Back to counting chickens

Luz Maria and I have returned to Epiphany Lutheran Mission in La Caramuca after our first trip together since 2012. Luz Maria was invited to attend a conference of deaconesses from across Latin American sponsored by Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod World Missions in Latin America and the Caribbean. The centerpiece of the conference was a study of the epistles of St. Paul, led by Ginnatriz Vera de Mendoza. A native of Argentina, she was trained as a deaconess at Concordia Seminary of Buenos Aires and now lives in Yaritagua, Venezuela, with her husband, Angel Eliezer Mendoza, who is pastor of New Life Lutheran Mission there. They met while Angel Eliezer was a student at the seminary.

Clarion and Joel Fritsche with Angel Eliezer Mendoza;
Elsy Valladares de Machado; Luz Maria; and
Ginnatriz Vera de Mendoza.

We were met at the airport in Santo Domingo, the capital city, by missionary Joel Fritsche; his wife, Clarion, and two of their three boys. Pastor Fritsche served his vicarage at Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church of Freeburg, Illinois, where my mother is a member. From Santo Domingo it was a two-hour bus ride to Santiago, the second-largest city in the Dominican Republic, where the conference was held. The event drew deaconesses from Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Panama and the Dominican Republic as well as Venezuela. In addition to Luz Maria and Ginnatriz, Elsy Valladares de Machado from Caracas represented Venezuela.

Dr. Gillian Bond of Concordia Seminary, St.Louis, with Elsy,
Ginnatriz and Luz Maria.

The three deaconess training centers of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod were represented by Amy Rast, associate director of deaconess studies at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana; Gillian Bond, director of deaconess studies at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri; Deborah Rothrock on behalf of Concordia University, Chicago. We also enjoyed the opportunity to reconnect with old friends, like Pastor Ted Krey, a former missionary to Venezuela who is now region director LCMS World Missions in Latin America and the Caribbean; Rebecca Krey, his wife and their four children; Sergio Maita, a native of Maturin, Venezuela and graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary now serving as a missionary in the Dominican Republic; and Yoxandris Marcano de Maita, Sergio's wife, and their two children.

Vicars Idjon Fritz and Justn Massey.

For me, a highlight of the trip was our visit to Palmar Arriba, a small town in the mountains outside of Santiago. There LCMS World Missions has established a mission, a home for the disabled, and the beginnings of a seminary. On Sunday I helped vicars, Idjon Fritz (a native of the Dominican Republic) and Justin Massey (from Kankakee, Illinois) with a service of evening prayer. I also enjoyed talking with Pastor Carlos Schumann of the Confessional Lutheran Church of Chile, who represented the Lutheran Heritage Foundation.

Upon returning to Venezuela, we spent a few days in Caracas as I attended a meeting of the pastors of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela.

Now that we are back in La Caramuca, we are please to see continued progress on the construction of a new learning center and chapel. We also have expaned our chicken project.

Counting chickens and eggs.

The inspiration for this project came from Luz Maria's daughter, Charli Santana. She obtained the chickens from her in-laws. At present we have three hens, one rooster and 10 chicks.  The hens are producing three eggs per day. We use the eggs to prepare breakfast for 10 to 20 preschool children every morning. Typically the eggs are served with arepas, the corn-meal muffins that are a staple of the Venezuelan diet (the arepas are stuffed with eggs, deviled ham, cream cheese, sardines or whatever other filling is available). We have the space to raise a maximum of 100 hens, but we think a flock of 30 would be the optimum size to produce enough eggs to significantly reduce our dependence on purchased ingredients. Thanks to a donation from Jim Burns, we have built on to the chicken coop, bought more chicken feed and hope to build the flock up to 30 laying hens within three months. Jim is the brother of Kathy Conrad, wife of Daniel Conrad, a former LCMS missionary to Venezuela who is now serving as a missionary in Mexico City, Mexico.

Another goal of this project is teach the children and young people involved with our mission how to raise chickens in their own homes. Backyard chickens are a Venezuelan tradition that is in danger of being lost due to social and economic changes.

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The Ministry of Word and Sacrament

Carlos Schumann, Luz Maria and Sergio Fritzler.

From July 1 to 4, 2015, Luz Maria and I attended a seminar on the pastoral office conducted in Caracas by Sergio Fritzler of Concordia Seminary in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Carlos Schumann of the Confessional Lutheran Church of Chile and a representative of Luther Academy; and Sergio Maita of Cristo Rey (Christ the King) Lutheran Church in Maturin, Venezuela, who is now a missionary from Venezuela to the Dominican Republic. The theme was the pastoral office, but we started with the concept of vocation in the Christian life.

Sergio Maita and Elsy Valladares de Machado.

God has called every Christian to live not for himself but for Christ and his neighbor, living in Christ by faith, and for others through the love of God. The Word of God changes the identity of a human being from sinner and enemy of God to child of God through baptism (Romans 6:4). Every Christian has a vocation as a member of a family, as a citizen of his country, and also in the church. We speak in this regard on the priesthood of the baptized (1 Peter 2:9). Because of the blood of Christ, every believer has the right and responsibility to offer to God petitions, thanksgiving and sacrifices of thanksgiving. However, the Lord has instituted a ministry distinct from the priesthood of alll believers to which not all are called, the ministry of preaching and administering the sacraments. The apostolic doctrine emphasizes the centrality of both the preaching and the sacraments in Christian worship as the means of grace. The doctrine of the ministry delivers the gifts of salvation. The ordained ministry is a mark of the church (1 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1: 5-9).

"With regard to church government it is taught nobody should publicly teach in church or preach or administer the sacraments without a regular call. " Augsburg Confession, Article XIV. The Latin phrase for "legitimate appeal" is "rite vocatus." Rite vocatus is a public act and does not consist only of congregational authorization, but normally also involves the participation of called and ordained clergy (Luke 24:50-51; Acts 6:1-6, 13.1-3; 1 Timothy 4:14; 2 Tim 1:6-7; 1 Corinthians 16:1-4).

Luther Academy is an organization that promotes genuine, confessional Lutheran theology and research through conferences, scholarly exchanges, and publications that assist the church both to preserve and to proclaim to the world the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the only saving faith. Luther Academy Luther Academy is now presenting theological seminars throughout South America and Central America, and in West Africa, Uganda, Togo, India  and Indonesia.

Carlos Schumann, Bryan Noguera, Obed Coronado, Argenis Rivas,
Abel Garcia, Carlos Loturco and Sergio Fritzler.

Concordia Seminary of Buenos Aires is the seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Argentina, a partner church of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. The seminary in Argentina is collaborating with Concordia Theological Seminary of Fort Wayne, Indiana, in offering a series of on-line courses for training confessional Lutheran pastors in Central and South America called "Pastoral Formation in Hispanic America". I am enrolled in this program and the seminar provided me the opportunity to meet four other men from Venezuela who are also participating: Bryan Noguera, Obed Coronado, Argenis Rivas and Carlos Loturco. Also I was reunited with Eliezer Angel Mendoza, a Venezuelan who has been attending the Buenos Aires seminary on a scholarship and who has now graduated.

Abel Garcia, Eliezer Angel Mendoza, Sergio Fritzler and Elias Lozano.

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A milestone in distance learning

On June 21, 2014, Luz Maria and I traveled to Barquisimeto and, together with Pastor Abel Garcia, director of the Juan de Frias Theological Institute and representatives of member congregations of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela, began a course in the use of Moodle, the world's premier on-line learning platform.

Moodle is an acronym for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment. It is open-source software first developed in 2002 by Martin Dougiamas, a computer scientist at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia.

As of June 2013 Moodle had a user base of 83,008 registered and verified sites, serving 70,696,570 users in 7.5+ million courses with 1.2+ million teachers. Moodle is used by Concordia Seminary, St. Louis: Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Concordia Lutheran Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta, among many other seminaries throughout the world.

We just had to meet in Barquisimeto once. The rest  of the coursework has been done on-line. Our meeting place was la Universidad Centrooccidental "Lisandro Alvarado" (UCLA, but not the UCLA in California). Established in 1962, the university specializes in the teaching of human and veterinary medicine, and agronomy. We had the opportunity to receive instruction thanks to Laura Restrepo, a member of the university's faculty and El Paraiso Lutheran Church in Barquisimeto (if you are familiar with Latin American literature, you may know there is a well-known Colombian author and journalist named Laura Restrepo. This is not that Laura Restrepo).

In addition to Pastor Abel, Luz Maria, Laura Restrepo and myself, our group included:

• Pastor Miguelángel Pérez and Zugeimar Aranguren of El Paraiso Lutheran Church, Barquisimeto.
• Yenny Gamboa, Juan Carlos and Luis Miguel Silva of La Fortaleza Lutheran Church in Maracay.
• Obed Coronado of Fuente de Vida Lutheran Church in Puerto Ordaz.
• Lino Zerpa of La Ascensión Lutheran Church in San Felix de Guayana.
• Luz Maria's daughters, Yepci and Charli Santana.

By the end of the five-week course, we all should be certified to teach on-line courses with Moodle. The adoption of this system will be a milestone for the Juan de Frias Theological Institute.

The Juan de Frias program of theological education by extension has been a great benefit to the Lutheran Church of Venezuela in the absence of a residential seminary for preparing men for Word and sacrament ministry. A residential seminary is certainly the ideal, but the ILV has not had the resources to establish one so far. 

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod once sent missionaries to serve as the theological educators for this program. For years before the explosion of Internet access, they would travel to each of the ILV's widely scattered congregations, training pastors and catechising the laity. Pastor Ted Krey, who now is LCMS regional director of Latin American missions, was the last of these theological educators. Since Pastor Krey left in 2010, the ILV has faced mounting difficulties in maintaining the theological education by extension program. This has been in part because the state of the Venezuelan economy has made it hard for the ILV to find the funds, in part because political unrest and a rising tide of violence has made travel more and more of a risk. God willing, the increased use of the Internet for distance learning will help the Lutheran Church of Venezuela to overcome these difficulties.

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Sojourn in Maracay

From August 20 to 23, 2013, Luz Maria and I attended a short course on ecclesiology (theology of the church) taught by Mark Braden, pastor of historic Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church of Detroit, Michigan.

Zion Detroit was founded on June 4, 1882, by a group composed mostly of German immigrants from West Prussia, now a part of Poland (this is the region from which my great-great-grandparents emigrated in 1839). By the early 1890s, the congregation had almost 3,100 parishioners, and was, at the time, the largest congregation in The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, which it had joined in 1883 (of course, at the time the LCMS was not named the LCMS, but rather the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and Other States).
 


Pastor Braden is an adjunct member of the faculties of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana, and of Concordia University Ann Arbor, Michigan, He teaches Biblical Greek online for the seminary, and New Testament for the university. Pastor Braden speaks fluent Spanish from having spent his childhood in Cadiz, Spain, where his father, an office in the U.S. Navy, was stationed. It always is a privilege to study under qualified instructors provided by the Lutheran Church of Venezuela's Juan de Frias Theological Institute. La Fortaleza Lutheran Church of Maracay, Venezuela, hosted the seminar. This is the church where Luz Maria and I had our marriage solemnized (because in Venezuela, first you are legally married in a civil ceremony and later, if you desire, there is a service of blessing in the church).

Krey challenges delegates to be ‘Baptized for Mercy’

Also, when I first arrived in Venezuela in 2003, I lived in Maracay with Pastor Ted Krey (now LCMS World Missions regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean) and studied Spanish at the Language College. Also at the time, Ross Johnson, who is now director of the LCMS Disaster Response ministry, was serving his vicarage at La Fortaleza Lutheran Church.
Edgar Coronado, the current pastor of La Fortaleza, was one of the first Venezuelans that I met when I toured the country in April 2003, before I began my long-term service that July. So it was with many fond memories that we traveled to Maracay.

Luz Maria and I did a presentation on the pastoral office, comparing the treatment of the subject in John Theodore Mueller' s "Christian Dogmatics" and chapter 6 of Sergio Fritzler's “El Oficio Pastoral”.

Mueller was a professor at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, from 1920 to 1964. His book is an abridged English version of Franz Pieper's classic three-volume work, Christliche Dogmatik. It was the first English translation of Pieper's work, and was, in turn, translated into Spanish by Andrés A. Melendez, founder of the Spanish Lutheran Hour (Cristo Para Todas Las Naciones).

 I remember reading the complete, unabridged English translation of Pieper's work by T. Engelder, J. T. Mueller; and W. W. F. Albrecht in my father's study years ago when I was a boy. It was a major influence on my thinking. Pieper, by the way, was also a native of Pomerania, the land of my ancestors. He was born west of Danzig (now known as Gdansk).

Sergio Fritzler serves as director of Concordia Seminary in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the seminary of la Iglesia Evangélica Luterana Argentina (IELA) (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Argentina). The chapter that we were assigned from Fritzler's book is more of a historical overview in the way perceptions of the pastoral office have changed from the time of Constantine (fourth century A.D.) until the present, while Mueller's handbook of systematic theology deals the topic in a more abstract way.

Nevertheless Luz Maria and I recognized a common theme: We Lutherans believe in apostolic succession, although in a manner different than that of the Roman Catholic Church. Christ Himself instituted the office of pastor to continue the work of the apostles: Preaching and teaching the apostolic doctrine and administering the sacraments. God calls and places men into the ministry of Word and sacrament using the church as an instrument. However, the right of apostolic succession is based on fidelity to the Holy Scriptures, not on an historic episcopate supposedly dating back in an unbroken line to the time of the apostles.

 Luz Maria elected president of women's organization

From Sept. 5 to 8, 2013, Luz Maria attended the national convention of Sociedad Luterana de Damas Venezolanas (SOLUDAVE), the Lutheran Church of Venezuela's women's organization. It took place at a retreat center near Barquisimeto, with the focus being on a study of the prophetess Deborah in the Book of Judges and the role of women in the church. Luz Maria was elected president of the organization.

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The baptism of Adam Jesús Mogollón

Adam Jesús Mogollón was born August 21, 2012. He returned to the hospital with some kind of infection during the second week of his life. In his third week, he did not eat properly and seemed to have trouble breathing. Luz María and I visited his parents, Wuendy and Jesús, in Ottawa, Canada, that third week.

Wuendy is Luz Maria's daughter, and Adam Jesús is her ninth grandchild. His parents did not know this, but his initials, “A.J.” are the same as those of my great-grandfather, Andrew John Hemmingson. Due to the delicate nature of the child's health and because his parents have yet to find a church home in Ottawa, I baptized Adam Jesús in their home on Saturday, September 8, 2012. His maternal grandmother was physically present to witness the event, while his father's mother, brother and sister in Caracas were with us via the magic of Internet videoconferencing. That was a new experience for me.

We purchased a glass dish shaped like a scallop shell to hold the water for the baptism. The scallop shell is an ancient symbol for baptism, probably because the shells are easily found on any of the world's seashores, and because they are useful for pouring water. We have brought the shell-shaped dish back to Venezuela and will use it from now on for all baptisms at La Caramuca Lutheran Mission. Thanks to generous contributions from our sponsoring individuals and organizations, we were able, throughout our journey, to buy a large amount of supplies that are hard to find in Venezuela at this time.

 Of course, I explained to Wuendy and Jesus that the baptism of an infant represents a commitment by its parents and, ideally, a local congregation to continue its instruction in the faith. However, none of the Lutheran churches near their home offer worship services in Spanish. Wuendy and Jesus both have learned enough English and French for daily business and social interactions. But it is a universal part of the immigrant experience that the language of prayer and worship remains the last link to the immigrant's life in the old country.

I am reminded of the story of “Meyer vs. Nebraska.” This was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, the first in which the Court invoked the Fourteenth Amendment to protect the noneconomic rights of citizens against intrusion by the states.

 In the years leading up to, and following World War I, anti-German sentiment led to the imprisonment of German immigrants suspected of being spies, and bans of the speaking of German, the performance of German music and the reading of German books. However, in 1923 the Supreme Court struck down a Nebraska statute that prohibited the teaching of modern foreign languages in private and parochial elementary schools. The Court held that the statute was unconstitutional because it deprived parents and teachers of liberty and property without due process of law in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Why? Because Robert T. Meyer, a teacher at Zion Lutheran Church, Hampton, Nebraska, defied the statute by openly teaching German, as did two other Lutheran parochial schoolteachers in defiance of similar state laws in Ohio and Iowa. Meyer argued that it was his duty to teach children the religion of their parents in the language of their parents. Since the Lutheran parochial schools already taught basic curricular subjects in the English language, the Court found that the Nebraska, Ohio, and Iowa statutes did not promote the states' interest in encouraging patriotism and the use of a common language.

 I long have thought that we who are descendants of German-speaking immigrants who sought religious liberty in the United States should not be blind to the reflection of our ancestors' spiritual needs and struggles in the more recent waves of immigrants. Jesús told me that although the number of Venezuelans living in Ottawa is small, the total number of Spanish-speaking people is much larger, with representatives from nearly all Central and South American countries, including Colombia, Ecuador and Nicaragua. I gather that the Lutheran Church – Canada (sister synod to the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod) once supported a Latin American mission in the Ottawa metropolitan area, but it was discontinued for reasons that I have yet to learn.

Anyway, while Wuendy and Jesus stayed home to care for their sick child, Luz María and I on Sunday attended St. Luke Lutheran Church. We are grateful for the warm reception by everyone, but especially Pastor Bryan King, and Skip and Anne Taylor.

 A tour of Issues Etc.

While visiting my mother before returning to Venezuela, we had the opportunity to tour the studio of Issues Etc., a Lutheran talk-radio program that broadcasts over the Internet, in nearby Collinsville, Illinois. I regularly listen to Issues Etc. In Venezuela and especially appreciate the interviews with seminary professors. Thanks again to Jeff Schwarz and Pastor Bruce Kesemann of Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church of Freeburg, Illinois.

Reaffirmation of faith and fidelity

Depending on how you look at it, we closed the old year or began the new year with a reaffirmation of wedding vows. Luz Maria's daughter, Wuendy, and her husband, Jesus Mogollon, renewed their marital commitment at our New Year's Eve service, December 31, 2010.

Although they have been married since 2007, Wuendy and Jesus sought our prayers and God's blessing as they take another big step in their life together. They will move to Quebec, Canada, in March. Jesus is a software engineer who got in on the ground floor of a startup company that since has become quite successful. The entire company, all of its employees and their families, will move from Caracas to Montreal to take advantage of business opportunities up north.

One might wonder, what do Venezuela and Canada have in common? For one thing, petroleum production in both countries. Jesus' company specializes in the development of automated processing software, the programs which control the petroleum refining and other highly automated industrial processes.

                          Image via Wikipedia 

Wuendy and Jesus have been diligently learning French as a prerequisite for moving to Quebec. Luz Maria and I hope this will prove useful in finding a Lutheran congregation in Quebec, We don't know about any Latino outreach in Quebec by the Lutheran Church - Canada (Eglise Lutherienne du Canada), although we know the LCC has devoted a great deal of its resources to international mission work in Nicaragua. Also at least two Lutheran missionaries to Venezuela have been Canadian: Edmund Mielke, who is now pastor of Grace Lutheran Church, Brandon, Manitoba, and Ontario native Ted Krey, who is now Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod regional director of missions for Latin America and the Caribbean. Pastors Mielke and Krey both spent a lot of time in Barinas, which is why the cross we have above our altar at La Caramuca Lutheran Mission is modeled after the official symbol of the Lutheran Church - Canada.
However, there are a number of French-speaking congregations in Quebec affiliated with the LCC. Lutheranism is not new to the province, according to David Somers, an LCC pastor in Montreal who was instrumental in the development of the new hymnal. Many early immigrants from France were Lutheran, escaping the Wars of Religion that pitted Protestants against Roman Catholics.

In November 2009, the LCC published Liturgies et cantiques lutheriens, the first complete French Lutheran hymnal in 35 years. Liturgies et cantiques luthériens includes 434 hymns, including never-before-published material from the Alsace-Lorraine region of France, three settings of the Divine Service, Matins, Vespers, and Compline, Holy Baptism, marriage, and funeral services among many other liturgical resources.

More than 2,500 copies of the French hymnal are now in circulation and are used in Africa, Europe and Haiti, as well as Canada. There are growing numbers of Lutherans in French-speaking Africa, especially in Madagascar.

We can only hope that one day we will have a Spanish hymnal that surpasses Culto Cristiano, first published in 1964. Culto Cristiano contains 476 hymns, all the propers based on the historic one-year lectionary, orders of public and private confession, the Divine Service, Matins, Vespers, the Psalms, prayers for various occasions, the Small Catechism, and special orders of service for weddings, funerals and other events. However, it does not contain orders for some of the liturgical practices that have been revived in the last 45 years, such as imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday and the Good Friday tenebrae service, and some practices that are typical here in Venezuela, such as the blessing of a new house. Of course, we do have a supplement, Ritual Cristiano, that covers the blessing of a new house, and even such things at the dedication of a cemetery or a baptismal font, but it would be nice to have all these things in one volume. Culto Cristiano also does not contain a number of excellent songs that we have found useful in teaching children and young people, such as "Alabare, alabare", "Padre Nuestro" (a metrical version of the Lord's Prayer), "Creo en Dios el Padre Eterno" (the Apostle's Creed set to music), "Dios es nuestro amparo" and others.

The reaffirmation and blessing of the marriage of Wuendy and Jesus was an opportunity to just what marriage is in God's eyes. What it is not: A private contract between two individuals for their personal pleasure, no matter how mutual the satisfaction might be. If it were, it might not matter if both partners were of the same sex, or how many partners a person might have. However, marriage is the most public institutions, instituted by God in the beginning as part of His order of creation. Because God also instituted civil government to restrain immorality, the administration of laws upholding the sanctity of marriage and family fall within the domain of secular authorities. Those who do not respect what God has ordained regarding marriage are rightly subject to punishment by the state and by God. Furthermore, a government which fails to conform the civil law to the divine law invites the judgment and wrath of God upon the entire nation.

Our New Year's Eve service also provided the opportunity to reaffirm the importance of placing all your plans in God's hands. Because of Christ's atoning suffering and death, those who believe are restored to a right relationship with God. Thus we may pray to Him with confidence, trusting that He intends for us "a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11) and that "all things work for the good of them that love God, for those who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28). Above all else, we have the promise in baptism that, no matter what happens to us in life, we are assured of eternal happiness with Christ in the life to come. Amen.