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.

Kisses sweeter than wine

It sounds like a line from a love-song and it is. You probably have it heard it somewhere, sometime. "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" was first recorded by the Weavers in 1951 and later by Jimmie Rodgers, Eddy Arnold, Andy Williams, Jackson Browne and Waylon Jennings, among others. The chorus goes, "Uh, oh, she had kisses sweeter than wine."

The chorus of "This Magic Moment", another classic ballad, features a variation on the phrase. The singer recalls the first kiss with his beloved as being "sweeter than wine, softer than a summer's night." "This Magic Moment" was originally released by the Drifters in 1960 and later by Jay and the Americans, Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye, among others.


Who knows whether the writers of these American pop standards were consciously borrowing from the Bible, but it's hard not to hear an echo of the Song of Songs (also known as the Song of Solomon), verse 2: "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine." Verse 1 is the book's title: "The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's."

I opened our discussion of courtship and marriage for the youth with a meditation on the Song of Songs. Luz Maria got the idea for a series of such discussions after hearing rumors of many pregnant sixth-graders this year and learning that as of 2010, Venezuela has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in Latin America, although teen pregnancies are increasing throughout the region.

The Song of Songs seemed appropriate to me, even though explaining its message in a simple manner posed a challenge. Franz Delitzsch, a German Lutheran scholar and theologian of Jewish descent, called it "the most obscure book in the Old Testament" and, in some ways it is. This is primarily because the Song of Songs is a lengthy poem consisting almost entirely of dialogue. The problem is that the text offers very few clues as to who is talking and when. It is as if the book of Job started right in with the debate over why the righteous suffer with no framing narrative about who Job was or what kind of predicament he was in, and with no phrases like, "Then Job said..." or "Then Elihu said..." or "Then the Lord spoke..." This has led to an abundance of speculation, much of it rather fanciful, about how many "voices" there are in the poem, who is speaking, and the details of the underlying narrative.

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What is clear is that there are at least two speakers, a woman called "the Shulamite" (the Hebrew word appears in no other book of the Old Testament and might be a proper name) and a man, apparently King Solomon. The two express their feelings for each other over the course of a courtship, wedding and marriage, a relationship that is tested at every stage. Ultimately, however, the Song of Songs concludes with a triumphant reaffirmation of marital love and commitment (chapter 8, verses 5 to 7).

The Song of Songs is frankly sensual in its language. The writer is keenly attuned to colors, sounds, smells, textures and tastes. He (the first verse would indicate that Solomon himself wrote it) is deeply appreciative of the beauty of the human form as well as the corresponding beauties of nature and the landscapes of Palestine. Thus the Song of Songs may be read as an affirmation of the goodness of God's creation and of romantic love and marriage, and a corrective to the many Old Testament warnings against the temptations of the flesh.
But there is more to it than that. Since ancient times the Song of Songs has been interpreted a symbolic representation of the relationship between the Lord and His people. The traditional Jewish interpretation is that the Song of Songs is a picture of the history of Israel beginning with the Exodus, which is why to this day the Song of Songs is read in synagogues during Passover. Later Cbristian commentators would see the Shulamite as a symbol of the Church and her kingly bridegroom as Christ.

How is this connection made? The moral of the story in Song of Songs is that commitment plus fidelity equals a lasting relationship characterized by joy, contentment and complete trust in the beloved. This principle may not only be applied to the most intimate of human relationships, but also to relationship between God and His people. Hosea 2:16.20 makes this clear:

“And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband"...and I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD."

And again in Isaiah 54:5

"For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is His name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth He is called."

On the negative side, not only does the Old Testament condemn the sexual immorality and perversion of the pagan world, but idolatry in itself is considered adultery. Jeremiah 3:1 says this: "You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the LORD."

Given this theme of fidelity, it might seem inconsistent to identify the Shulamite's suitor as Solomon, since the historical books of the Old Testament tell of the king's many wives and concubines, and his eventual fall into idolatry. But not if Solomon is seen in a prophetic fashion as prefiguring another son of David who would bring justice and mercy to His people. In fact, Solomon is portrayed as a messianic figure in 2 Samuel 7:12–17, Psalm 72 and also in Matthew 12:42.

In the New Testament, St. Paul writes to the church in Corinth in 2 Corinthians 11:2-3, "I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ."

And in Ephesians 5:22-32, "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church."

Finally in Revelation 19:7-9, there is the triumphant vision of Christ, the Lamb of God, His bride, the Church, and the eternal wedding-feast:

"Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready...And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

In conveying these ideas to the youth, it helped to point out how the Song of Solomon was the source of words and images in some of their favorite songs. For example, Song of Songs 2.4 says, "He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love," while in chapter 6, verse 3, we read, "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine." One of the songs that the children and youth really like to sing is called "Su Bandera sobre mi es amor" (His banner over me is love) and the first stanza is "I am Christ's and Christ is mine; His banner over me is love."

Likewise, in Song of Songs 2:1 we read, "I am the rose of Sharon; I am the lily of the valley." So in the song, "Cristo es la Peña de Horeb" (Christ is the Rock of Horeb), the second stanza goes, "Cristo es el lirio del valle de los flores, la Rosa pura y blanca de Sarón."

After the opening meditation and prayer, Luz Maria led the group in a discussion of what physical changes they could expect as they entered adolescence. and how that might affect their emotional, intellectual and social development. She talked about some of the immediate consequences of early pregnancy and the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, as well as the long-term consequences of becoming sexually active too soon and outside the bounds of matrimony.

Luz Maria says that, based on the discussion so far, the youth have inadequate knowledge of basic facts of life, despite having an idea of what condoms and birth control pills are. However, their families have responded favorably and we will have at least one more session.

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.

On a clear day, you can see Pico Bolivar

The Andes Mountains are part of our horizon. Usually they appear as mysterious shadows looming behind a heavy bank of clouds and mist. But when conditions are just right, you may distinctly see Pico Bolivar, the tallest mountain in Venezuela, from a spot on our bluff overlooking the river.

It was that clear Monday morning, October 5, when our new teacher, Yosaira Moreno, arrived. So after the singing of the national anthem and the opening prayer, the children were marched out (in single file) to the spot where they might see Pico Bolivar. Unfortunately, the clouds had again obscured Pico Bolivar, but they were able to see the outlines of some of the other peaks.

Then, for Wednesday's Bible lesson, I read Genesis 1:1 and asked the children what they thought of their view of the mountains. One confused little girl had thought we were going to meet Simon Bolivar (1783-1830), leader of Venezuela's War of Independence, therefore she was disappointed. But the rest were duly impressed by what they had seen of the mountains.

Reminding them that God made the mountains, the clouds and everything else in heaven and earth, I told them we can learn something about God in the beauties of nature. But God has revealed more about Himself in the Bible, His inspired Word, especially the story of Jesus, who suffered and died for sins and rose again on the third day. We sang some songs and Luz Maria took the children on a nature walk around the property. After that, they did some crafts based on the lesson.

We now have two preschool teachers assigned to our preschool by the state agency which provides the funds for the hot meal program and the teachers' salaries. The program ran short of funds for the meals last semester, but so far we are receiving the money for this semester.

The teachers are assigned to us because we do not have the funds to pay teachers ourselves. Yosaira and Nailu are not Lutherans, but have no problems with the religious component of our curriculum, for which myself and Luz Maria are responsible. Ideally we would have a Lutheran school staffed by Lutheran teachers, but all of the Lutheran schools in Venezuela face the difficulty of finding people with all of the desired qualifications -- and the commitment to serve.

Don't call it swine flu

I first heard the phrase "swine flu" when I was a college student. Early in 1976, 13 soldiers at Fort Dix, Georgia, became ill from a new type of flu virus and one of them died. Although the disease never spread beyond Fort Dix, the new virus (dubbed "swine flu") was believed to be a new form of the flu virus that caused a deadly global pandemic in 1918-1919. A $137 million national immunization program was approved by Congress and implemented in record time.

It was supposed to be a two-stage immunization. You were to get one shot which I received, then a booster shot. However, due to shortages of the vaccine, the fact the disease never really spread and that side-effects of the vaccine caused more deaths than the flu itself (25 nationwide vs. 1 soldier at Fort Dix), the program was suspended before I was able to get the booster shot.

So was I counted among the 24 percent of the U.S. population that, according to official sources, was immunized against the 1970s edition of the swine flu? I am not sure, although I would like to think so. It's sort of like Reformed views of baptism. Maybe you received the Holy Spirit through water and the Word, or maybe you didn't. Or perhaps simply making the decision to stay healthy (or accept Christ) was enough. Or maybe the only way to be really sure is if I can demonstrate the power to miraculously heal others.

At any rate, a new strain of the virus appeared in March 2009 and this time it seems the threat is more serious. According to the World Health Organization, as of September 27, worldwide there have been more than 340,000 laboratory-confirmed cases of this flu and over 4,100 deathsresulting from it.

The Centers for Disease Control and American Farm Bureau Federation would rather you not call it "swine flu," since there's not really much evidence that the virus is spread by handling pigs or pork products, but rather by the more technical name of "influenza A, subtype H1N1", or "A (H1N1) flu). Likewise in Venezuela, the disease is not referred to in official publications as "la gripe porcina" but rather "la influenza A (H1N1)".

So it was with the pamphlets that we handed out to the parents (or guardians) of our preschool children on Monday, Oct. 5. The pamphlets outlined the flu's symptoms and preventative measures.

Venezuela recorded its first case of the 2009 A (H1N1) flu on May 28. As of Oct. 3, Venezuela's Ministry of Health has confirmed 1,659 cases and 87 deaths resulting from the disease.

After the arrival of A (H1N1) flu in Venezuela, according to the Caracas-based Latin American Herald Tribune:

Vaccination centers were set up in parts of the country, with Zulia state in western Venezuela concentrating its facilities on the border with Colombia. An official said that the authorities had sufficient vaccine for 300,000 people, but it turned out this was vaccine for the conventional human form of influenza.

Meanwhile, the government says it has started registering people arriving on flights from the U.S., Mexico and Colombia, where cases of swine flu have been confirmed. Health workers and airport personnel at Caracas’s Maiquetia International Airport are asking passengers to fill out a form listing any flu symptoms.

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