The Tug of Love

Yes, I'm back in California for Christmas.  I have nice neighbors that watch over my home for me when I am gone.

Sometimes they say, “Wow, Argentina must be a beautiful place because you keep going back!”  

Then I tell them, “Yes, there are astoundingly beautiful places in Argentina, but I do not return to enjoy nature’s beauty.  

I return for the Argentine people.  I love them… hundreds of them, thousands of them… and they know how to express their intense love for me.  Elderly people... young families... 

...children whose eyes light up when they reach out to touch Perfume (my skunk puppet) or when they see my side-kick, Felipe... 


... youth that remember when they first saw Felipe as a little child and crowd in to see him again… 

... and children, especially the little wide eyed children that sometimes run up and wrap their arms around my legs while I stand talking to someone in a crowd after church.  

But I guess it is the witnessing of a life that has just found a new beginning in Jesus that tugs most strongly at my heart… 

... pulling me back in my retirement years to the land of God’s call upon my life.

In Argentina they ask me when I will be back with them again.  I tell them maybe March 2013.  We'll see.

Ralph