The Rev. Andrea and the Rev. Luke Roske-Metcalfe are ELCA missionaries in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Andrea is a regional coordinator for the Young Adults in Global Mission program and Luke serves in parish ministry. To support Andrea and Luke, or another of the ELCA’s 230 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

Luke and Andrea Roske-Metcalfe

Greetings to you from Cuernavaca!

The last few months have been full of travel and big decisions. Andrea was in Chicago for the annual meetings of all the country coordinators of the Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM) program, followed by the YAGM Discernment-Interview-Placement Event in Williams Bay, Wis.  This is the time during which placements for the new YAGM candidates are assigned.  Interest in the YAGM program has never been higher – a record 111 young people applied this year.  Sixty-two (the highest number ever invited) came to the Williams Bay event, and all of them were offered a placement.  Nine volunteers will be coming to Mexico next year.  Your prayers – for their preparation, for patience as they wait to hear news of their host families and volunteer work assignments, and for the communities that currently support them and that await their arrival in August – are much appreciated.

In a similar vein, the current YAGM volunteers have just over two months before their term of service comes to an end.  It’s a difficult time, when they struggle with how to stay present and engaged with their communities here, even as they look forward with both anticipation and trepidation to what awaits them back in the U.S.  Your prayers for us during this time would also be appreciated!

We’ve discerned, as a family, that our season of serving in Mexico through Global Mission is coming to an end.  We will stay through July 2013, which is still more than a year away.  This timetable will allow Luke to accompany his congregation, Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, through the process of determining their future, which may include calling a new pastor.  The congregation’s finances continue to be a constant struggle. It will also allow Andrea to accompany the next group of volunteers through their entire year of service. 

We want to communicate, very clearly, that there are no problems in our current work, nor has anything happened to make us want to leave.  We simply feel that God is calling us elsewhere.  We believe (we hope, anyway!) that we have done good work here, and that we will be able to “leave well” from our communities and our respective ministries.

We’re abundantly aware of the support that each and every one of you has provided (and continue to provide) and of the ways that that support has impacted our lives and the lives of those we accompany in this work.  Words truly cannot express the gratitude we have for what you’ve made possible.

With gratitude,

Andrea, Luke and Olivia Roske-Metcalfe