As a rule, the foros
are held in their respective countries to which interested parties
from North America travel. For example, I was delighted to discover
that this year’s Peru Foro was attended by members of Messiah
Lutheran Church of Hays, Kansas, where I was a member while
attending Fort Hays State University from 1976 to 1980. Not only did
they visit the LCMS
mission in Lima, Peru, but in particular the Los Olivos
congregation where Luz Maria’s daughter, Yepci Santana, and her
children now attend.
In other cases, such
as Venezuela, it is a better idea to hold the meeting outside the
country in question. LCMS World Missions made a special effort this
year to bring all the national pastors of the Lutheran Church of
Venezuela (including myself) to the Dominican Republic. In fact, all
but one did. We were missing Edgar Coronado, pastor of La Fortaleza
Lutheran Church in Maracay, who was unable to obtain a Venezuelan
passport. It was noted, however, that because of increasing costs,
this may be the last year that such a large group will be invited.
Luz Maria and I last
visited the seminary in 2016 for a Latin American deaconess retreat.
Since then a third floor has been added to what was a two-story
building. The
complex includes not only the seminary, but a Christian day
school, Mercy
Center and a home for the disabled. A local congregation meets
in the chapel on Wednesday and Sunday. All the electricity for this
complex is generated by an array of solar panels on the roof. The
system is much like the one that we just installed, but on a much
larger scale.
On May 24, the
first class graduated from the seminary. Among the eight
graduates was Isaac Machado of Venezuela. On November 12, Isaac was
ordained and installed as a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
of Spain in Madrid, the national capital. His parents, Elsy and Juan,
were with us on our trip. Elsy, as national coordinator of LeadaChild
projects, presented a report on the current state and future plans
for projects in Venezuela.
LeadaChild is a
Kansas-based organization that supports Christian education projects
around the world. It has supported projects in Venezuela since 1996
and our mission in La Caramuca since 2006. Luz Maria and I were able
to meet with Dr. Phil Frusti, executive director of LeadaChild.
Luz Maria was
responsible for gathering information and presenting a report on the
distribution of medicines in Venezuela. This was made possible by the
joint efforts of Global
Lutheran Outreach, the Confessional
Lutheran of Chile, Lutheran
World Relief, LCMS
Disaster Response and LCMS World Missions. Luz Maria and I were
able to meet with Rev. James Tino, executive director of Global
Lutheran Outreach.
The foro program
also included a shortcourse in ecclesiology taught by Rev.
David Preus, a member of the seminary faculty. This was an
intensive look at the mystical union between Christ and the church,
the public ministry of the church by the external Word (preaching and
sacraments) and the marks of the visible church on earth. Pastor
Preus is the grandson of Robert
Preus (“Getting Into The Theology Of Concord: A Study Of The
Book Of Concord”, I have read it several times); grandnephew of
J.A.O
Preus, former president of the Lutheran Church – Missouri
Synod; son of Rolf
Preus,has taught courses in theology for Concordia Theological
Seminary in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, Concordia University Wisconsin, and
St. Sophia Lutheran Theological Seminary in Ternopil, Ukraine; and a
nephew of Klemet Preus, author of “The
Fire And The Staff”, also an important book for me.
Friends old and
new
During our stay, Luz
Maria and I enjoyed the hospitality of Deaconess Caitlin
Ramirez, who we first met at the deaconess retreat in 2016, and
her husband, Jeancarlos, who is in his second year of study at the
seminary, and their son, Abraham. One morning Caitlin hosted a
breakfast for deaconesses from four different countries at her home
in Santiago de los Caballeros.
I was able to
reunite with Regnier John Fritz, who during our 2016 visit, was
studying for the ministry. Now he is ordained and chaplain of the day
school associated with the seminary. I also met Hector Paneque, a
seminarian from Cuba. He explained to me that LCMS missionaries had
planted churches in Cuba before Fidel Castro’s revolution. But
after Castro seized power, the churches were closed and the
missionaries returned to the United States. Missionaries from the
Wisconsin Evangelican
Lutheran Synod (WELS) were able to make another attempt to
evangelize in Cuba during the 1990s. These missionaries were not able
to stay permanently, either, but left one church which sent Hector to
the seminary. This illustrated to me the advantage of having a
seminary strategically located in Latin America: It would be hard to
imagine a Cuban being able to attend seminary in the USA under
present circumstances!
The Venezuelans who
traveled to the Dominican Republic were met by Venezuelans already
there. These included Sergio Maita, who is a member of the seminary
faculty and pastor of Pan de Vida Lutheran Church in Santo Domingo;
Sergio’s wife, Yoxandris, and their children, Irene and Andrés;
Sergio’s brother, Arturo, now a missionary in Puerto Rico, along
with Ruth Pollex Maita, Arturo’s wife, and their daughter, Mikaela;
and Josue Ventura, and his uncle, Carlos Vionnel Ventura, who are
both seminarians (Josue is the son and Carlos the brother of Adrian
Ventura, once pastor of Christ the King Lutheran Church in Maturin,
Venezuela, and now a missionary in Santiago, Chile).
Hope for a new
hymnal
Every day opened
with Matins and closed with Vespers from a new Spanish Lutheran
hymnal expected to be published in its entirety within this next
year. Everyone was humming “El Magnificat”. Preachers included
Rev. Iban Navarra, the third citizen of the Dominican Republic to be
ordained as a confessional Lutheran pastor; Rev.
Mark Braden, pastor of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Detroit, Michigan, adjunct faculty member of Concordia Theological
Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana, and visiting professor in both
Venezuela and the Dominican Republic; and Rev.
Theodore Krey, regional director for the Latin America and
Caribbean region of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) and
former missionary to Venezuela for eight years.
We returned to Venezuela in time to celebrate the last Sunday of the church year. Now, as we prepare for Christmas, we ask you to consider a years-end donation to Global Lutheran Outreach on behalf of Epiphany Lutheran Mission. Our travel expenses to the Dominican Republic were paid, but now we have to confront an economic situation in Venezuela that is more volatile than ever. We rely on donations from you to continue and extend our service to people who are in both material need and in need of the light of God's love.
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