Reformation Sunday 2021 was the day of first communion for Diana Carolina Torres. Diana was baptized on January 8, 2017, which was Epiphany Sunday and the day that our chapel was consecrated.
Diana attended our preschool from age 2 to age 6, during which time she received scholarships from LeadaChild, an Olathe, Kansas- based Lutheran mission agency dedicated to sharing the Good News of Jesus’ love to children through Christian education. LeadaChild gathers gifts and donations from supporters and use the funds to provide scholarships, school registration, and supplies for children so that they can attend Lutheran schools and afterschool programs. The scholarships allowed Diana’s parents to purchase school uniforms, backpacks, crayons, notebooks and other supplies. Since 2006, LeadaChild has provided scholarships to our preschool students as well as older students in our afterschool tutoring program.
On this past Reformation Sunday, we also announced the availability of LeadaChild scholarships for 2021/2022 school-year students. Instead of distributing cash, this year we gathered the information for electronic transfers into the parents’ bank accounts. Electronic transfers by credit/debit card or cellphone app have become the norm as Venezuela continues to be plagued by hyperinflation. Recently the government took action to bring the hyperinflation under control by issuing new currency. The rate of exchange had been more than 4 million bolivares to one U.S. dollar (our basic monthly expenses totalled more than 2 billion bolivares). In essence, they just erased six zeroes, so that now 4.18 bolivares equal to one U.S. dollar. But really the hyperinflation continues, so that’s only the rate of exchange for now. At least online banking has spared Venezuelans the need to push around wheelbarrows full of currency as was the case in Germany in the 1930s.
Preschool opens October 25
We had hoped to open the preschool on October 11, but the opening of all schools was delayed until October 25. Biosecurity measures, such as facemasks (even for the youngest children) and mandatory handwashing remain in place. The number of students is limited to five at one time, so we have two shifts of five students every day, one group of 10 students on Monday and Tuesday, and another group of 10 on Wednesday and Thursday, with Friday as a free day.
Luz Maria and I both have been vaccinated against COVID-19, as have many other people in La Caramuca. I have received the booster shot, and Luz Maria soon will, too. She received the Russian Sputnik V vaccine at one location, because it was made available first and as a Venezuelan citizen, she had priority. Then the Chinese Sinovac vaccine was made available, and I received that. But I was able to get the second shot before Luz Maria, and now she has to go to a different place for her booster, because they do not want to mix and match the vaccines.
A host arrayed in white
November 1 is All Saints Day according to the historic calendar of the church. We will observe All Saints Sunday on November 7, and for the first time we will follow the practice of reading the names of those who passed from among us to eternity in faith during the previous year: Ramon Estorcha, Carmen Bendicia Garrido, Xiomara del Carmen Torrealba and Marisol Torrealba.
On October 29, 2021, Marisol Torrealba died after a long struggle with cancer. She was the sister of one of our members, Yudrica Torrealba, and the aunt of another, Karla Frias Torrealba. Luz Maria and I visited her during her illness, praying with her and studying the Bible and the Small Catechism. She confessed to us her faith and her desire to attend our church, but never recovered in time. At her burial on October 30, I read John 11:25-26.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
I reminded all those at the burial site that for Marisol, as for Martha, the new life in Christ was not simply the promise of a future resurrection, although that is our hope, but that Jesus was with her in the midst of her trial, too. This new life is God’s gracious gift to all who believe.
The sermon text for Reformation Sunday was Revelation 14:6-7, the vision of an angel in mid-heaven proclaiming the everlasting Gospel to all nations, tribes, tongues and peoples. I will follow up on All Saints Sunday with Revelation 7:2-17. Chapter seven is one of the most important sections in the book of Revelation. After the sealing of “144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel”, the apostle John sees “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
The innumerable multitude is the same as the numbered tribes of Israel, seen from another point of view. It is clear from the context that the writer is speaking about the total number of the elect. From the standpoint of the divine this sealing is a marking of all the members of church, past and present, as belonging to God. The sealing has been done on earth in baptism; that it is followed by the vision of the great multitude surrounding the throne of God in heaven. It is a crowd so large that no one is able to number it from a human point of view. But the number 144,000 in verse four tells us that God has counted every one.
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying; neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. Oh, how glorious is that kingdom wherein all the saints do rejoice with Christ! They are clothed with white robes and follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Oh, almighty God, who has knit together the elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, grant us grace to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living that we may come to those unspeakable joys which you have prepared for those who sincerely love you. Through Jesus Christ, your only begotten Son, who lives and and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, now and forever. Amen.
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