which is a great camera for an beginner to check out their chops on. I have been having a blast practicing my amateur photography in the suburbs, in the city as well as friend and family gatherings. I have decided to start highlighting a favorite photo once a week on this blog (the rest of my favorite photos will be published on my Facebook albums). I hope you enjoy them.

Cultivating Life in the Dessert

It was a scorching afternoon, but as they say in Arizona it was a dry heat. That did not stop the sunshine from feeling like a cosmic laser beam that was attempting to burn your skin right off your body. The day before I had been invited as part of a small group to see a local pastor's field. Coming from Ohio where large swaths of land are covered by corn, wheat and soybean I had been trying to imagine what this field might look like in the Arizona dessert in the middle of the Hopi and Navajo reservation. I had seen no sign of vegetation and each time the pastor said he went to his field, I imagined that he would go to a small piece of Ohio-like farm land hidden somewhere nearby near an oasis behind a barrier of trees.

The small group of us piled into the white rental van and passed through one of two stoplights that Tuba City has. We drove to the edge of town and our guide took us on a driving tour of the new and the old Hopi villages. The older village looked like it could have been a small pueblo straight out of Galicia, Spain except that it was in the middle dessert land and over looked a small (small by Arizona standards) canyon.

As we drove out of the village the road began to descend slowly into the small canyon. Along the way we passed by a spring where some people were filling of large plastic containers with water (many of the homes on the reservation have no running water). The pastor explained that the Mormons helped the Hopi's find this spring several generations ago. As the road brought us down between the canyon walls we could see the land divided into small fields before us. We parked the van in a space that entirely shaded by a fruit tree and as we got out we heard the distinct sound of rushing water. Beside the parking spot was a ditch with clean, potable water rushing through it. The ditch made it's way down into the canyon, bisecting the fields.

A Communal Culture- According to Hopi culture and law, the land is not owned by individuals but it is owned by the tribe. If you want to farm a piece of the land you can petition the tribal counsel. Our guide said that if you let your farm land lie fallow for two complete seasons then someone else could bring a petition to the counsel asking to take over the field. Since our guide was also a pastor he said he personally observed the Old Testament practice of working the land for six years and then letting it rest on the seventh year. The first time he did this his Father thought he was crazy, but on the eighth year his crop was significantly more robust than the other nearby fields and now his Father lets his own field rest on occasion.

The water that comes down the ditch in the middle of the field can be hooked up to pipes that will divert some of it to the fields. Our friend comes to his field every morning at 5am. In the dessert the air is crisp and cool and refreshing in the early morning. He said he will spend about two hours taking care of the plants in the field. He waters the crops and hoes the weeds so they can't take root. Sometimes he said that coyotes or foxes will come at night and gobble up the water melons. He also pointed out that some of the other farmers had over-watered their crops (this was evident by leaves that were yellowing).

The pastor grew peppers, melons, squash and a lot of corn. He said that the Hopis use corn for a lot of different dishes and so they plant several different kinds and colors of corn. In his larger of the two fields that he works, it was entirely planted with corn. At the end of the season he said it would produce multiple barrels of corn that could be dried and stored. Whenever some was needed for a meal it would be boiled in water and was ready to eat. He said that of all the barrels of corn that this one field would make he would keep one and then deliver the rest to cousins, aunts and relatives around the reservation. At this point in out tour one of the visiting group members asked, "Do your relatives come and help you plant, cultivate, or Harvest the fields?" The Pastor thought for a moment and said, "No, not really." Our group member said, "Well, it seems strange that they get to benefit from the harvest even though they did not participate at all in the work." The pastor smiled and nodded in a knowing way and said, "This is just the Hopi way. The one who has takes care of those who do not."

I was totally impressed by the richness of Hopi culture and the way it was displayed even through such a small task as having a small field of crops in the middle of such and arid landscape. I also had the sense that this field was a living, tangible illustration of the spiritual work that good pastors are engaged in every day. Watering, cultivating, protecting from weeds and pests that would devour the crop, it reminded me that there is someone working hard on our behalf to help us bear fruit, even in the worst of soils and conditions. Not only that, but like this pastor's relatives, I know I receive far more of the blessings then I ever deserve or worked for. It is my prayer that I can be more like this Hopi Pastor in the way I think about and care for those around me.

Don't Forget the North Korean Refugees

We just watch this Korean drama called The Crossing which follows the story of one refugee family from North Korea. The movie was very well done and a powerful illustration of the plight of North Koreans.

One of the Blogs I follow called The Big Picture focused on North Korea this week and had some amazing photos. Click on the Picture to see the album.


Related L.I.M. articles
Human Trafficking
NK Women Being Trafficked
The Mission Field: Coming to a City Near You
TED video gives Glimpse inside of NK

Oregon

I just uploaded some photos from our Oregon trip here and here.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

See the rest of my Saint Patrick's Day album here.

2008 in Review: The Big Picture

Aaron linked out to The Big Picture blog a few weeks ago and I have been enthralled by it ever since. They just released a three part series that captures some of the most incredible images from 2008. These photos put a human side on the stories that we hear about in the news. Here is Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Retro Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we celebrated with the entire extended family at my Grandparents' house. My Grandpa is in his in his eighties and has lived in the same house his entire life. Over the years he and my Grandmother have collected some quite eclectic items which provide some great eye candy and make each room in their house interesting. Below are some of the ones which caught my eye this week.

This little house has two people, one comes out if it is going to rain and the other if it is going to be sunny. I liked this collection of clothespins. I am not sure why they have my Grandpa's name on them.

Cool old stove.

I think this must be a very old tin toy of a cat.

This jeep has been played with by every grandchild and is now for the great grandchildren. Not sure when it was made, but it is made tough. I remember playing with it when I was a kid.

I like the attention to detail. I mean if you are going to put your name on something, you should add some flair to it.

These chairs are amazingly comfortable. I remember my mom and grandmother snapping beans and shucking corn here in the summertime.

I believe this is a vacuum cleaner.

I think that this radio was from the time when radios were the centerpiece of family entertainment.

This fan still does its job.

As a farmer my Grandpa always liked farm toys.

A plastic bull.

A well loved hat collection.

A very cool radio.

Fall in the NW Suburbs

Use Photography to Tell a Story

Trip out West

One of the things I told many Spanish friends that they should do if they ever visit the states is rent a car and drive from one side of the states to the other. We only passed through 10 states on this trip to visit some friends in Arizona, but we were amazed by the various types of terrain and the vastness of the USA. Here are some pics from our trip.

The Trees are Falling Down

This morning was an exciting morning at the Swain home. There were several pines in front of our house that we didn't like very much(you could hardly see the house because of them). We today we had them taken down and it is amazing being able to see out our front windows. The girls and I had a front row seat for the felling of the trees and it was pretty amazing how quickly they came down. Below you can see the girls reaction and some photos from the event.