Peace to this house and all who dwell here

 

On August 29, I blessed the new house of Adonay and Ludy Tarazona, members of Corpus Christi Lutheran Church, our sister congregation in the city of Barinas. Corpus Christi currently does not have a regular pastor and since I have known the Tarazonas for 21 years, they invited me to do it. Adonay and Ludy first met in Sunday school at Corpus Christi. They have three children who all still live with them.

The Rev. Ross Johnson, a former missionary to Venezuela, points out that the speaking of a blessing, or benediction, conveys the message of God's mercy and grace in private situations as well and the Divine Service. The blessing of a home as a Christian ritual has a long history. It is often done during the Epiphany season, with customs associate with Epiphany, because of Matthew 2:11. "And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary, His mother, and fell down and worshipped Him." As the Gospel lesson for the blessing of Adonay and Ludy's new home, I read Matthew 7:24-29, which is the parable of the house built on rock versus that built on sand.

More medicines from GLO, Lutherans in Chile

On Sunday, August 11, 2024, we distributed the 12th shipment of over-the-counter medications sent as part of Global Lutheran Outreach’s Venezuela Relief Project. During the project’s initial years (2017-2020), many pharmaceutical companies ceased operations in Venezuela, and medicine had almost ceased to be available at local pharmacies. We still live in an inflationary economy with chronic shortages, but medicine is more readily available although at high prices. Many Venezuelans must decide on a monthly basis between medicine and food for the family.

Since 2017, the base of operations for the Venezuela Relief Project has been Divina Providencia (Divine Providence) Lutheran Church in Santiago, Chile. This congregation is affiliated with the Confessional Lutheran Church of Chile. Medicines are purchased in Chile with the cooperation of a local pharmacy. Then volunteers at the congregation, many of them Venezuelan immigrants to Chile, collate the orders and prepare them for shipment.We give thanks to God for this ministry and also pray that it might continue. As the Rev. James Tino, director of Global Lutheran Outreach (GLO), explained in a recent newsletter, the congregation rents its facilities for around US $2,000 per month, or about double the average monthly wage in Chile).

The congregation has been struggling to meet rent payments and their current rental contract will soon expire. At this point, a suitable property in Santiago will cost around US $450,000 for a basic building, or US $850,000 for one that can house the church and the pastor's family, while also having space for some income-producing activity.

The Rev. Adrian Ventura is the current pastor of Divina Providencia. I first met him in 2002 when he was the pastor of Cristo Rey (Christ the King) Lutheran Church in Maturín, Venezuela. In 2004, he began a second term as president of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela. He commissioned Luz Maria as a deaconess on the national level in 2004; in 2008 he ordained me as a pastor of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela. Since 2018, Pastor Adrian has served as a fellow GLO missionary in Chile.

The lights went out in Venezuela

For years we have to live with local and regional power outages. Typically, lights may go out at any moment of the day for perhaps 10 to 15 minutes, but sometimes for an hour or two. The country's power grid is in a poor state of maintenance and is more than 80 percent depended on a single power station. The Guri reservoir and hydroelectric facility was built on the Caroni River, near what had been the mouth of the Guri River and the village of Guri. The first stage of the facility was completed in 1969 and was designed to be enlarged in two additional stages, whose scheduling would be determined by national power needs. However, electrical demand in Venezuela grew so fast that stage two, begun in 1976, encompassed both later stages, and final work was completed in 1986. In its day the Guri power station was a marvel of engineering, but has had difficulty meeting the continually growing demand for electricity.

Roosters crow like clockwork

One of the most poignant moments in the Passion story is when the Apostle Peter realizes that he has denied his Lord three times before a rooster in the vicinity of Pilate’s courtyard has finished calling the watches of the night. Listening for cockcrow as a way of marking the passage of time between midnight and dawn is an ancient and worldwide practice. Roosters will crow several times soon after midnight, and again at the dawn of day. The birds have an internal rhythm that tells them when to crow. Although roosters can occasionally crow at any time of day, the majority of their crowing is like clockwork, peaking in frequency at time intervals roughly 24 hours apart.

We have firsthand experience of this. Backyard chicken flocks are a staple in Venezuela, as they were in the rural South Dakota of my childhood. Once, during a Skype call, my mother, who grew up on a farm, heard one of our roosters crowing and closely guessed its age by the tone of its crow. I was quite impressed.

Besides the crowing rooster in the parallel Gospel accounts of Peter’s denial of Christ, our Lord speaks of a rooster in Mark 13:35. Hens and their chicks are mentioned in Matthew 23:37 and Luke 13:34. There are no clear references to chickens in the Old Testament. The Hebrew word, zarzir, in Proverbs 30:31 is sometimes translated “strutting rooster”, but other translations render it, “greyhound”, while in Job 38:36 the word, sekvi, also is of uncertain meaning. Sometimes it is translated as “rooster”, but otherwise as “heart”.
In 1932, an onyx seal was found on a tomb 12 kilometers northeast of Jerusalem, dating back to the the seventh century BC. It features a fighting rooster, with the inscription: “Belonging to Jaazaniah, servant of the King”. This could be the man named in 2 Kings 25:23 and Jeremiah 40:8.

Why roosters are worth the noise

Our flock has grown to 20 hens, two roosters and 60 chicks. We sacrificed four hens who were no longer laying (not in a propitiatory sense) for Easter dinner for our congregation. It has been some time since we have had to buy eggs (which are selling for $5 for a carton of 30). In fact, Luz Maria has sold eggs to people who want a farm-fresh, organic product. Once I got into an online debate with people who tried to tell me that it’s not worth the trouble to keep roosters. They are noisy, when there’s more than one, they fight over the hens, and hens will lay eggs anyway. But the hens are healthier when they maintain their natural reproductive cycle, you do not have to buy new hens to replace the ones that have stopped laying, and many people here consider eggs produced with the help of roosters to be of higher nutritional quality. In addition to providing eggs and meat, free-range chickens help us control termites and biting ants.

César Delgado confirmed on Easter Sunday

On Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024, we received into communicant membership César Miguel Delgado Rojas. He chose as his confirmation verse Isaiah 41:13, “For I, the LORD your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, Fear not, I will help you.” The second part of the book of Isaiah, chapters 40 to 66, is known as the Book of Consolations and pictures the restoration of the remnant of Israel, the messianic King, and the final glory of the Church. “Fear not, I will help you” or “Fear not, I am with you” is a favorite phrase of the prophet.

Deborah, woman of God
On March 8, 2024, we concluded “Old Testament I”, an online course for deaconesses in training, with a study of the Book of Judges. Deborah, prophetess, wife and judge, was a woman who loved Jehovah and his Word. God gave her wisdom from her and she used it for the good of her neighbors, giving them advice from her.

We know more about Deborah than about the five Old Testament prophetesses, including Miriam, Moses' sister; Huldah, advisor to King Josiah (2 Kings 22:8-20; 2 Chronicles 34:22-28); Isaiah's wife (Isaiah 8:3); and the mother of King Lemuel (Proverbs 31:1). Prophetesses mentioned in the New Testament include Anna, the widow who blessed the Baby Jesus in the temple (Luke 2:25-35); Philip's daughters (Acts 21:9); and the prophetesses of Corinth (1 Corinthians 11:5).

Although the Scriptures mention prophetesses, none were public speakers during a meeting of God's people or priests in his temple or apostles or pastors of the church. In fact, St. Paul's reference to prophetesses in 1 Corinthians 11 occurs in a passage that emphasizes the leadership role of a husband. The Scriptures always distinguish the roles of men and women. Women can proclaim God's Word publicly through song (like Miriam and Deborah) and privately through counsel. Furthermore, the Scriptures strictly warn against false prophetesses (Ezekiel 13:17) such as Noadiah (Nehemiah 6:14) and Jezabel (Revelation 2:20-23).

Continuing deaconess training

On March 19, the Rev. Dr. Sergio Fritzler from Concordia El Reformador Seminary in the Dominican Republic began the orientation of 16 pastor various countries for the next course, "Diaconal Practice 2" with a devotional on the mercy of God. The next step was the orientation of more than 40 women from Venezuela and other countries on March 21, 2024.

Medicines from GLO distributed

On Sunday, March 3, 2024, we distributed the bulk of non-prescription medicines received from Global Lutheran Outreach. The rest were distributed through in-person visits to those whose disabilities prevented them from leaving the house.

Team South America update.

Here is an important message from the Rev. James Tino, executive director of Global Lutheran Outreach (GLO):

Liisa and Jim Tino.

“A big THANK YOU to everyone for their support of the missionaries of Global Lutheran Outreach through our 24-hour online event, Go Beyond! (November 8-9( Over 125 people made a contribution, offered prayers and words of encouragement, and blessed us in so many ways. Due to popular demand, our Go Beyond! page will stay open for the rest of the month. Until November 30, people can still visit the page, learn about GLO and our missionaries, and make a contribution that will be tripled.”

Through our association with Global Lutheran Outreach, Luz Maria and I are able to help not only people in La Caramuca, but throughout Venezuela and even Chile! Since 2017, Luz Maria, together with Corali Garcia de Loturco and Elianeth Pineda of the Confessional Lutheran Church of Chile, has coordinated requests for needed medicines from congregations of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela.

During its initial years (2017-2020), the GLO Medicine for Venezuela project was a virtual lifeline because medicine ceased to be available in the country. Many pharmaceutical companies ceased operations in Venezuela, and local pharmacies had bare shelves. Today, medicine is once again available but at high prices and in dollars! Daily medication for high blood pressure, for example, may require 80 percent of someone’s monthly salary!

Non-prescription medicines are purchased in Chile with the cooperation of a local pharmacy. Volunteers at Santiago mission congregation collate the orders and prepare each congregation’s shipment. After arriving in Venezuela, meds are sorted and packed for distribution to each beneficiary. In the first year of the project (2017), 333 patients received a month’s supply of medicine to 333 patients. In the most recent shipment (Jan/Feb 2022), 1,055 patients received a month’s supply!

Elianeth and Corali.

Many of the volunteers in Santiago are Venezuelan expatriates, like Corali and Elianeth. One result of the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela is that record numbers of Venezuelans are immigrating to other countries. Chile is the third-most popular destination for Venezuelans (behind Colombia and Peru) fleeing their country’s humanitarian crisis. GLO maintains a ministry to Venezuelan immigrants to Chile.

James Tino served for eight years as missionary pastor of “Divina Providencia” (Divine Providence) Luheran Church in Santiago before assuming full-time duties as GLO executive director. Adrian Ventura was installed as the pastor of Divina Providencia in his place on February 19, 2023. I met both men in Venezuela 20 years ago. Adrian was the pastor of Cristo Rey (Christ the King) Lutheran Church in Maturin, Venezuela. James Tino was region director of Latin America and the Caribbean for Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod World Missions after many years as a missionary in Venezuela. Luz Maria and I received premarital counseling from Pastor Tino before getting married in a civil ceremony on November 29, 2003 (our church would follow on July 25, 2004).

Adrian Ventura.

So it was a great honor and privilege to join Pastor Adrian; his wife, Cruz Maria; Corali; and Elianeth as members of Team South America to raise money for the GLO general fund.

This is a breakdown of what online donations (tripled through matching funds) to the GLO general fund will provide:

• $29 provides a missionary with an online donation platform for one year.

• $75 sponsors one person to attend a GLO mission conference.

• $101 provides a missionary with the services of a professional accountant for one year.

• $260 provides a missionary with software and other online services.

  

  Luz Maria with Cruz Maria
  and Yuraima Gonzalez.

• $365 provides for a supportive and encouraging visit to a missionary in their field of service.

• $582 supplies all support services to a missionary for one month.

As Thanksgiving draws near in the United States and the end of the church year everywhere, we live in the expectant hope of Jesus' return while giving thanks to God for all of His gifts, including health, family, work, home and the spiritual blessings of forgiveness and eternal life. May God continue to use GLO to share Jesus with the world so that many more people can join us in looking forward to the life to come!

Please donate to GLO online at our Team South America page: https://charidy.com/glo/samer

Sing with grace in your hearts to the Lord

This past month we received copies of the new Spanish hymnal, Himnario Luterano, the new hymnal intended to become the standard worship resource for 18 Spanish-speaking countries. It was published by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation as a joint project with Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod World Missions, the Confessional Lutheran Education Foundation, and national confessional Lutheran churches in Chile, Argentina and Paraguay. The book is a comprehensive collection of prayers, Scripture readings and 670 hymns. There is even one in Guarani, the second official language of Paraguay after Spanish. 

Eduardo Flores, president of the national church.

Guarani is spoken by about 4.6 million people in Paraguay and there are also small communities of Guarani speakers in Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina. Guarani belongs to Tupi-Guarani, an ancient, indigenous language family that gave the English language loanwords like cougar, jaguar and toucan. However, about half of the hymns are carried over from hymnbooks that we already have, “Culto Cristiano” (first published by Concordia Publishing House in 1964) and “Cantad al Señor” (published by Concordia Publishing House in 1991). But these are not the only sources of hymnody for Himnario Luterano. 

During the Middle Ages, music in worship generally was the preserve of professionals. The priest would have chanted the Mass, and in larger parishes and cathedrals a choir might have sung the principal parts. In their monasteries and convents, monks and nuns marked the hours of prayer by chanting services of great complexity. The Reformation restored congregational singing to its rightful place in Christian worship, as was established in the New Testament (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16). Certainly the invention of the moveable-type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1455 made it possible to place Bibles, copies of the Small Catechism and hymnbooks in homes as well as the pews of local congregations. It is the goal of the Himnario Luterano project to replicate this triad of Lutheran piety – Bible, catechism and hymnal – throughout Latin America.

Sergio Fritzler.

According to the Rev. Dr. Sergio Fritzler, director of Concordia El Reformador Seminary in the Dominican Republic, Spanish hymnody could be said to begin with Marcus Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, a poet who lived in northern Spain from 348 to 413 A.D. One of his compositions, “Of the Father’s Love Begotten”, is known throughout the world, and a modern Spanish translation is included in Himnario Luterano. Jesuit and Augustinian missionaries to the New World organized choirs and orchestras among indigenous peoples. But the Spanish Inquisition, active not only in Spain, but also in the Spanish colonies from the 16th through the19th centuries, prohibited the publication and distribution of Bible translation and devotional literature not approved by the Roman Catholic church. As political pressure for religious toleration increased in Spain, William Harris Rule, a Methodist missionary from Great Britain, published a Spanish hymnal in Cadiz, Spain, in 1835. Three hymns from this hymnal are included in Himnario Luterano. José Joaquín de Mora (1783-1864), wrote Spanish hymns anonymously for fear of persecution. In Himnario Luterano there is an original hymn and two translations by José de Mora. Other early 19th Century Spanish hymnwriters whose work is included in Himnario Luterano are Tomás J. González Carvajal (1753–1834) and Mateo Cosidó Anglés (1825-1870).

Blessing the hymnals.

After Spain officially adopted a policy of religious liberty in 1868,  Federico (Friedrich) Fliedner was sent there as a Protestan missionary. Fliedner was the son of Theodore Fliedner, a Lutheran pastor who founded the first modern school for deaconesses at Kaiserswerth-on-the-Rhine in 1836.He founded a seminary, an orphanage, ten primary schools in Madrid and the provinces, and a bookstore. He also published a hymnal and there are 29 of his hymn translations in Himnario Luterano. 

Himnario Evangélico Luterano, the first confessional Lutheran hymnal for Latin America, was published in Argentina in 1927. From 1927 until the final edition of Culto Cristiano in 1995, a total of 16 confessional Lutheran hymnals were published in Spanish. All of these are sources for the hymnody in Himnario Luterano.

The new Spanish hymnal also includes many contributions by contemporary Lutheran authors (in alphabetical order): Adrián Correnti (Argentina), Germán Falcioni (Argentina), Daniel Feld (Brazi), Artur Feld Jr. (Brazil), Alceu Figur (Brazilian in Paraguay), Sergio Fritzler (Argentina), Guillermo Herigert (Argentina), Héctor Hoppe (Argentinian in the United States), Gregory Klotz (United States), Alejandro López (Chilean in Panama), Daniel Pfaffenzeller (Argentina), Cristian Rautenberg (Argentina), Antonio Schimpf (Argentina), Lilian Rosin (Paraguay), Danila Stürtz (Argentinian in Paraguay), Gerardo Wagner (Argentinian in Paraguay), Roberto Weber (Argentina), and Valdo Weber (Brazil).

According to our national church’s II Congress of Lutheran Educators in 2007, “Liturgical hymnbooks doctrinally classify hymns and categorize them in a musical, poetic way according to the ease of singing them. These selected songs make up a useful tool to make possible the liturgy according to the doctrinal philosophy of the church.”

Assisting Pastor Mendoza with the liturgy.

Law and Gospel in Barquisimeto

Luz Maria with Nancy Mora and Anny Duran.

On July 20, Luz Maria and I traveled to Barquisimeto for a deaconess training seminar for four women from Caracas and Maracay. Recognized as Venezuela’s fourth-largest city by population and area after Caracas, Maracaibo and Valencia, Barquisimeto is the capital of the state of Lara and an important urban, industrial, commercial and transportation center. It is also the location of “Cristo es Amor” (“Christ is Love”) Lutheran church and the new headquarters of the Juan de Frias Theological Institute. Ángel Eliezer Mendoza is the pastor of Cristo es Amor and director of the Juan de Frias Institute. 

Cristo es Amor was one of the first congregations that I visited on a tour of Venezuela in April 2003, some years after it was planted by Pastor James Tino, now executive director of Global Lutheran Outreach, but then an LCMS missionary to Venezuela.

Zugeimer Aranguren and her family.

 There I met Nancy Mora and her daughter, Anny. Mother and daughter both graduated last from the deaconess program sponsored by the Juan de Frias Institute and Concordia El Reformador Seminary and have bee installed as deaconesses at Cristo es Amor. The same is true of Zugeimer Aranguren, who met several times over the years. Zugeimer is not only a deaconess at Cristo es Amor, but also treasurer of our national church and administrator of a fund to help deaconesses with their work throughout Venezuela. I last preached at Cristo es Amor for the congregation’s 15th anniversary in 2009, when it was meeting in the lobby of a public building rented on Sundays (the congregation has experienced many ups and downs). 

Deaconess students and instructors.

This time I preached at vespers on Friday and Saturday and helped Pastor Mendoza with the divine liturgy on Sunday, July 23. Since July 22, was day of commemoration for Mary Magdalene, it worked well to speak of faithful women of the Old Testament on Friday and faithful women of the New Testament on Saturday. Edgar Coronado, pastor of La Fortaleza (“Fortress”) Lutheran Church in Maracay, preached the Sunday sermon. The theme of the seminar was C.F.W. Walther’s theses on “The Proper Distinction between Law and Gospel” as applied to diaconal ministry. Pastor Mendoza led some of the sessions and Luz Maria taught the ladies in others. The students were Teresa Leombruni and Carolina Maldonado of “La Paz” Lutheran Church, Caracas; and Belkys Castellanos and Maria de Coronado of La Fortaleza, Maracay. The objective of the course was to help the students rightly divide Law and Gospel and determine the correct use of both in teaching classes and in personal visits. They analyzed hypothetical cases in light of cultural realities and the Word of God.

 

Maria Gabriela Rosales.

The fruits of Christian education

Luz Maria and I started Epiphany Lutheran Mission in La Caramuca with an emphasis on Christian education. We wanted to provide not only basic skills and character formation for stable, productive families, but also the motivation for doing so, by proclaiming the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. At least some of the young people we reached became the first in their families to finish high school, and even more important, were baptized and received first communion as members of our mission congregation. This year three of our young people completed sixth grade and will begin their studies in the liceo, which is equivalent to high school in the United States, this fall. Lorena Rujano and Yulmelvis Sala received first communion and Eduardo Garrido was baptized in our mission. Also, Maria Gabriela Rosales, who was baptized at our mission in 2015, received her high school diploma. We pray that she and Eduardo may yet be brought to the Lord’s table.

Eduardo Garrido.

Please continue to pray for these and other young people here. This July marks the surprising success of “Sound of Freedom”, a movie that deals with the frightening reality human trafficking as a global growth industry with tentacles that reach into our small town in western Venezuela. The film dramatizes the rescue of 55 children from a sex trafficking operation in Colombia in 2014. Last September Luz Maria and I participated in an online conference hosted by LeadaChild, one of our sponsoring mission agencies in the United States, and 5 Stones, a Wisconsin-based organization dedicated to raising awareness of child sex trafficking within the USA and elsewhere. We learned that young people can be lured/groomed for sex trafficking by job offers, expensive clothes, jewelry, vacations, restaurants, and anything outside their normal activities. This is consistent with the reported opening scene of “Sound of Freedom” in which two children are lured into a supposed movie audition by a glamorous woman who was a former Colombian beauty queen. But what makes grooming much easier these days is access to the Internet.  

Yulmelvis Sala and Lorena Rujano.

I recorded a special video message on this topic and publshed it on the mission's Spotify podcast (which normally consists of my Sunday sermons in Spanish) and on our YouTube channel. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have supported our mission, especially those who have been our partners from the beginning. We ask that you continue to pray for our young people here and around the world. May the Lord bless and keep you. Amen.

More news from the chicken coop

We built another section onto our chicken coop to accommodate 20 hens and their chicks. Our egg production has nearly reached the point where we may start regular sales of eggs. The chicken coop not only has been expanded, but greatly fortified to provide the chickens with more protection from predators, which include hawks, oppossum and snakes. 

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain

 

Spiritual warfare is a recurring theme in Lent, beginning on the first Sunday with the confrontation between Jesus and Satan (Matthew 4:1-11) after 40 days of fasting in Judean desert, an episode from which we derive the 40 days of Lent. This followed on the second Sunday by the story of Jesus casting out the demon which afflicted a Canaanite woman’s daughter (Matthew 15:21-28) and on the third Sunday by an accusation by the Pharisees that Jesus cast out demons by the power of Beelzebub (originally identified as a god of the Philistines in the first chapter of 2 Kings, but by the first century another name for Satan) and Jesus’ rebuke of that accusation in Luke 11:14-28. On the fifth Sunday, the last before Holy Week, the Pharisees accuse Jesus Himself of being possessed by a demon as well as not having a genuinely Jewish ancestry (John 8:42-59). Jesus replies that not only is He the Lamb that “the Lord will provide” and the true son of Abraham chosen for sacrifice (Genesis 22:1-14), but “before Abraham was, I am”, revealing His divine and human natures.

The fourth Sunday would seem to offer relief from all the talk of demonic activity with the story of a feast, the feeding of the five thousand as described in John 6:1-15. Jesus once again sought a retreat into the wilderness, this time a remote region on the northeastern shore of the sea of Galilee, but a great crowd followed Him. They were full of eager desire to witness His healing miracles. There is no word concerning any eagerness for the words of eternal life, but nevertheless Jesus healed their illnesses and preached to them. He also multiplied the loaves and fishes, not simply that their material needs would be satisfied, but that they might continue listening to the Gospel and believe. But when Jesus perceived that a great many wanted to take him by force to make Him a king, He left them to pray alone on a mountain. In this way, He again resisted the temptations to use His divine power to gain material prosperity, popularity and an earthly kingdom. It was another victory in the spiritual battle, pointing to His ultimate victory over the power of sin, death and the Devil on the cross.

More medicine from Chile

On March 5, 2023, we began distribution of another shipment of non-prescription medicines made possible by Global Lutheran Outreach (GLO). During the initial years (2017-2020) of the GLO Venezuela Relief Project, many pharmaceutical companies had ceased operations in Venezuela, and local pharmacies had bare shelves. Today, medicine may be once again available but at high prices and in dollars! Medicines are purchased by Confessional Lutheran Church of Chile volunteers, many of them immigrants from Venezuela. Volunteers collate the orders and prepare each shipment according to lists of needed prepared by participating Lutheran congregations in Venezuela. In addition to La Caramuca, medicines have been distributed in other locations, such as the cities of Barinas and Barquisimeto.

According to a report by the Wilson Center, more than 82 percent of people in Venezuela have incomes below the poverty line and 53 percent live in extreme poverty. Even after correcting for the income that some households receive from friends and relatives abroad, the level of extreme poverty is estimated to be 34 percent. More than 78 percent of households experience food insecurity. In addition, according to the Global Hunger Index, more than 23 percent of Venezuelans suffer from high levels of malnutrition, the highest in South America. Furthermore, Venezuela’s restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid are as high as in Ethiopia and higher than in Haiti, Syria, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Afghanistan. So GLO’s success in placing these medications in the hands of our people is quite an accomplishment.

New cycle of deaconess formation begins

Once again Luz Maria is mentoring women who aspire to be deaconesses in our national church. Many of them have served the church for years in works of mercy and Christian education. The three-year program, developed by Concordia The Reformer Seminary in the Dominican Republic and administered in Venezuela by the Juan de Frias Theological Institute, offers them the theological training to assist their pastors in meeting the spiritual as well as material needs of the congregation and the community. The seminary has extended its deaconess training program to nine Latin American countries, but Venezuela continues to have the largest enrollment with 28 women.

Each year of the program is a combination on in-person seminars and online classes. The students complete assigned readings and projects and put their new skills into practice with the supervision of the local pastor and deaconess mentor. Once they pass their final written and practical exams, they graduate and are commissioned as deaconesses.

Luz Maria and I traveled to Caracas to attend the first seminar from March 8 to 10. The women and pastors who attended were from congregations in the central zone (the cities of Caracas and Maracay) of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela. The previous week the same seminar was held at Fuente de Vida (Fountain of Life) Lutheran Church in Puerto Ordaz for women and pastors in the eastern and southeastern zones (the cities of Barcelona, Maturin, San Felix de Guayana and Puerto Ordaz). There are no women enrolled from our western zone (Barinas and Barquisimeto) this time around. The instructors were Pastor Eliezer Mendoza, director of the Juan de Frias Theological Institute, and deaconesses Luz Maria and Elsy Valladares de Machado, with assistance from Deaconess Ginnatriz Vera de Mendoza.

I participated in the discussions and led the opening devotion one morning. I read 1 Timothy 3:8-13. “Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. Women likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.”

The first word in verse 11 is gynaikas, literally “women” without a possessive article. So to render it “their wives” (meaning the wives of male deacons) is not justifiable, especially since verses 1-7 list the qualifications of a bishop or pastor without mention of the wives of pastors (and no vow of celibacy was required for the pastoral office at that time). There is other evidence in the New Testament that the diaconate, or helping ministry, was open to women as well as men, so the best interpretation of verse 11 is that the women to which it refers are deaconesses. As a historical example of a faithful deaconess, I used Olympias, the chief deaconess to John Chrysostom, archbishop of Constantinople at the end of the fourth century AD. Chrysostom, by the way, interpreted 1 Timothy 3:11 as referring to deaconesses. When the archbishop was exiled for preaching against the luxurious living of the upper classes and their indifference to the poor, Olympias acted as his advocate in his absence and wrote to him regularly. Chrysostom’s 17 letters in reply to “the most reverend and divinely favored deaconess Olympias” may still be read.

Oh Christ, Thou Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us!

Oh Christ, Thou Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us!

Oh Christ, Thou Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us Thy peace!

Desperate Venezuelans keep walking

Perhaps you have heard of the Pan-American Highway, which stretches from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Ushuaia, Argentina, on the southernmost tip of South America. Except, that is, for the 106 kilometers (66 miles) between Yaviza, Panama, and Turbo, Colombia. This is the notorious Tapón del Darien, or Darien Gap. No engineer yet has figured out a cost-effective way of building a paved road through this rugged, rainy region of marshland and mountains. Adventure travelers on the ultimate American road trip can have their vehicles transported from Panama to Colombia by water ferry. But for desperate people migrating north on foot, the Darien Gap is dense and dangerous.

So this year, 76 Venezuelans have disappeared while trying to cross the Darien Gap and some have been found dead. These stories and similar accounts of the perils of Venezuelan migrants dominate our local news, in between success stories of Venezuelans who have become NASA engineers, Major League Baseball players, and classical music composers and conductors.

Because the reality is, although political and economic conditions have stabilized somewhat, economic recovery will take years and people continue to leave Venezuela to escape violence, insecurity and threats as well as lack of food, medicine and essential services. Even with a recent increase in the minimum wage, mainly for government employees and pensioners, most Venezuelans still do not reach the figure of $1.90 a day set by the World Bank to consider the way out of extreme poverty. According to one survey, four in 10 Venezuelans say they would like to leave the country.

Good news from Global Lutheran Outreach

Although food and medicines are available through various outlets, most Venezuelans still have to decide each month whether to buy food for their families or needed medical treatment. So we were glad to hear that after a year of hiatus, Global Lutheran Outreach (GLO) has resumed its Venezuela Relief project. The resources are available to resume this work of mercy for at least one more operation, although is no guarantee for the future.

During the initial years (2017-2020), the project was a virtual lifeline because medicine ceased to be available in Venezuela. Today, medicine is once again available but at high prices and in dollars! Here’s how the program works:

1. Requests for medicine are coordinated through the Lutheran congregations in Venezuela.

2. Recipients can choose from a list of 18 common medications (up to three medications per patient). Additionally, volunteers in Santiago, Chile, send a supply of seven common medications to each church for them to distribute locally. All medicines are available in Chile without a prescription.

3. With your donations, medicines are purchased in Chile with the cooperation of a local pharmacy.

4. Volunteers at the Santiago mission congregation collate the orders and prepare each congregation’s shipment. Medicine is shipped using a globally-known shipping company, and then is unpacked and sorted for distribution to the beneficiaries.

Pray for Luz Maria’s mother

God willing, Carmen Rivero de Henriquez will celebrate her 92nd birthday on September 21. However, she is in increasingly frail health and cannot live alone. An assisted living unit, such as the one where my mother has lived since my sister’s death in February, is out of the question. Most of Luz Maria’s siblings still live nearby and have been taking turns caring for Carmen, including Luz Maria’s sister, Rosaura, who is a registered nurse. While Carmen was staying with us on the last weekend in August, she awoke at 4 a.m. and fell while trying to get dressed. She was taken by ambulance to a clinic and diagnosed with a double-fractured hip. There is a good chance of recovery, but will be completely confined to her bed for the foreseeable future. This will mean more frequent trips into town for us, but thanks be to God, COVID-19 restrictions have been relaxed and gasoline rationing has ceased.

First new deaconesses consecrated

In July we attended the graduation of 35 women that Luz Maria had mentored through the new deaconess program sponsored by the Juan de Frias Theological Institute and Concordia El Reformador Seminary in the Dominican Republic. On August 13, 2022, Angela Puzzar was consecrated and installed as deaconess at “La Fortaleza” Lutheran Church in Maracay, state of Aragua, by Pastor Edgar Coronado. On August 28, 2022, Migdalia Rodriguez was consecrated as deaconess at “Cristo Rey de Gloria” Lutheran Mission in Maturin, state of Monagas.

Reflection on the diaspora

On September 1, 2022, the United Nations reported that the number of Venezuelans that have fled Venezuela at 6.8 million, more than the 6.6 million Syrians that have fled Syria’s civil war and matching the 6.8 million Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion. This movement of Venezuelans out of Venezuela has been called “the Venezuelan exodus” or “the Venezuelan diaspora”. Both words can be traced to the Holy Scriptures.

Obviously, there is an entire book of the Old Testament about the first Exodus. The word, diaspora, derived from the Greek διασπορά, nowadays broadly refers to the mass dispersion of groups of people from their historic homelands. Many today may think of the flight of Jews from Germany in the face of Nazi persecution, but that was not even the first Jewish diaspora. The word was first used in reference to the dispersion of the Hebrews, their language and Scriptures, throughout the Mediterranean world beginning with the Assyrian conquest of the Northern Kingdom of Israel around 740 B.C. and continuing Babylonian conquest of Judah in 584 B.C.

Diaspora appears in the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, first in Deuteronomy 28:25 as a warning of what will happen to the people of Israel if they disobey the laws of the covenant. In other passages, forms of the word generally refer to the “dispersion of the Jews among the Gentiles” or “the Jews as thus scattered”.

In the New Testament, the word, diaspora, appears in John 7:35 in the context of the Pharisees misunderstanding the words of Jesus about His return to the Father to mean that He would go out to the Jews dispersed among the gentiles and seek disciples from among them and also the Greeks. That is not what Jesus did, but it is what His apostles did. In James 1:1 and 1 Peter 1:1, the apostle address the new Israel, the church, in its diaspora.

The importance of this can be seen in Acts 8, following the stoning of Stephen, the first martyr, in Chapter 7. “And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.”

It is in the context of persecution, suffering and flight that the church spread from Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and ultimately to the far corners of the Roman Empire (and farther, if tradition about the Apostle Thomas traveling to India is true). Many times in the last 2,000 years, God has used wars, disasters and persecution that drive people from their homelands to further the Great Commission of baptizing and making disciples of all nations.

This is evident in the case of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela, planted by North American missionaries in the 1950s. The GLO Venezuela Relief project depends on Venezuelan immigrants in Chile. Venezuelan immigrants also are being served the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod Mission in Lima, Peru, and by the synod’s partner church in Bolivia, the Christian Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bolivia. We have Venezuelans as missionary pastors in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Chile. German Novelli Oliveros, formerly associated with the Lutheran Church of Venezuela, now serves in the United States as president of the Hispanic Missionary League and pastor of Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee. Alfonso Prada, formerly the pastor of El Salvador Lutheran Church in Caracas, now is the pastor of St. Martini Lutheran Church in Milwaukee. (I was a member of Grace Lutheran Church of Oak Creek, on the far southern edge of the Milwaukee metro area from 1986 to 1995, and my great-great-grandparents settled north of Milwaukee, near what is now Concordia University Wisconsin, in the 1840s.) So, although times are hard for Lutherans in Venezuela, the Lord has used this crisis to further the proclamation of His Gospel among Latin Americans.

Oh God, who would have Your church testify of You among all the nations: Grant to the faithful, amid the trials of this present age, courage to confess Your name. Enable us by Your Holy Spirit to be among all those whose who serve You, that the hearts of men may be changed, the weak strengthened, those who sorrow be comforted, and peace proclaimed to the abandoned and afflicted. In the name of Your Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Those who are with us

 

He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 2 Kings 6:16

That’s a key verse from the Old Testament lesson for the Day of St. Michael’s and All Angels (September 29 on the historic church calendar, but we will observe it Sunday, October 3). The entire lesson (2 Kings 6:8-17), the Syrian army surrounds the city of Dothan with the intention of capturing Elisha the prophet. Elisha’s servant is terrified until the Lord opens his eyes to the even greater army of angels protecting them.

We as missionaries at times feel that we are surrounded by forces beyond our control and that could completely overwhelm us. And that is an accurate evaluation of the situation. But God sends His holy angels to protect us (as Psalm 91, properly understood, assures us). And the casting of Satan and his rebellious angels out of heaven (referenced in Luke 10:17-20 and Revelation 12:7-12) assure us that we share is Christ’s victory over Satan now and forever. Because the entire life of Jesus, from His birth to His death on the cross, was a victory over Satan, the 70 disciples find that they are able to cast out devils in His name.

“And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death” (Revelation 12:10-11).

Although Michael and the heavenly host of angels played their part in Satan’s defeat, the victory belongs to Christ and through Him, to the church triumphant. We remember that, even in the midst of the persecution of which the rest of Revelation 12 warns.

Everlasting God, You have ordained and constituted the service of angels and men in a wonderful order. Mercifully grant that, as Your holy angels always serve and worship You in heaven, so by Your appointment they may also help and defend us here on earth; through Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Ninth shipment of medicines

On September 19, 2021, Epiphany Lutheran Mission distributed the ninth shipment of medicines from the Venezuela Relief Project begun by Global Lutheran Outreach and the Confessional Lutheran Church of Chile. The Venezuela Relief Project began in 2017. Two people on our list died, but we distributed the medicines requested for them to three other persons. One particularly grateful recipient is Luz Marina Medina, a 45-year-old widow who lives with her elderly father. She has suffered from epilepsy since childhood and, due to the scarcity of medication, was experiencing more and more frequent seizures. However, now she has the medication that she needs.

As is our custom, the bulk of the medicines were distributed after the Sunday service, along with our homegrown fruits and vegetable. Thanks to abundant rain this years, we have bumper crops of avocados, passion fruit, tomatoes, cassava, bananas and plantains, papaya and eggplant. We also have a bountiful harvest of berries from our coffee tree. Coffee is a social necessity, here, if not a biological necessity, and it keeps getting more and more expensive.

Reopening the preschool

We began the new school year on Tuesday, September 28, by meeting with families who have enrolled their children in our preschool. After an opening devotion and distribution of medications sent to us by the Lutheran Women's Missionary League of Canada by way of the Dominican Republic (the LWML Canada sent the funds and the medications were purchased in the Dominican Republic under the supervision of Rebecca Pollex Krey, wife of the Rev. Theodore Krey, regional director for Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod World Missions in Latin America and the Caribbean).

The meeting was conducted according to strict biosecurity measures required by the Ministry of Education. Everyone wore masks and maintained a distance of at least six feet. Classes begin October 11, with two shifts of children per day, no more than five in each shift. Some of the parents were concerned about small children being required to wear facemasks, but a representative of Ministry of Education emphasized that this is the rule for now.

More generally, some parents question the Venezuelan government’s decision to require the vaccination of all children between the ages of three and 17. The argument is that as long as Covid-19 vaccinations are not ruled to be completely safe for children the government should prioritize making further strides in immunizing the at-risk population and personnel in the health care and education sectors.

Venezuela received 693,600 vaccines against COVID-19, September 7, as part of the first shipment made to the country by the World Health Organization’s COVAX Mechanism, of the total of 12,068,000 vaccine doses acquired. This first delivery of doses consists of vaccines against COVID-19 produced by the laboratory Sinovac Biotech and included in the emergency use list of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The Sinovac vaccine, known as CoronaVac, was the one that I received on September 13. The two-dose vaccine is recommended for individuals aged 18 years and above. It has an efficacy rate of 50.4% for preventing symptomatic infection, according to data from a Brazilian trial, and an effectiveness of 67%, according to a real-world study in Chile. Some people we know experienced adverse reactions to CoronaVac, similar to those reported elsewhere, but I have had no problems.

Luz Maria earlier received the Sputnik V vaccine. On September 27, Venezuela’s Minister of Health, affirmed that “more than 8.8 million first doses” had been given, while 5.25 million received the second Sputnik V dose. Luz Maria and I are both waiting for second doses.

Let us remember that Psalm 91 not only promises that “He shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways”, but also under His protection we need not fear “the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday”, nor any physical or spiritual danger, for whether we live or die, He will show us His salvation. Amen.

A house of prayer for all the nations

José Miguel Albarran Pumar was baptized on on August 16, 2020, the 10th Sunday after Trinity. Since 2005, 23 people have been baptized at our mission. Of those baptized, 11 have received their first communion here.

The sermon text was Luke 19:41-48, which is St. Luke’s account of the cleaning of the Temple by Jesus. I noted that the Israelites in the Old Testament had a special place, a house for all the people to come together for worship, prayer and thanksgiving to the Lord. In the beginning that place was a tent, built in front of Mount Sinai under the direction of Moses. This tabernacle served the people on their pilgrimage in the desert. When the people of Israel entered the Promised Land, the tabernacle remained for many years in the city of Shiloh, then in Jerusalem. King Solomon replaced the tabernacle with the first temple of wood and stone a thousand years before Christ. At Epiphany Lutheran Mission, we worshipped first under a roofed patio, but now we have a beautiful chapel. Like the Temple of Jerusalem, this is a house of prayer for those of all nations who worship in Spirit and in truth. For us, the house of the Lord is wherever the Word is preached in its purity and the sacraments administered according to the Lord’s command. It is a special place because the Lord Himself has invited us to gather at an appointed place and time to receive His gifts (Hebrews 10:25). Our bodies also are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corintios 6:19). As our Lord cleared the moneylenders from the Temple, he cleanses our bodies and renews us in spirit through holy baptism. The church, both as the assembly of believers and place where believers assemble, belongs to Christ. He is the One who sustains it and has promised to keep it until His coming.

Distribution of food from LeadaChild

That same Sunday we distributed foodstuffs to 27 families, thanks to support from LeadaChild, a mission society based in Olathe, Kansas and dedicated to supporting Christian education around the world. We have received financial support from LeadaChild since 2006. In the past, we have distributed donations from LeadaChild as “scholarships” for students in our preschool and Luz Maria’s afterschool tutoring sessions. That is to say, as cash for the families to buy school supplies, clothing and food. This time around we purchased food

items in bulk, in order to get better value for our rapidly devaluing Venezuelan currency. Dividing the currency among the families would mean each household would get less than if we bought the food in one purchase. We were able to do this because of the automobile that we purchased with other donations this past year. Thanks to the car, we drove to the food distribution point and brought the food back to the mission.

On Saturday, August 8, we participated in a Zoom videoconference with Nury de Millian, LeadaChild director for Latin America. We listened to presentations on how to reopen Christian schools during the pandemic, testimony from a COVID-19 survivor, and advice from the Rev. Abdiel Orozco Aguirre, the pastor of Castillo Fuerte (Mighty Fortress) Lutheran Church in Guatemala City, Guatemala, and a immunohematologist.

LeadaChild was founded in 1968 as Children’s Christian Concern Society (CCCS) by Jim and Edie Jorns as agricultural missionaries to the Zacapa region of Guatemala. Their idea was to build a boarding house next to the new Lutheran school in Zacapa so that poor children would receive proper care while attending at the school. Jim and

Edie diligently gathered support from friends, family, and church members in their home state of Kansas. Throughout the years, CCCS grew to provide support to project sites in five world regions – Guatemala, Central America and Haiti, South America, West Africa, and Asia – and also supports an afterschool program in Bethlehem. The organization’s name was changed to LeadaChild in 2013.

I had heard of the Jorns’ mission work in the 1980s, when I was a member of St. John’s Lutheran Church, Topeka, Kansas, the congregation in which Edie was raised. Luz Maria and I were privileged to meet Jim and Edie in 2006. Last fall we met Dr. Philip J. Frusti, the current executive director of LeadaChild, in the Dominican Republic. Dr. Frusti, a Lutheran teacher and former school principal, graduated from Concordia University, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Pray for recovery

 

We praise the Lord that Yepci Santana, Luz Maria’s daughter, is recovering from COVID-19 in Lima, Peru. Other members of Luz Maria’s family, with who we have not had face-to-face contact are recovering as well. Also in Peru, Kalen Yolanda Incata Fernández, wife of Martin Osmel Soliz Bernal, a pastor with the LCMS Mission in Lima, was diagnosed with COVID-19 after giving birth to her first child. Also, we should remember Diana Malik, a Global Lutheran Outreach missionary, who has lost 11 members of her extended family to COVID-19 in Kazakhstan. Holy and mighty Lord, who has promised, “no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent” (Psalm 91:10), we beseech You to hear our cry for those who are suffering and dying under the visitation of COVID-19. Mercifully bless the means which are used to stay the spread of the pandemic, strengthen those who labor to heal and comfort the afflicted, support those who are in pain and distress, speedily restore those who have been brought low, and unto all who are beyond healing grant Your heavenly consolation and Your saving grace, through Jesus Christ, Your only Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen.