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The Lutheran Center of Mexico City is a joint ministry of the ELCA and the Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod. Since the mid-1980s it has hosted groups from U.S. colleges, seminaries and congregations for an intense cultural immersion. It draws on the resources of companion groups including the Mexican Association for Rural and Urban Transformation and the nearby Theological Community of Mexico City, an ecumenical seminary. For more information, e-mail elcamexico@hotmail.com.
Since January 2003, Sandra Cox Shaw hasn't gone recreational shopping at the mall. It's just not her anymore. "It wasn't even a conscious thing," she says, "but I was spending less and less money."
And Kathy Storey has been giving away a lot of her possessions. "I look at how much excess I have, and I think, 'I don't need all this stuff,' " she says.
These lifestyle changes reveal how much the two were transformed by a 10-day cultural immersion program at the Lutheran Center of Mexico City.
Shaw and Storey were among students from the Lutheran Seminary at Gettysburg (Pa.) who toured ancient ruins and important historical sites, attended workshops on Mexico's history and economy, visited a squatter shantytown and spent three days with an average family. They came home seeing their lives and culture with a totally new vision.
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