new chapter<\/a> in the community of Pine Bluff, Arkansas. We will deeply miss them, and we are deeply grateful. Nate has been integral to laying the foundation for Abara since the summer of \u201821. <\/p>\nClara sat down to interview Nate during his last week with Abara. <\/p>\n
We wanted to find out: What has El Paso\/Ju\u00e1rez meant to you and your family? Why do you believe God led you here, and what did you find? Read Nate\u2019s answers below.<\/p>\n
1. What were some of your first impressions of the borderlands?<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cI remember the beauty, the people, the heart of the people, the graciousness of people. My first visit was in 2019, in the wake of the mass shooting on August 3rd. There were still a lot of memorials\u2026the tragedy was fresh in the consciousness of the city. Even so, I remember feeling the joy of God\u2019s movement in the world. The physical environment is striking, and underneath, I felt a sense of God\u2019s movement, the wind of the Spirit blowing freely, long before we arrived.\u201d<\/p>\n
2. What was drawing your family here? How would you have described it to me on your trek across the country from Charlotte? <\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cWe try to only go where we are invited, and where there is community confirmation. I remember being drawn to Abara for this sense of bridge building, and the idea of borders in all their different shapes, sizes, forms. Of course, we felt the anticipation of joining a beautiful, binational community. In other places we\u2019ve lived, we\u2019ve continually felt drawn to acting as bridges between spaces and people who are unlike each other\u2013 and, realizing how much we are alike, and how much ground we do share. This kind of work, near a dividing line, has been an invitation in both Melissa\u2019s and my own life since we were really young.\u201d<\/p>\n
3. What were some of the challenges, and the delights, of settling into life in El Paso? <\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cWe attempted to come as listeners, as learners, as students. I tell my kids, \u2018It\u2019s more than okay, it\u2019s a beautiful thing to be a learner\u2019. In those early days, I realized that I was being invited to a childlike faith. I had to embrace my limitations as a gift. I learned that It takes a while to really listen up close. The heart of this place is so big and wide and deep – it\u2019s able to hold so many people in one in between, liminal space. Hospitality has been baked into the DNA of the borderlands for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n
4. What was it like for you to be surrounded by Spanish? <\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019ve struggled with language learning my whole life. And also, I\u2019m a communicator, and highly relational, whether public speaking or connecting with people one-on-one as a neighbor or friend. It\u2019s a part of the way I’m designed. On the streets of El Paso and Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez, I regularly felt my own language limitation, the struggle to be able to fully hear and understand someone, and to be understood. I would ask God, \u201cGive me imagination. Help me to see and hear differently. Help me to be open to new ways of connecting and communicating. How can we together hold my own limitations and listen deeper?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing how much longer a conversation or meeting can take because of the need for interpretation. This is actually a gift\u2013slowing down, to see people and to hear people. There\u2019s something that happens in the middle of all that which takes friendship deeper.\u201d<\/p>\n
5. As visitors often came through Abara, what did you find yourself repeating to them, at the simplest level, about what you saw in the Borderlands? <\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cBeing part of a binational community is a JOY! The border isn\u2019t what we\u2019ve been told. So many are drawn to see the fence, the physical barriers that exist here. It\u2019s grabbed the attention of the national consciousness. But there are so many invisible borders, borders that exist in all of our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
6. What are some of the touchstones of your time here, lessons that most impacted you and your family? <\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cI actually keep a pile of rocks and broken glass on my dresser at home. We collected them on this ancient land (the Abara campus) as a reminder that wholeness is possible for our own lives and at a community level. We are called to actually respond to the cries that we are hearing. We are meant to respond. God\u2019s heart for all people, everywhere, continues forward. I believe that will never change. It\u2019s up to us to catch up to God\u2019s vision and dream for Beloved Community\u2026God\u2019s vision for the broken pieces to be made whole again. To remember that it\u2019s still possible, and to get up every day and give our lives toward that end. This includes my own brokenness, my own life\u2013I\u2019m not apart from that. It\u2019s not only looking outward. Even in the middle of suffering, brokenness, trauma, pain, the broken pieces can be put back together again.\u201d<\/p>\n
7. Can you articulate today why you think you were called into the desert in 2021? <\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cThe short answer is I have no idea. I still sometimes have no idea. Other times, it makes all the sense in the world. So much of the desert is a mystery. It\u2019s a thin space. The desert invites us to\u2026an active place, but also a place of stillness and slowing down. I read the ancient scriptures differently because of our short time here\u2014the scriptures that speak of the physical desert, of desert seasons. I will hold onto that forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso, life in El Paso has made all the sense in the world in my own healing journey. God invited me here to deepen my compassion and my empathy alongside curious souls who come and go. I can’t express enough how grateful I am to have been part of Team Abara. My words feel too small\u2026 My love for faith communities and the big C church has been renewed in this space. My own connection with the Divine has deepened in this space. And so has that of my family. My love for neighbor has grown across spaces, cultures, and understandings in ways I could never have imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese things have been renewed in us, as gifts, from the desert.<\/strong>\"<\/p>\nWritten by Clara D. Compean and Nate D. Ledbetter, August 2026<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00bfPor qu\u00e9 somos llamados al desierto? \u00bfQu\u00e9 se puede aprender de la vida en el margen de un imperio? Despu\u00e9s de m\u00e1s de cinco a\u00f1os de fiel vocaci\u00f3n en Abara, nuestro compa\u00f1ero de equipo Nate Ledbetter y su familia pasar\u00e1n a un nuevo cap\u00edtulo en la comunidad de Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Nosotros...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6154,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Gifts from the Desert: The Ledbetters\u2019 Journey - Abara<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/abara.org\/es\/gifts-from-the-desert-the-ledbetters-journey\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gifts from the Desert: The Ledbetters\u2019 Journey - Abara\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why are we called into the desert? What is there to be learned from life on the edge of an empire? After more than five years of faithful vocation at Abara, our teammate Nate Ledbetter and his family will be moving on to a new chapter in the community of Pine Bluff, Arkansas. 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