Rays of hope in the night

Merry Christmastide and a blessed and prosperous New Year to all of you!

As I mentioned in our last newsletter, we were able to open the preschool share some lessons on the meaning of Christmas with the children. We even made a video with them which you see on YouTube. There was a visit from “Papa Noel” or St. Nicholas, and his helpers, as well (teachers from other schools volunteering their time to distribute goodies). To begin the Christmas season proper, two of our members (Eduar Garrido and Diana Torres) dressed as Joseph and Mary visited homes in the surrounding community with an invitation to our Christmas Eve service.

Christmas Eve was a service of prayer and praise with plenty of villancicos, or Christmas carols. Afterward, there was Christmas dinner with the traditional Venezuelan servings of hallacas, pan de jamón and chicken salad. An hallaca looks something like a tamale, but do not ever say that to a Venezuelan. Nor should you serve an hallaca with mayonnaise, as some foreigners do. The hallaca consists of corn dough stuffed with beef, pork, or chicken and other ingredients such as raisins, capers, and olives, fresh onion rings, red and green bell pepper slices (there are variations for the different regions of Venezuela). Hallacas are folded in plantain leaves, tied with strings, and boiled. The dish is not only served to houseguests, but given to neighbors as gifts, which we did as well.

Pan de jamón (ham bread) is a Christmas bread, filled with ham, raisins and green olives. The recipe is believed to be created in December 1905 by Gustavo Ramella, owner of a bakery in Caracas. Venezuelan chicken salad is also served at celebrations of weddings, baptisms and first communion, but especially for Christmas.

The complete Christmas meal would include roast beef or pernil (roast leg of pork), but just the preparation of a typical batch of hallacas now costs more than 20 times the minimum wage of $1.45 per month. If you buy the ingredients to make 50 hallacas, the cost goes from 36 to 70 dollars, that is, every hallaca could cost you from 70 cents to $1.40. Hallacas can be purchased ready-made, but for a family of four, a hallaca for each member costs around $8.

A loaf of pan de jamón costs $10 at the panadería or bakery. By the way, the price is posted in dollars, as U.S. currency is replacing the Venezuelan bolivar as the medium of exchange. Dollars have been available on the black market for some time, but now can be obtained from Venezuelan banks. This “dollarization” of the economy offers some hope for an end to four years of “hyperinflation” (price increases of more than 50 percent per month). Please pray that in 2022, the Venezuelan economy might stabilize and even grow a little to provide more jobs and higher wages.

Deaconess candidates complete theological studies

Luz Maria continues mentoring Venezuelan women studying to become deaconesses of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela. Her students have complete a year of theological studies and have put into practice projects of spiritual care, mercy work and Christian education.  Luz Maria oversees the women's progress in coursework provided by instructors at Concordia El Reformador Seminary in the Dominican Republic. About 40 Venezuelan women are enrolled in the program.

 

The name given to the holy Child and to us

On Christmas Eve, the sermon text was the first part of Luke’s account of the Nativity (Luke 2:1-14), while on Sunday the final portion (Luke 2:15-20) was read, with a meditation on Titus 3:4-7.

New Years Eve was again a vespers service with an admonition to remain vigilant for the Lord’s return. The following Sunday, January 2, we marked the circumcision and naming of Jesus (because eight days after His birth, He was circumcised according to God’s covenant with Abraham, Genesis 17:10). Jesus placed himself under the Old Testament law and perfectly obeyed not only the moral law, but also all the Old Testament rites and ceremonies. Jesus was declared a member of the Old Testament people of God by circumcision. He was also given a name by which he should be distinguished in the congregation of God's people. As the angel had told Mary at the time of the Annunciation, as he had told Joseph in a dream, Matthew 1:21, so it was done.

Jesus is the Greek form of the name Joshua. In Hebrew it is Yehoshua, which means "The Lord saves." Because He also submitted to John’s baptism of repentance for sin, although he was without sin, we are now baptized in His name, the only name which gives salvation.

“For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, because all of you who have been baptized into Christ are clothed with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is neither slave nor free; there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to promise. " (Galatians 3:26-29)