A teaspoon of theodicy

More news on the Haiti front, or rather the frontier between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Last week Luz Maria and I met with Pastor Sergio Maita, who had just returned to Caracas following a week or two of volunteer service there. Sergio, a young Venezuelan man who was ordained with me in December 2009, traveled with Ted and Rebecca Krey, former missionaries to Venezuela who are now based in the Dominican Republic, to the bordertown of Jimani where they offered what assistance they could in a hospital that had become a refuge for earthquake victims. Sergio told us that he had taken a lot of pictures of trip to the Dominican Republic, but did not feel like sharing everything that he had seen in he hospital, for the suffering was very great.

On occasions like the earthquake in Haiti, there always are those try to draw grand conclusions about the misery. Some want to say that such suffering on a grand scale "proves" there is no God, or at least not a loving and merciful God. The problem for these people is that denying the existence of God does not relieve any of the pain experienced by earthquake victims or others one bit, or bring those that died back to life. Yet without an absolute point of reference, there is no basis for saying the pain and death in Haiti was "unjust" or "excessive" or anything else. The world is what it is, and apart from faith in God, there is little reason to think our efforts to change it will make any difference, that there is any hope for anything better (for even the concept of "better" has no significance) or that there is any point in helping those less fortunate than ourselves. Far from the existence of suffering on a grand scale disproving God's existence, only faith that God will one day provide recompense for those who have suffered unjustly, and judgment for the wicked who have evaded punishment by human courts and the natural consequences of their misdeeds, helps one make any sense at all of the whole business.

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On the other hand, there are those who want to see the earthquake as a sign of God's wrath directed specifically at Haiti, perhaps for the worship of voodoo gods. In the same manner, the Maundy Thursday earthquake that devastated Caracas in 1812 was said by some to be a sign of God's displeasure with the Venezuelan War of Independence from Spain. This error, unlike the first, claims belief in the Holy Scriptures, but this is not true.

According to the Bible, certain calamities were indeed signs of God's wrath against the wicked and the disobedient. Old Testament examples include the Great Flood, the Ten Plagues of Egypt. various afflictions suffered by the Israelites in the desert, the destruction of the Assyrian king Sennacherib's army (1 Kings 19:35), and many more. In the New Testament, we have the death of Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:21-25) and the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11). But the entire book of Job and other passages of the Old Testament are devoted to refuting the idea that bad things only happen to bad people, and that the severity of the disaster reflects the level of God's wrath.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said that God makes the sun to rise on both the evil and the good, and sends rain to both the just and unjust (Matthew 5:45). In Luke 21:25, He said the signs of the end-times will include "great earthquakes, and in various places, famines and pestilences," not to mention wars between nations and everywhere persecution of the faithful. These terrible events are not to be interpreted as specific judgments against the wicked, but rather as general signs that the great and final Day of Judgent is approaching.

We understand the significance of certain past events, such as the Great Flood and the Ten Plagues, based on the authority of divinely inspired Scriptures. Outside the Scriptures, there is no such authority and it is presumptuous to second-guess God. We know nothing of His nature and will outside of what He has chosen to reveal to us. The Bible contains all we need to know for our salvation, and there will be no more divine revelations until the glorious fulfillment of God's plan for the world in the second coming of Christ.

Thus we find the final word on this topic in Luke 13. Jesus was asked an event that caused a lot of stir and consternation back in that day. It was the massacre of Galileans in the Temple, ordered by Pontius Pilate (those that think the New Testament portrays Pilate as a fundamentally decent fellow, please note), such that their blood mingled with the blood of their sacrifices to God. Essentially, both questions were put to Jesus. If the Galileans had done nothing to deserve death, where was the just and merciful God during this massacre? And if they had done something especially deserving of God's judgment, what was it?

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Jesus responded by reminding them of an even more puzzling event (the apparently senseless deaths of 18 men in the collapse of the tower in Siloam) and answered both questions in this way:

Neither the Galileans or the 18 men in Siloam deserved death any more than anyone else. However, all humans stand equally condemned under God's law, and deserve not simply physical death, but eternal damnation. By God's grace, all who believe will receive forgiveness of sin and eternal life through the blood of Christ, but with few exceptions, no one will escape physical death (the few exceptions being Enoch, Elijah and those still living when the Lord returns). While we may have the promise of eternal life in heaven, none of us are guaranteed one year, 20 years or 80 years on this earth. So the question we must ask ourselves is not why this individual or that group of people had to die at a particular time and in a particular manner, but why we ourselves still are drawing breath. If we still are alive, God still has a purpose for us here. We may not know everything about this purpose, but He has revealed enough in His Word wor us to respond in faith. So, as Jesus said, we must not allow ourselves to be distracted by the petty pleasures of the world, but remain alert and watchful for opportunities to serve God and our fellow man.

Mirror images talking to each other

Luz Maria and I spent the last week of January in Caracas at a seminar on "the means of grace." Our instructor was Pastor German Novelli. Born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, and confirmed in the Lutheran Church of Venezuela in 1983, German Novelli some years ago left his native country and embarked on on a geographical and spiritual odyssey that led him to Mexico, Puerto Rico, Canada, and finally the Wisconsin Synod seminary in Mequon, Wisconsin. He now is the pastor of a Latino mission on Milwaukee's South Side.

Mequon, Wisconin, by the way, is also the location of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod's Concordia University, Wisconsin and Trinity Luth¡eran Church of Freistadt, the oldest Lutheran congregation in the state (and of which my great-great-grandparents were founding members).

I lived on Milwaukee's South Side from 1986 to 1995, so it was interesting to compare notes with Pastor Novelli on our impressions of Wisconsin and the Milwaukee area in particular. We were like two mirror images talking to each other: the Venezuelan serving as the pastor of a mission in Milwaukee and the former Milwaukeean serving as the pastor of a mission in Venezuela. I shared with him some of my fondest memories; the Lake Michigan shoreline in summertime, the Mitchell Park Conservatory, eating real Mexican food at the Acapulco Restaurant.

Pastor Novelli shared with me the thesis that he wrote for his masters in divinity degree on Wisconsin Synod mission work in Latin America. Active in the region since 1964, the Wisconsin Synod's missionary efforts in the past focused on Mexico, Puerto Rico and Colombia.

Today the Wisconsin Synod supports what it calls its LATTE team. LATTE stands for Latin American Traveling Theological Educators. Latin American because work is done in all of the mission fields in Latin America—Mexico, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Brazil. Traveling because visits are made to each field on a rotating basis. Theological Educators because missionaries serve as the seminary professors of the men who desire to be pastors in their national churches. The LATTE program has been functioning since 2003.

The Wisconsin Synod also has been active in Haiti earthquake relief.

Evangelical Lutheran Synod missionaries have been active in Chile and Peru for about 40 years. The ELS has established a seminary in Lima, Peru. Thirteen men have graduated and have been ordained and twelve vicars and students continue working with congregations and various groups.

Lutheran alphabet soup

The current-day ELS developed from a remnant of the old Norwegian Synod that refused to merge with other synods in an effort to form one national Lutheran church-body in the United States. The end-result of these mergers is the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The philosopher Voltaire once said of the Holy Roman Empire, "It was neither holy nor Roman nor an empire." Much the same could be said of the ELCA, except that it definitely is headquartered in America. In fact, German theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg basically said as much:

"Here lies the boundary of a Christian church that knows itself to be bound by the authority of Scripture. Those who urge the church to change the norm of its teaching on this matter must know that they are promoting schism. If a church were to let itself be pushed to the point where it ceased to treat homosexual activity as a departure from the biblical norm, and recognized homosexual unions as a personal partnership of love equivalent to marriage, such a church would stand no longer on biblical ground but against the unequivocal witness of Scripture. A church that took this step would cease to be the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church."

My great-grandfather, Andrew John (A.J.) Hemmingson, was a member of the old Norwegian Synod, which in fact had declared full pulpit-and-altar fellow with the Missouri in 1872. Pulpit-and-altar fellowship had been established between the Missouri and Wisconsin synods in 1868. From 1872 until the late 1950s, Missouri, Wisconsin and the ELS were partners in the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference. The Synodical Conference was a strong voice for confessional Lutheranism in the United States and has never been entirely replaced. The federation broke up when the Missouri Synod began moving toward closer relation with the more theologically liberal American Lutheran Church (ALC).

Fellowship between the Missouri Synod and the ALC lasted only until 1981, when a majority of Missouri Synod delegates to its national convention voted to dissolve the relation because of a continued drift toward the theological left by the ALC. In 1988 the ALC was absorbed into the ELCA.

May God grant that the remaining confessional Lutheran church-bodies find the basis for doctrinally sound unity and strengthened mission work at home and abroad.

Trinity Sunday 2008

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
God in Three Persons, blessèd Trinity!

Holy, holy, holy! all the saints adore Thee,
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,
Which wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.

Holy, holy, holy! though the darkness hide Thee,
Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see;
Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee,
Perfect in power, in love, and purity.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All Thy works shall praise Thy Name, in earth, and sky, and sea;
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
God in Three Persons, blessèd Trinity!

This hymn, based on Revelation 4:8 and Isaiah 6:3, was written especially for Trinity Sunday by Reginald Heber sometime in the early 1800s (most of his hymns were published after his death). Heber also wrote the classic missionary anthem, From Greenland's Icy Mountains.

Heber could have lived out a comfortable and cultured life as an Anglican country parson. He wrote both religious and secular poetry, and his literary talent was praised by William Thackeray and Alfred Lord Tennyson. However, in 1823, then 40 years old, Heber accepted a call to serve as a missionary to India.

After three years of ceaseless traveling and intense work, Heber died suddenly while visiting Trichinopoly, India on April 3, 1826. His death evidently was the result of a seizure brought on by working too hard in India's tropical climate. According to one account, he had baptized 42 people on the day he died. According to another, he had spent the day preaching against the evils of the caste system to a large, outdoor crowd. Heber's body was buried at St. John’s Church, Trichinopoly, Tamil Nadu, India, a very long way from his native Cheshire, England.

This Trinity Sunday, May 18, 2008, we sang the Spanish translation of “Holy, holy, holy” by Juan B. Cabrera:

¡Santo! ¡Santo! ¡Santo! Señor omnipotente,
Siempre el labio mio loores te dará.
¡Santo! ¡Santo! ¡Santo! te adoro reverente
Dios en tres personas, bendita Trinidad.

¡Santo! ¡Santo! ¡Santo! la inmensa muchedumbre
De ángeles que cumplen tu santa voluntad,
Ante ti se postra, bañada de tu lumbre,
Ante ti que has sido, que eres y serás.

¡Santo! ¡Santo! ¡Santo! por más que estés velado,
E imposible sea tu gloria contemplar;
Santo tú eres sólo, y nada hay a tu lado
En poder perfecto, pureza y caridad.

¡Santo! ¡Santo! ¡Santo! la gloria de tu nombre
Vemos en tus obras en cielo, tierra y mar;
¡Santo! ¡Santo! ¡Santo! te adorará todo hombre,
Dios en tres personas, bendita Trinidad.

We were thankful that we made it into Barinas that day, even though the service started over a half hour late. The rainy season has begun and we experienced a torrential tropical downpour that morning. We tried calling a taxi to pick us up at the house, but since many streets turn into small rivers at this time, none of the taxi services wanted to venture far from the main routes. Luz María and I shared a single umbrella as we walked to the plaza, which takes about 15 minutes even at the best of times. At several points we had to wade through ankle- or even calf-deep water, plus due to a strong wind the umbrella offered only limited protection. So we both were rather damp by the time we found a cab near the plaza.

Most parts of Venezuela receive an average of 60 inches of rain annually, but receives the bulk of that precipitation from May through mid-December. The risk of automobile accidents during this time are very high. It was in mid-summer 2006 that Luz María's oldest daughter, Yepci, nearly died when the taxi she was riding into Barinas slipped off the road. There have been fatalities already this year. The Saturday before our Trinity Sunday service, six members of the same family all died in a bus accident.

So we were glad to arrive at Corpus Christi Lutheran Church, although we were late. Since Eduardo is attending meetings in Caracas, I was to direct the service myself, so it was not like they would start the party without us and we were the first to arrive anyway. I preached a sermon on Genesis 1:1-2:4 with special emphases on a) indications of the all three Persons of the Holy Trinity at work in the creation of the world, and b) how God ordained the holy estate of matrimony in His original design for human living.

Later the clouds cleared and we enjoyed bright sunlight for our afternoon Sunday school in La Caramuca. However, attendance was unexpectedly low, perhaps because many parents do not want their children leaving the house if there is the slight chances of the heavy rains. You do not have to worry about freezing to death in Venezuela (except up in the mountains), but it gets cool enough during the rainy season to become chilled, especially if you are soaked to the skin. I myself suffered a slight fever this past week.

Also this month we have experienced the longest power outages I have witnessed so far, 12 hours without electricity in one case. For what it's worth, it was not just La Caramuca that was affected, but much of the country, including Caracas. Someone described the situation in the capital city to me as "chaos" as nearly all traffic lights were down, among other things. Out here in the country, at least we have the advantage of not being totally dependent on electrical power. We have our LP gas stove for cooking, and if the gas runs out, we can (and have) built a cooking fire out back. Then there is the well from which we can draw water (we were able to clean it before the rains came this year). It was worrisome being without communications as the television, radio, Internet, land-line telephone and cell phone networks were all down.

Eduardo and I are taking turns leading an adult Bible study on Thursday evenings at Corpus Christi. I have started a study on the Epistle of St. James. In our first session we dealt with two questions. First, who was the author of the epistle, since he identifies himself only as "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ." There are two men named James listed among the original 12 apostles: James, the brother of John and son of Zebedee; and James, son of Alphaeus and Mary (Matthew 10:2-3).

But ancient tradition and internal evidence within the letter point to a third candidate: The man known as "James, the brother of our Lord." This James is described in the Book of Acts as the leader of the church in Jerusalem and Paul seems to identify him as an apostle in Galatians 1:19. But how was he made an apostle? Paul was not on the original list of apostles, either, but we all know the story of his vision on the road to Damascus (Acts 9). Mathias was not originally an apostle, but was chosen to replace Judas Iscariot in Acts 1. How and when was James, the brother of our Lord, made an apostle? One idea is that James, the brother of our Lord, and James, the son of Alphaeus and Mary, were really the same person. The Greek word, ἀδελφός (adelphos), usually meant "brother" in the biological sense, but also could have meant "cousin." According to this line of thought, Alphaeus may have been another name for Cleopas, who may have been an uncle of Jesus Christ. But this speculation seems contrary to the plain meaning of Mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:55, both passages which indicate the people of Nazareth considered both Jesus and James to be sons of Joseph the carpenter and his wife, Mary.

This question of whether the Epistle of James was really written by an apostle was probably why it was listed among the ἀντιλεγομένα (antilegomena, or "disputed books") as reported by Eusebius (263-339 A.D.) and Jerome (347-420 A.D.). The books of the New Testament were divided by these ancient writers into the ὁμολογουμένα (homologoumena, or books that were always acknowledged to be divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the antilegomena, writings whose divine inspiration has at times been questioned. The homologoumena include the four gospels, the Book of Acts, all the epistles of St. Paul, 1 Peter and 1John. The books of the antilegomena include Hebrews, James, Jude, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, and Revelation. Doubts were entertained about these books because their apostolic authorship was uncertain and because some passages seemed hard to reconcile with the teachings of the homologoumena, especially the Epistle of James.

This concern over which New Testament books were really divinely inspired was prompted by the high tide of Gnosticism in the second through fourth centuries. The heretical Gnostics tried to introduce false "gospels" as representing the true teachings of Jesus. Some of these we still hear about today, such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Judas, or even the Gospel of Mary Magdalene.

These doubts arose again during the Reformation period, most famously in the mind of Martin Luther, but his Roman Catholic opponents, Cardinal Cajetan and Erasmus, also questioned whether James could be considered on the same level as other New Testament writings. For centuries the medieval Church had relied on Jerome's Latin translation of the Bible, which based its Old Testament on the Septuagint, the Greek translation which included writings, such as 1 and 2 Maccabees, which were not part of the original Hebrew Old Testament. Toward the end of the Middle Ages, there was a movement among scholars to recover the wisdom of the ancient world by studying, on a secular level, the writings of the Greeks and Romans, and on a religious level, the Old and New Testaments in their original languages. One thread of this movement led to the Renaissance and the other to the Reformation. When it became clear that the Septuagint contained writings that were not part of the original canon, the issue of what books were divinely inspired was opened again.

Thus, in the first edition of his German translation of the New Testament, published in 1522, Luther in his prefatory notes notoriously labeled the Epistle of James "a straw epistle" because, according to Luther, it did not make as clear presentation of the Gospel as Romans, Galatians or other epistles by St. Paul. But, notably, this comment was not included in any subsequent editions of Luther's German Bible.

Here is one of the troublesome passages, James 2:24: "You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only." How to reconcile this with Romans 4, which teaches justification through faith, apart from works of the law. James uses the same Old Testament illustration as Paul does in Romans -- Abraham -- even the same Greek word for "justify", δικαιόω (dikaioo).

Paul in Romans 4:3 writes, "Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness," citing Genesis 15:6. James says in 2:21, "Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son, Isaac, on the altar?" But he also cites Genesis 15:6 in verse 23: "And the Scripture was fulfilled, which says, Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness."

According to Genesis 15, the Lord promises the then-childless Abraham that he will become the father of a great nation, then tells him to look up in the sky and count the stars, for that will be number of his descendants. Verse 6 then says Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. James says it was this Scripture was fulfilled later when Abraham placed his only son, Isaac, on an altar of sacrifice. To put it another way, Abraham demonstrated his absolute faith in the promises of God by his willingness to sacrifice Isaac. But he received this faith earlier when God made a covenant with Abraham under a starry sky.

Paul and James use the same word in different senses. In Romans, "justification" means to be “rendered righteous”, restored to a right relationship with God, or to have peace with God, which is not accomplished by one's own works or merit, but by faith in the atoning death of Christ on the cross and the promise of eternal life in Him. The point in James, however, is that this faith is demonstrated in actions, not mere words. Faith that is simply a matter of words, not actions, is a dead faith, and therefore does not "justify" or “show to be righteous.”

The Greek word δικαιόω (dikaioo) is used in both these senses by Clement of Rome in his epistle to the church in Corinth. believed to be the earliest Christian document aside from the writings of the New Testament itself. In one part of his epistle, Clement (who died around 97 A.D.) writes:

"Let us be justified by deeds, not words."

Later he writes: "We who by His will have been called in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, or by our wisdom or understanding or piety or the deeds which we have wrought in holiness of heart, but through faith by Almighty God has justified all men from the beginning of the world."

We are not saved by our own works, but good works are the inevitable fruit of a living faith. Therefore, Paul's Epistle to the Romans and the Epistle of James do not contradict, but complement each other. Luther realized this when, years after the "straw epistle" remark, he wrote:

"We say that justification is effective without works, not that faith is without works. For that faith which lacks fruit is not an efficacious but a feigned faith...It is one thing that faith justifies without works; it is another thing that faith exists without works." [LW 34: 175-176].

Thanks be to God that the doctrine of justification through faith alone has been preserved down through the centuries, and that also the 27 books of the New Testament all have stood the test of time and may be regarded as inspired by the Holy Spirit as our infallible norm of faith.

We have begun teaching the preschool children more about the Lord's Prayer. This week we showed them how "Our Father, who art in heaven," relates to the story of creation in Genesis. Then we practiced singing a metric version of the Lord's Prayer to help them memorize it. I heard this the first time I visited Venezuela and immediately was struck by its simplicity and beauty. When the children have learned the song well enough, I hope to make a recording of it.

Coro: Padre nuestro, que estás en los cielos,
Santificado, santificado sea tu nombre.

1. Venga a nos tu reino, Señor. Hágase tu santa voluntad.
En el cielo y la tierra haremos tu santa voluntad.

Coro

2. Danos hoy, dánoslo Señor, nuestro pan, el pan de cada día,
Y perdona nuestras deudas, así como nosotros perdonamos.

Coro

3. No nos dejes caer en tentación; antes bien líbranos del mal.
No nos dejes caer en tentación; líbranos del mal.

Coro

4. Porque tuyo es el reino, Señor, el poder y toda la gloria,
Por los siglos de los siglos, para siempre, aleluya, amén.

Cost of discipleship

It happened late one night this past week. Jaime, one of our neighbors, had cleaned his gun and was reloading when it accidentally fired. The bullet hit concrete and sent a big chip flying back to shatter Jaime's right arm.

Jaime was able to find someone who could drive him to the hospital (there is no 24-hour ambulance service here). Most of his arm had to be amputated below the elbow. This may well have serious consequences for Jaime, who is about 30 years old, and his family since he had been earning his living as a welder and metalworker.

Luz Maria and I visited Jaime shortly afterward. We listened to him and stated our belief that while it is hard to understand, sometimes, why bad things happen, God in His love and wisdom can turn misfortune to good. Jaime agreed that it was important to have faith at times like these, and that he did not at all question why God had allowed this to happen. He only gave thanks that
he still was alive (the concrete chip could have struck his head). Furthermore, he was confident that God would show him a way to support his family even without his right hand.

This willingness to bear up under adversity is something one often sees in Venezuelans. It is inspiring and yet something of a challenge to us who claim full assurance of God's mercy and consider ourselves called to communicate this Gospel to others. If this man can lose his right hand and not be dismayed, how much less discouraged should we be by minor obstacles in our path, when God has opened doors for us and blessed us beyond measure?

Often these days I recall reading "The Cost of Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The German Lutheran pastor wrote this series of meditations on the Sermon on the Mount some time before he was imprisoned, tortured and executed by the Nazis. He could have avoided this fate.. Before the war Bonhoeffer lived and worked abroad. He chose to leave a comfortable life in the United States to return to Germany and minister to his countrymen.

In "The Cost of Discipleship" Bonhoeffer coined the term "cheap grace", by which he meant an allegedly Christian belief-system which does not take seriously the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. The term is widely used nowadays as a synonym for the antinomianism that has crept into Christian churches; the idea that God is an indulgent uncle (maybe He looks like George Burns) who overlooks our unrepented sin because He is just such a generous and all-around great guy who does not sweat the small stuff. However, I do not think that is what Bonhoeffer had in mind. It is hard to imagine that he could have imagined the ordination of homosexual clergy, the acceptance of abortion and easy divorce, the gospel of "living your best life now" and the
like.

Rather Bonhoeffer was addressing something he saw particularly in his own Lutheran tradition: The tendency to think that having received the Gospel of Christ, one may continue one's life as before, only with an extra spring in one's step and a sparkle in one's eye from knowing that the just shall live by faith. Bonhoeffer said that to be a Christian is to be a martyr. In fact,
the English word martyr is derived from a Greek word which means "witness" (cf. Acts 1:8 "...and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth"). One cannot recognize the sacrifice of Christ on the cross and go back to a normal life;
it is the depth of the changes in our lives that are our witness to the world. But change means loss and to begin the new life in Christ, one must be willing to lose all, not just the obvious bad habits but also the seemingly good things in life that may draw us away from our God and the mission that He has for us.

Serving as a missionary in a foreign land, I have found, makes one acutely conscious of how short one falls of the glory of God, and exactly what baggage one does or does not need on life's journey. But to die in Christ is to live, and what a just and merciful God takes away, he replaces in greater measure. I have been given my wonderful wife, Luz Maria, and the support of
her large family. For this reason alone I cannot imagine going back to the life that I once had.

And we have been given financial and prayer support by our friends and family in the United States. We thank God for all of you. Luz Maria and I plan to visit the U.S. for about three weeks in August. We want to bring as many people as possible up to date on what we have been doing and raise money for our future plans.

I have been notified that my status as a volunteer missionary with Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod World Missions will not be renewed. The Synod's volunteer missionary program provides opportunities for laypeople serve on assignments that normally last from six months to two years. I have been on volunteer status for three years. What this means essentially, is that LCMS
World Missions has been paying for my health insurance as well as travel and some miscellaneous expenses. I will have to my own provisions for these expenses in the future. But our project has the support of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela and the Venezuela Lutheran Mission Partnership, an independent mission society. So we will continue as the Lord wills.