Brief Stops

Field Placement Week of July 30th

This was in part a week of brief stops--unexpected short visits, quick observations, temporary accommodations--and a few jumps to the next thing. Birthdays were celebrated. Meetings held. It was a mixed bag of a week.

I visited Akaloa on Wednesday and met again with the youngest woman in St. Paul's, perhaps. She is a woman with life-long disability, a determined woman, yet a hopeful woman--one who imagines a future possibility for herself if she can just get her ducks in a row. This is a woman who has dealt with disabilities beyond the actual birth condition that befell her. She has struggled with the disabilities of schools unable to see her potential, of relatives unable to recognize her need for independence, and today, of policies and programs and funding unable to accommodate her dreams. I know something of her struggles through my experience with my disabled daughter. We can meet on some common ground. Our encounters--brief in the larger scheme of things--are brief stops in her life. I can't do much for her beyond a suggestion here or there, brief mention of possibilities she might have missed or might be overlooking these days. My visit is but a blip on her screen.

Similarly, brief stops to others I try to catch weekly constitute minimal exposure--me to them; them to me. How long will we remember each other? Not long, I imagine. In four more weeks, how much can I do?

I am reminded of Jesus' travels around Galilee and to Jerusalem and back and into the hills and back. Some were able to drop everything and follow him. Others, undoubtedly were constrained by such demands no one could ignore. Yet, in those days, the extended family had a different structure and context than we have today. Some were able to say, "I'm following him!" while babies and the sick and the disabled were tended by others. Gardens and fields and flocks were tended. Water was carried. Clothes were cleaned and mended and lengthened for growing boys and girls. Food was prepared and served. Somethings have not changed. Some had to stay home to keep the life of the family living.

Some of Jesus' stops were brief. I think of the woman at the well. I recall his pause for the woman with the hemorrhages. And there was the moment with his mother at the wedding in Cana. Brief stops with potent impacts.

My field placement is a brief stop at St. Paul's. I see a future developing as days pass--a future I will not be part of. It is part of my journey following Jesus. It has both Mary and Martha parts. Sometimes I tend the ailing; sometimes I listen and learn. Brief stops along the way. Blips? Or potent impacts? As we are taught in Stephen Ministry, we are simply caregivers; God is the curegiver.