Saturday in the park

On February 18, 2012, we rented a bus and took 48 people (parents and children) to Barquisimeto for a family retreat. We left La Caramuca at 6 p.m. and arrived in Barquisimeto mid-morning to meet with Pastor Miguelangel Perez and members of New Life Lutheran Mission. Miguelangel, who is pastor of El Paraiso Lutheran Church in Barquisimeto and vice president of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela, led the group in prayer and Bible study.

After lunch, the group spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying Macuto Forest Park. The park, located in the middle of a urban nature preserve, opened in December 2007. It showcases the biodiversity of Venezuela. Venezuela ranks among the top 20 countries in the world for its numbers of native plants, amphibians, birds, and reptiles not found anywhere else.

Major attractions for the children included a petting zoo and a reptile house featuring the 40 different species of snakes native to Venezuela. Most familiar to North Americans would be the various types of anacondas, boa constrictors and rattlesnakes. The reptile house itself was built in the form of serpent and you entered between the serpent's jaws, which the children felt was awesome beyond words.

The bus ride to and from Barquisimeto was an adventure in itself for many of the children. With a population of around two million compared to 300,000 for Barinas, Barquisimeto is the fourth-largest city in Venezuela, after Caracas, Maracaibo and Valencia. So for the young ones, the trip to the big city was very exciting, although for me it was a familiar route and it took longer than I was usted to, because Luz Maria hired a bus driver known more for his caution than speed. I just sat back and thought of some of the fondest memories of my childhood: those one-day Bible camps on the banks of the James River in Huron, South Dakota.

Music next to theology

The 54th annual Grammy Awards included one for Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra for their recording of Brahms's Fourth Symphony. Gustavo Dudamel, a native of Barquisimeto, is, at age 31, the music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in Gothenburg, Sweden, and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra in Caracas.

His success story is only one of the most well-known results of la Fundación del Estado para el Sistema Nacional de las Orquestas Juveniles e Infantiles de Venezuela, generally known as "El Sistema". José Antonio Abreu founded this program in 1975 to provide poor Venezuelan children with an alternative to lives of drug abuse and crime through training in classical music. Beginning as an all-volunteer effort, "El Sistema" has received Venezuelan government funding since 1977 and has recently been incorporated into the public school curriculum.

All instruction and instruments are provided free at centers located within walking distance of the students' homes. Many of the instructors have passed through the program themselves. "El Sistema" has made Venezuela the talk of the classical music world. It is the subject of an award-winning documentary, "Tocar y Luchar", by Venezuelan film director, Alberto Arvelo.

Doubts were raised about "El Sistema" at first, because some thought the lower-class children of the urban slums and isolated villages of rural Venezuela could not be motivated to learn classical music. The success of the program inspires me as we strive to teach our children the source of the beauty of western classical music: The liturgy and music of the Christian church, which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ in song. Martin Luther said, ""Next to theology I give to music the highest place and honor. And we see how David and all the saints have wrought their godly thoughts into verse, rhyme, and song." God grant that we might help our congregation to do the same, because God knows the potential is there.

Related articles

• José Antonio Abreu Leads El Sistema in Venezuela (nytimes.com)
• 'El Sistema' creator: inspiring kids through music (mysanantonio.com)
• Caracas diary: Meeting the youngest musicians of El Sistema (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
• Dudamel and LA Philharmonic make waves in Caracas (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Giving thanks for a successful semester

On July 5, the first Sunday in July this year (and also Independence Day in Venezuela) Sandro Perez requested a special prayer of thanksgiving for the completion of another semester of school. Our summer break has begun and the new semester begins in mid September. Sandro, who suffered a couple of bouts with dengue fever this past year, will start seventh grade. This is an important moment for Sandro, because many children in our community drop out of school after sixth grade (the maximum amount of education required by law).

Angie Perez and Noel Marquina also will enter seventh grade next semester. Sandro and Noel have been confirmed, while Angi is preparing for her confirmation this fall. She and Sandro are not related; Perez is a name like Smith, Jones or Johnson in the United States. The Venezuelan equivalent of "John Smith" would be "Pedro Perez".

We also prayed for the health of Angi s brother, Jimmy Perez, who was ill to the point of coughing up blood, but who now is recuperating and for the nations of the world to peacefully resolve their problems. Amid our everyday concerns, all eyes have been glued to the television for news of -- well, not so much the aftermath of Michael Jackson's death, although the pop star's funeral was enough of a spectacle to merit extensive coverage. People here are more concerned with the civil unrest in Honduras and what it means for all of Latin America.
Later in the week Luz Maria went to town with Sandro and some of the other children receiving scholarships from Children's Christian Concern Society of Topeka, Kansas, to help them buy school uniforms with their scholarship money. Almost all Venezuelan schools, public or private, require school uniforms. The children in our preschool wear a uniform that consists of a red shirt and blue slacks.

On Wednesday, July 15, we had a graduation ceremony for 12 children who will be leaving our preschool and starting first grade next semester. The group included Luz Maria's granddaughter, Oriana Montoya, who will celebrate her seventh birthday in December. Oriana was born just six months before my arrival in Venezuela in 2003, so strange as it seems to say, I have known her nearly all her life.

The other graduates were:

• Kelvis Artahona
• Yerika Galindez
• Kemberling Altuve
• Gianny Roa
• Jeiximar Arellano
• Yorman Poveda
• Maikel Caraballo
• Jhon Piñero
• Ana Garcia
• Gaudis Rangel

Only Gaudis was not able to attend the graduation. The rest were there with their families. I opened by reading from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 18, verses 1-10. Then, since the children learned the Lord's Prayer this semester, I led them in singing a version of it set to music. I liked this song from the first time I heard it. Ruth Witte, wife of Pastor Henry Witte, a former missionary to Venezuela, sang it to a group of vacation Bible school children at Roca de Eternidad (Rock of Ages) Lutheran Church in Quebrada Seca, Monagas.

Padre nuestro, que estás en los cielos,
Santificado, santificado sea Tu nombre.

Venga a nos, Tu reino, Señor, hágase tu santa voluntad.
En el cielo y la tierra, haremos Tu santo voluntad.

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

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

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

I cannot sing like Ruthie Witte, nor can I play the cuatro (four-stringed guitar). But the children sang from memory and with impressive volume and enthusiasm, which was the main idea.

Later on, Vicar Alonso Franco arrived from Barinas to lead the children in more songs to the accompaniment of a guitar. He was delayed by rain and road construction, but that really did not matter. Alonso has begun teaching the guitar to a group of boys in La Caramuca on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have given up trying to learn guitar chords for the time being so these guys will have the chance to practice with our guitar.

After saying a prayer for the coming semester, for the children passing on to first grade and for those returning to our preschool, the graduation ceremony continued with the awarding of diplomas, and, of course, cake and refreshments.

Homilectics and hermeneutics

From June 29 to July 3, 2009, I attended a seminar in homilectics in Caracas, taught Dr. Douglas Rutt of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Actually, the course combined the study of homilectics (preaching) and hermeneutics (Biblical interpretation) as the two are closely related. It is a course generally taught to second-year students at the Fort Wayne seminary. Our thanks to Dr. Rutt for his willingness to travel to Venezuela to teach this course.

'Tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee

Every sermon that I preach in La Caramuca is more or less a children's sermon. Most of our flock is under 15 years of age, so I try to keep it simple and direct.

On Transfiguration Sunday, February 1, 2009, I recalled that when I was six or seven years old, I conceived a grand ambition to look directly into the sun. I observed that sunlight was good; it enabled plants to grow, gave warmth and allowed everyone to see where they were going. So could it be so difficult to look directly at the source of all that light and warmth? I decided I would try to look directly at the sun for as long as I could without blinking.

Try as I might, I could not stop blinking while looking at the sun. The end-result was that my eyelids became badly sunburned. It was really very painful, but I thank God now that I did not sustain any permanent injury to my eyes.

My point was that while sunlight brings us life and vision in a physical sense, and is therefore good, it is dangerous to gaze at the sun with unprotected eyes. How much more this is true of God, the Source of all things good, physical and spiritual, Who, as St. James reminds us, is the Father of lights with there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning (James 1:17). We, with our human nature darkened by sin, cannot look directly at the splendor of God's pure light and live.Outside of Christ, we can only know the holiness of God as something that burns and destroys if we draw too close.

For that reason, even a reflection of the divine glory terrifies us, as emphasized in Exodus 34:29-35, the Old Testament lesson for Transfiguration Sunday. In the latter verses of chapter 33 and the opening verses of chapter 34, we read that Moses pleaded with the Lord for the opportunity to see the divine glory for himself It is in Exodus 33:20 that God says, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live”. But, as subsequent verses describe it, Moses is allowed to see God's back as he passes by. While this is happening, the Lord also “proclams His name”, that is to say, reveals to Moses something of His true nature and will.

According to Exodus 34, verses 29 to 35, even this indirect vision of God's glory leaves Moses' face literally glowing in a manner that frightens the Israelites when they see it. As I was trying to explain all of this in simple terms for the children, I was reminded of a hymn that used to be a favorite:

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessèd, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, thy great Name we praise.

Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
Nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;
Thy justice like mountains high soaring above,
Thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.

To all life thou givest, to both great and small;
In all life thou livest, the true life of all;
We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish, but naught changeth thee.

Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
Thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
All laud we would render: O help us to see
’Tis only the splendor of light hideth thee.

First published in 1876, “Immortal, invisible, God only wise” was written by Walter Chalmers Smith, a Scottish evangelical preacher. It is supposed to be inspired mainly by 1 Timothy 1:17, although it also draws on Daniel 7:9 and Psalm 36:6. It is a majestic hymn, set to a beautiful, old Welsh melody.

Nevertheless, I do not like it as much as I once did. Now I recognize that the hymn is very Calvinistic, emphasizing the power and sovereignty of God the Father while saying nothing about the Incarnation, much less the Transfiguration of the Son, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit in Baptism and Holy Communion. Even in the Old Testament, even in that very part of Exodus where the Lord says no man may see His face and live, He yet reveals Himself as a God of mercy as well as justice. As Exodus 34:6 reads, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

Then, Moses, the Lawgiver, prefigures Christ by interceding for his people, begging the Lord to spare them His wrath (because of their worship of the golden calf).

This is how I explained it to the children: Because of our sin we would not be able to gaze directly at God in His glory, but because of Jesus we can. On the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James and John saw the light of God's holiness and lived, because the light was (quite literally) filtered through the humanity of Jesus. One day we all will do the same. For as St. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3:12-18:

"Since we have such a hope, we are very bold,not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.And we will, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

After the sermon, Luz Maria taught them a song about the Transfiguration:

“Hagamos aqui tres pabellones,
Uno para Ti, y otro para Moisés”
Dijo San Pedro, “y otro para Elias,
Hasta que vengas en las nubes otra vez.”

Están hablando de lo sucedido
Y el Padre eterno desde los cielos los habló
Y ellos cayeron al suel conmovidos,
Y una luz gloriosa de repente los cubrió.

A rough translation:

"Let us make here three pavilions,
One for You and another for Moses”
Said St. Peter, “and another for Elijah,
Until You return in the clouds.”

They were talking of what was happening,
When the eternal Father spoke to them from heaven,
They fell to the earth shaken,
And a glorious light suddenly covered them.

Meeting with the parents

We plan this year to involve more adults in worship and confirmation classes. With that end in view, I extended just that invitation at our first meeting of the new year with the parents of
our preschool children. We received very positive feedback from one of the mothers. She said she had been worried because her small daughter hardly ever said a word. But now she is always singing one of the songs that we have taught the children, “El amor de Dios es maravilloso”. (“God's love is marvelous”). It's simple song for preschoolers with lots of hand gestures:

El amor de Dios es maravilloso, el amor de Dios es maravilloso,
El amor de Dios es maravilloso, cuan grande es el amor de Dios.

Es tan alto que no puedo ir arriba de el.
Tan profundo que no puedo ir abajo de el.
Es tan ancho que no puedo ir afuero de el.

Cuan grande es el amor de Dios.

The lyrics in English go something like this:

God's love is marvelous, God's love is marvelous,
God's love is marvelous, how grand is God's love.

It's so high that there's nothing above it,
So deep that there's nothing below it,
So wide that there's nothing outside of it.

How grand is God's love.

Vicar Alonso Franco was on hand to introduce himself to the parents. He also taught the children their Bible lesson and led them in song that day. Alonso preached his first sermon at Corpus Christi Lutheran Church on Transfiguration Sunday. He spoke on the Transfiguration story from an entirely different angle: The fact that the Transfiguration followed Jesus' first announcement to his disciples that he would be killed and then raised from the dead. The mountaintop experience prepared the disciples for some very deep valleys.

As St. Peter would write in the epistle for Transfiguration Sunday, 2 Peter 1:16-21, “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased.” And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.”

Gates of beauty

Open now thy gates of beauty,
Zion, let me enter there,
Where my soul in joyful duty
Waits for Him Who answers prayer.
Oh, how blessèd is this place,
Filled with solace, light and grace!

These words comprise the first verse of Catherine Winkworth's translation
of an 18th Century German hymn based on Psalm 100. During her lifetime (1827-1878), Winkworth translated more than 80 German "chorales" dating from the 16th to the 18th centuries for use in the Church of England. Her work has never been equaled and her translations are well-known not only to Anglicans, but also to English-speaking Lutherans around the world. She is credited with introducing a distinctively German musical form to a culture shaped by the English language. Winkworth also had 44 of her original poems published (in English), as well as two books documenting the foundation of mission work among the poor. The daughter of a wealthy textile mill owner, she herself was involved in charitable work among the disadvantaged in Victorian England and was a tireless advocate of higher education for women.

"Open now thy gates of beauty" ran through my mind as I gazed upon the newly installed gates to our mission. God willing, this will be a place of His solace, light and grace. There are three gates, one large one for vehicles and large groups of people, and two smaller ones for normal entrance from the street. All three incorporate Luther's seal (the
cross inside a heart inside a rose) as part of their design. The plan was to have Luther's seal on only one gate, but the man who did the ironwork was really taken with the design. Luz María was at pains to explain to him that the seal is not just a decoration, but is meant to identify who we are and what we believe.

Recently Luz María ran across a new community profile of La Caramuca that someone had printed up. Under the "Religion" heading, it said that there were two churches in La Caramuca, one being the Roman Catholic church on the plaza and the other being "Cristo Para Todas Las Naciones" ("Christ For All The Nations"). The second one would be our mission, because we dutifully distribute tracts printed by CPTLN, the Spanish arm of Lutheran Hour International Ministries. CPTLN has been broadcasting on Venezuelan radio and television since the 1940s and the phrase "Cristo Para Todas Las Naciones" is a familiar one, but CPTLN is not as strongly associated in people's minds with the Lutheran Church of Venezuela as we might like.

The struggle to establish an identity for the Lutheran Church of Venezuela takes on an added note of seriousness when you consider there is a decidedly non-Christian group active in Venezuela with a history of copying Lutheran symbols. This would be the Rosicrucian Fellowship, which has 20 lodges and chapters across Venezuela, including nearly all the cities where the Lutheran Church of Venezuela has congregations.

"Rosicrucian" is derived from both the Latin and German words for "rosy cross" and it is no accident that the Rosicrucians have an emblem that incorporates both a rose and a cross like Luther's seal.

The Rosicrucian Fellowship is one of those groups that seek esoteric or "hidden" knowledge under a veneer of Christian symbolism and terminology. Invariably such groups deny the sufficiency and clarity of the Bible as the rule of faith and seek a "deeper" source of knowledge.

At first the Rosicrucians claimed to have discovered the "philosopher's stone" (the secret of transmuting metals, especially lead into gold) and the key to physical immortality. Nowadays the Rosicrucians run newspaper ads making more modest promises of health and wealth. The main distinction between the Rosicrucians and other esoteric groups, from the Cathars of the 12th Century all the way back to the Gnostics of the early Christian era, is that the Rosicrucian movement emerged in 17 Century Germany, that is to say, against a background of Lutheran orthodoxy. Imagine, if you will, that the more recent New Age Movement in the United States had started in Wisconsin rather than California.

In fact, one of the founding documents of Rosicrucianism was written byJohann Valentin Andreae, a grandson of Jakob Andreae, one of the signers of the Formula of Concord in 1577 and an editor, along with Martin Chemnitz, of the Book of Concord in 1580. Johann Andreae was something of a wayward youth, having been expelled from the University of Tubingen for playing a practical joke and later flunking his ordination exam at the Stuttgart Consistory. Eventually, however, he was ordained a Lutheran pastor and became quite the respectable citizen. He freely admitted writing in his younger days the document that had come to be associated with Rosicrucianism, but claimed it was intended as a parody of similar writings. Not everyone believed this, and Johann Andreae's name still had enough of an association with the occult for him to be identified as one of the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion, a "secret" organization actually founded in 1956, but which claimed origins in antiquity. The Priory of Sion was exposed as a hoax by scholars and journalists in the 1960s, but its false claims were asserted to be factual by author Dan Brown in the preface to his notorious novel, The Da Vinci Code.

The Rosicrucians later developed ties with the Masonic Lodge and piggybacked on the movement of Freemasonry throughout the world. As I have written before, the Masonic Lodge also is quite active in Venezuela.

Candles in the dark

On Sunday, October 19, Pastor Adrian Ventura, president of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela, visited Barinas. That morning at Corpus Christi Lutheran Church, Eduardo played the guitar, I led the opening Service of the Word, and Pastor Adrian preached and administered the sacrament of Holy Communion. His sermon was excellent, but perhaps the most notable aspect of the service was that as it was underway, Venezuela experienced its third nationwide power blackout in the last six months. The electricity was cut off that morning and for most of the rest of the day.

The church has no air-conditioning, but there are two banks of fans on each side of the sanctuary to provide ventilation. However, these were not working during the blackout. Pastor Adrian and I both were wearing white albs over our regular clothes. Generally Venezuelans handle the tropical heat better than North Americans, but I noticed Pastor Adrian's face also was shining with sweat by the end of the service.

Later that afternoon, Pastor Adrian visited La Caramuca with Eduardo and Armando Ramos, former pastor in residence at Tierra de Gracia Lutheran Farm.

The following day, October 20, we experienced another blackout in the evening. This one was local, affecting only La Caramuca, although that did not make a lot of difference to us. In addition to the three nationwide blackouts, there have been an increasing number of local blackouts nearly every week. Like most developing countries, Venezuela suffers from a lack of
adequate infrastructure (roads, telephone and electrical lines, waterworks). Years of inadequate public investment in infrastructure have resulted in a decaying power grid that is no longer capable of meeting consumer demand.

Nevertheless, despite the lack of electric lights, Luz María and I hosted our regular Monday confirmation class by candlelight. We have five young people who have been faithfully attending confirmation class on Sunday, Monday and Thursday. One of them is Sandro Peréz, the boy
who recently was hospitalized for dengue fever. We thank God that he is completely recovered. Our goal is to have these five confirmed by Pastor Ted Krey on November 2, when he visits Barinas for perhaps the last time before leaving Venezuela for the Dominican Republic.

Sandro suffers dengue fever

Twelve-year-old Sandro Pérez, who lives across the street from us, has been one of our more faithful and attentive students in both Sunday school and confirmation class. Always cheerful, mature for his age and showing signs of musical talent, Sandro is receiving financial assistance to stay in school from Children's Christian Concern Society of Topeka, Kansas. Unfortunately, Sandro was hospitalized this week with dengue fever.

Dengue fever is spread by Aedes aegypti, a species of mosquito that thrives in tropical regions. Over the last four years, local health agencies have made a dedicated effort to control the spread of dengue by spraying with pesticide the areas where Aedes aegypti may breed. The mosquitos breed on water standing in artificial containers such as plastic cups, used tires, broken bottles, or flower pots, so there also has been an effort to educate everyone on the importance of sanitation as a means of preventing Aedes aegypti from reproducing.


There is no vaccine or cure for dengue. Those stricken must wait for the disease to run its course.

Symptoms include:

• Severe muscle and joint pain (which is why dengue is also known as "bonebreak fever").


• Fever


• Chills


• Constant headaches


• Bleeding from nose, mouth or gums


• Severe dizziness


• Loss of appetite

The more advanced stage of the disease, dengue hemorrhagic fever, may produce shock and hemorraging, leading to death. The fatality rate for all forms of dengue is relatively low (5
percent), nevertheless it was a serious matter for someone as young as Sandro.

Luz Maria and I visited Sandro in the pediatric clinic, and the other youth in the confirmation class prayed for him and made cards from construction paper for us to present to Sandro on our next visit. We thank God that Sandro returned home the next day and we gave the cards to him there.

New semester begins

Webegan a new semester of the preschool September 15 with 24 children enrolled. Every week begins with the singing of the national anthem and praying the Lord's Prayer. For seven weeks we will focus on the creation story in the first chapter of Genesis. Yepci had the children
draw with white crayons on black construction paper to symbolize the creation of light and the separation of night and day on the first day of creation.

Old dog, new tricks

In case you missed the entertainment industry headlines, Madonna, Michael Jackson and Sharon
Stone all have turned 50 this year. This month it will be my turn, along with country music stars, Alan Jackson and Tanya Tucker. While I have not attained the same level of wealth and fame as some of my contemporaries, I have always been considered something of a legend in my own mind.

And I am taking guitar lessons for the first time since I was about 16 or 17. Eduardo is teaching a number of people how to play musical instruments, primarily the cuatro (Venezuelan four-stringed guitar). Luz María's daughter, Charli, is learning to play the cuatro. But while the cuatro is relatively easy to learn, while the six-stringed guitar is more complicated. I hope that by volunteering I will encourage more of the young people to learn the guitar. I also realize that since:

• Singing is usually a part not only of Sunday morning worship, but also of Bible studies and more informal gatherings here, and;


• I cannot always count on having someone else to provide musical accompaniment;

I should have some knowledge of the most commonly available and versatile instrument (Beethoven once called the guitar a symphony orchestra in one instrument).

Some of the larger congregations in the Lutheran Church of Venezuela add an electronic keyboard or piano, and drums to the guitar as part of an instrumental ensemble. Pipe organs
are quite rare. I have seen only one pipe organ since my arrival in Venezuela and it was not in our Lutheran Church of Venezuela congregations. What's more, it was the only pipe organ I've ever seen that might fit in someone's living room.

Kenny Rogers in the cybercafe

As I sat in the cybercafe, uploading photos, the owner, Alexis, played a CD of Kenny Rogers' greatest hits that his brother had brought him from the United States. Since I was the only customer at the time, I suspect it was for my benefit. It brought back of lot of fond memories
of the days when Kenny regularly scored No. 1 hits on both the country and pop music charts. I always liked "Reuben James", a song about a white orphan boy adopted by a black sharecropper:

"Reuben James, you still walk the furrowed fields of my mind,
A faded shirt, a weathered brow, callused hands upon the plow,
I loved you then and I love you now, Reuben James."

After awhile, Alexis came over to talk to me. I had told him something about our mission in La Caramuca. "Is your mission affiliated with the Baptist church?" he wanted to know.

"No," I said. "It's supported by the Lutheran Church of Venezuela."

"I have read about Martin Lutero," Alexis said. "Many of the things he did were very good." His concern seemed to focus on the indulgence trade. "I don't understand people taking money from other people like that in the name of God."

Then Alexis seemed to change the subject. "What can you tell me about the Mormons?" he asked.

"The Mormons do not believe in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity," I said. "Nor do they believe that Jesus Christ made full atonement for the sins of all people on the cross."

"I have talked to the young Mormon missionaries," Alexis said. "Their families give a lot of money to their church, but they receive only a small amount to live on. I don't understand this."

Then he revealed that he had talked to representatives of a number of the religious groups that are active in Venezuela. "It is so hard to know what is the truth," he said.

"All false religions have one thing in common," I said. "They teach that we must earn God's favor by our own works. But the Bible teaches that Christ paid the price for all our sins on the cross and that only through Him may we be reconciled with God."

"Many people here would rather pray to the santos, the saints, rather than God because they believe that if they have done wrong, God will not listen to their prayers," Alexis said.

Then some more customers came in, and he had to attend to them. The moment was gone. But before I left, I gave Alexis the address of Corpus Christi Lutheran Church and invited him to attend on Sunday and learn more about what we believed. God grant that I have another opportunity to talk with Alexis about these things.

10th baptism in La Caramuca

Genesis Noeli Marquina Villamizar was baptized June 29, 2008, in La Caramuca. I assisted Pastor Miguelángel Pérez in this, the 10th baptism here since we started our mission project in 2004.

Genesis, who is one of the children enrolled in our preschool, was born in 2004. It is sobering to realize that many of the preschool children were not yet born when I first visited Venezuela in 2002. Of course, this includes Luz María's three youngest grandchildren. Her fourth-oldest grandchild, Oriana, was an infant when I met Luz María. Now Oriana is nearly six years old.

Sponsors at the baptism included two relatives, Angelmiro Camacho and Ana Julia de Toro Peña, Yepci, Luz María's oldest daughter, and Eduardo, my partner-vicar. There were more than 30 people, children and adults, present for the baptism that Sunday afternoon. Eduardo was not actually present, since he took Miguelángel's place, preaching in Barquisimeto. But Genesis loves Eduardo, so we made sure his name was on the baptismal certificate.

Noel and Jefferson, the two older brothers of Genesis, have been faithfully attending our Sunday school. The boys received the sacrament of holy baptism as infants from a Roman Catholic priest, but Genesis never did, due to the influence of a relative who converted to Pentecostalism.

For hundreds of years, Venezuelans regarded baptism in a Roman Catholic church essentially as an insurance policy in case the Christian God turned out to have the last word after all. They were not helped in their understanding by Roman Catholic teaching which emphasizes the ritual of baptism as being efficacious in and of itself, apart from the Holy Spirit working within the heart and daily life of the believer.

Nevertheless, as Lutherans, we agree with Roman Catholics that God has instituted the sacrament of baptism as the visible means by which the believer receives the promise of eternal life in Christ and thus the regeneration of the Holy Spirit.

However, over the last 30 to 40 years, the influence of the Roman Catholic Church has waned in Latin America. This may be largely the result of a worldwide shortage of priests as well as a general dissatisfaction with established institutions due to the persistent wide gap between the rich and the poor in this part of the world. During this same period, most traditional Protestant churches have greatly reduced missionary efforts in Latin America, leaving the field open to Pentecostal/charismatic groups which teach that all may have direct access to the Holy Spirit apart from the authority of the inspired Scriptures and the sacraments instituted by Christ Himself.

Luther recognized the corrosive effect of this idea on any objective standard of faith when he said of the Zwickau Prophets, “They have swallowed the Holy Spirit, feathers and all.” Indeed, one of the most active groups in Venezuela today is the United Pentecostal Church, a “charismatic” body that denies the fundamental doctrine of the Trinity. Under the Pentecostal umbrella there are many other lesser-known heresies, generated by leaders who claim “apostolic” authority apart from either an ecclesiastical hierarchy or the Holy Scriptures.

And certainly Pentecostal theology fits in well with the syncretistic stew that is popular religion in Venezuela. The idea of daily supernatural revelations and interventions is very consistent with the practice of brujeria and espiritismo, as is the “health and prosperity” gospel which claims that if you pray hard enough, God will bless you with all of your earthly desires. In fact, this aspect of Pentecostalism may be the most popular of all here.

Finally, there is the notion that if you may receive a “baptism of the Spirit” apart from the visible means of grace, “water baptism” is not necessary at all, despite our Lord's command. We praise God that after hearing Luz María explain the blessing of holy baptisms to the mothers of our preschool children, Zoraida, Genesis' mother, decided she wanted this gift for her daughter. Eduardo and I, and finally Miguelángel, had further meetings with the family to explain what we believe about baptism, and the responsibilities of parents and sponsors.

Miguelángel also preached and administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper that Sunday morning at Corpus Christi Lutheran Church in Barinas. I do not recall now under what circumstances I first meet Miguelángel. It seems he always has been in the picture. He is about the same age as Luz María's older daughters and is an old friend of theirs from national Lutheran youth gatherings. When Luz María and I were living on Tierra de Gracia Lutheran Farm in eastern Venezuela, Miguelángel came to visit us there.

He had been studying for the ministry for nearly the whole time I have known him. He
was finally ordained March 30, 2008, and now serves as the pastor of two congregations, Cristo es Amor (Christ is Love) and El Paraiso (Paradise), in Barquisimeto. He originally was a member of Cristo es Amor.

The week before the baptism I attended a seminar in pastoral care in Caracas. Pastor Henry Witte led the seminar. He and his wife, Ruthie, served as missionaries in Venezuela for 20 years and for five years in Panama. They are back in the United States where Henry has accepted a call to Sioux City, Iowa.

The focus of the seminar was following the theology of the cross rather than the theology of glory in counseling the severely ill, the dying and the families of such people. The "health-and-prosperity gospel” is, of course, a form of the theology of glory, which says having a right relationship with God means gaining everything you want in this life. The theology of the cross, on the other hand, says suffering is part of living in a world marred by sin and that the
point of the Christian life is not to avoid suffering, but to withstand the temptation to despair through the hope of life eternal.

I met the Wittes on my first visit to Venezuela six years ago. Ruthie led the children in vacation Bible school in Quebrada Seca, Monagas, in the “Padre Nuestro” song which we now are using to teach our preschool children the Lord's Prayer. This past week I recorded Eduardo and his brother, Francisco Rafael, singing “Padre Nuestro” and other songs for children to guitar accompaniment. Then I burned a CD to play in the preschool even on the days when Eduardo is not able to come to La Caramuca.

Listen to "Padre Nuestro".



We would ask you to remember in prayer the family of former missionary Rudy Blank and his wife, Ramona. Her father, Adrian Rivero, passed away this week. Adrian was one of the first national pastors in the Lutheran Church of Venezuela and remained a member of Principe de Paz (Prince of Peace) Lutheran Church in Sierra Caroni until his death.

Trinity Sunday 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coro

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

Coro

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

Coro

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

Service of afternoon prayer

"Jesus, thank you for this Sunday school and the opportunity to learn about you," Angie Perez spontaneously prayed two weeks ago. Angie and her younger brothers, Richard and Jimmy, were among the eight children baptized in La Caramuca last March. Angie will turn 11 this year and, like most of our older children, earnestly desires to be confirmed.

We begin each class by reviewing what the children have learned from Luther's Small Catechism. They have memorized the Ten Commandments and we are moving on to the Apostle's Creed. Then we sing some songs from "Cancionero Luterano 7" or, Lutheran Songbook No. 7. Most of the songs are upbeat and easy for the younger children to sing and understand, but Angie likes the Agnus Dei, which was one of my favorites as a child:

"Oh, Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us.
Oh, Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us.
Oh, Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world, grant us Thy peace."

Of course, we sing a Spanish version:

"Cordero de Dios, que quitas del pecado el mundo, ten piedad de nosotros.
Cordero de Dios, que quitas del pecado el mundo, ten piedad de nosotros.
Cordero de Dios, que quitas del pecado el mundo, danos la paz."

After the songs, I lead the children in a brief liturgy, el Servicio de la Oración Vespertina, or the Service of Afternoon Prayer. This includes the Lord's Prayer, the Apostle's Creed, the Bible reading appointed for that Sunday, and prayers. Then Luz María presents a lesson based on the Bible reading which culminates in a crafts activity. If there are enough of the older children present, we work in a lesson from the catechism for them as well. Finally, the children play volleyball or some other active game until sundown.

In 2008 we plan to teach some of the children to play instruments to accompany the singing. We have on hand a cuatro (four-stringed Venezuelan guitar) and a pandaretta (more like a tambourine than anything else). We would like to purchase more. Also, if we can get the children's parents more involved in our activities, by the time they are confirmed, we could be ready to offer a complete Sunday service of Word and sacrament.

The joy of working with the children in this way more than compensates for a rather rocky start to our new year. For two weeks of this month, the public water system was out of commission. This was not the first such failure, but it was the longest-lasting since I have lived here. We at last were able to put to use the well at the bottom of our hill by figuring out a way to keep the well water out of the pipes to our water-filtration system in the kitchen. We have a two-stage filtration system like many people in Venezuela. The first unit filters out particulate matter and the second is supposed to zap any microbial life in the water. But Luz María does not trust our unit to handle water from the well, which needs a thorough cleaning. For the past two years, the dry season has not been very dry, so the water level in the well has not subsided enough for cleaning. But maybe this March we can accomplish this goal. At least we had plenty of water for washing and did not have to haul our laundry down to the river.

To pump water from the well, we used a small electric pump with a long extension cord. Fortunately we have not had lengthy power outages so far this year. There is a famous quote from the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt's rural electrification program, which brought electric power to many parts of the country. A grateful farmer is supposed to have said, "The greatest thing on earth is to have the love of God in your heart, and the next greatest thing is to have electricity in your house." I tend to agree, although I question whether electricity or running water should be in second or third place.

Also this month there was a near-panic in our area as pasta and rice (staples of the Venezuelan diet) briefly disappeared from grocery-store shelves. Mysterious shortags of various items,like milk, eggs and sugar, have become more frequent in the last two years. We occasionally have worried that Luz María's daughter, Sarai, would not find enough powdered milk to meet the needs of her infant son, Edwar José.

But all is nearly back to normal now. We are getting used to the new currency. In order to stem the runaway inflation, the Venezuelan government Jan. 1 began replacing the nearly worthless bolivar with the bolivar fuerte (strong bolivar). While 1 U.S. dollar equaled 2,000 bolivares, 2 bolivares fuertes equal 1 U.S. dollar. A large cup of coffee cost between 1,000 and 2,000 bolivares (50 cents and $1), but now costs between 1 and 2 bolivares fuertes. That is still between 50 cents and $1, but at least one does not have to deal with all the extra zeroes.

By the way, it is a Venezuelan custom to enjoy "café con leche" (coffee with milk) in the evening. This is like a latte, in other words, a lot of milk with a little bit of coffee. But these past few weeks, we have had to use a milk substitute made of rice and wheat flour (also products that have been in short supply, so you see why it was a concern for everyone).

Building materials are once more available, so Corpus Christi Lutheran Church in Barinas is moving ahead with the construction of its new kitchen, bathrooms and pastor's living quarters. Luz María's daughter, Wuendy, came down from Caracas to help obtain all the cement, tile, fixtures and other necessary items. We soon will resume construction of our fence and playground, and, God willing, begin construction of a schoolhouse this year in La Caramuca.

Update on Kenya: Spring of Life Lutheran Church in Kibera, Kenya, was among the Christian churches burned during post-election violence in that country. About 40 people had sought refuge in Spring of Life, but nobody was injured in the fire. The pastor of Spring of Life is Dennis Meeker, a 2007 graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana. He is married to a Kenyan woman who, like Luz María, is a deaconess in her national church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kenya. For more information on the situation in Kenya, see the Friends of Mercy blog or the personal blog of Carlos Walter Winterle, a Brazilian pastor who is serving as a missionary to Kenya.

Martin Luther movie in Venezuela

As I was sitting in Quinta Lutero, reading El Universal, I noticed the 2003 movie Luther was showing in Caracas. The movie tagline was "Luther: Rebel. Genius. Liberator". Probably Luther would not have been comfortable with any of those titles, but the words chosen to draw in the crowds were interesting. I don't think they were selected specifically for Latin America, but "Libertador" has serious , almost messianic connotations here.

I have seen the movie, which stars Joseph Fiennes as Luther, Claire Cox as Katherine Luther and Peter Ustinov as Frederick the Wise. The film may serve as an introduction to Luther's life and times for some, but I think Luther is portrayed as having too much 21st Century angst in some parts and too much of an action hero in others (if you have seen the movie, too, you will know what I am talking about).

One of the best scenes did not involve Luther at all; that was where the princes who signed the Augsburg Confession bowed their heads for beheading rather than recant their faith. I am not sure that really was what happened, either, but it still was a scene which dramatized what was as at stake for many people who professed their faith at that time.

For me, the 1953 film, "Martin Luther", starring British actor Niall McGinnis, remains the best, most historically accurate movie made about Luther's life.

Anyway, I looked at the ad and thought of the night before. Isaac Machado had brought a set of snare drums to Quinta Lutero (I gather the drums will play some role in the second Congress of Lutheran Educators, scheduled for next month). My fellow students, Sergio, Eduardo and Juan Carlos, all much younger and more musically talented than myself, were with the drums and guitars rocking out to Luther's hymn, "Er­halt uns, Herr, bei dein­em Wort". The most familiar English translation, by Catherine Winkworth, goes like this:


Lord, keep us steadfast in Thy Word;
Curb those who fain by craft and sword
Would wrest the kingdom from Thy Son
And set at naught all He hath done.

Lord Jesus Christ, Thy pow’r make known,
For Thou art Lord of lords alone;
Defend Thy Christendom that we
May evermore sing praise to Thee.

O Comforter of priceless worth,
Send peace and unity on earth.
Support us in our final strife
And lead us out of death to life.

The Spanish, rock-oriented version of this was rather good. So is most of the music the guys select for our morning chapel service up the hill at El Salvador Lutheran Church (where the instrumental accompaniment is guitars and piano, no drums). Unfortunately, Venezuela, like the United States, has its share of "Jesus is my boyfriend" music, but we sing the less politically correct but more doctrinally sound stuff. For example, I almost had forgotten what a great hymn is "Stand Up, Stand Up For Jesus" ("Estad por Cristo Firmes"), or "Onward, Christian Soldiers"("Firmes y Adelante").

As we offer these songs as our prayers for our Lord's guidance and strength in grateful response to His grace in Word and sacrament, we receive counsel and comfort as we contemplate the challenges ahead of us. One of the books we are studying from is a Spanish translation of Luther the Preacher by Fred W. Meuser (Augsburg/Fortress Publishing, 1983).

Meuser writes: "For Luther, preaching was not a preacher's ideas stimulated by the prod of a text. It was not human reflections about God and life. It was not searching around in one's personal religious insights for some kind of contemporary message that one thinks that people need. Christian preaching -- when it is faithful to the word of God in the Scriptures about our need and God's response to it -- is God speaking. When it focuses on what God has done for the world in Jesus Christ, it is God speaking. When it invites faith and presents Christ so that faith becomes possible, it is God speaking...When the proclamation about Christ is the biblical message of God's judgment and grace, not only is the preacher's word God's word, God is really present and speaking. In the sermon one actually encounters God. That makes preaching -- and hearing -- a most dangerous business."

Meuser writes further: "...for Luther, a sermon was an apocalyptic event that set the doors of heaven and hell in motion, a part of the actual continuing conflict between the Lord and Satan.It is the most dangerous task in the world because 'where Christ appears, there the devil starts to speak'. The sermon -- and the congregation that hears it -- is a battlefield in the eschatological struggle beween Christ and the adversary...Aside from this war, the word and what it sets in motion in the souls of people cannot be understood."

We are being entrusted with the task of taking the holy Gospel of Christ into places where perhaps the Devil himself sits enthroned. Please pray for us.


Please also remember in prayer:

• Our preschool in la Caramuca. We have started the new semester with 28 children enrolled;
• Neida Gónzales de Mireles, whose grandmother died last week;
• Veronica, the infant daughter of Pastor Francisco Cabarcas and his wife, Dagnys, who just underwent an operation;
• The congregation of Corpus Christi in Barinas, which has started onstruction of a new kitchen, bathroom facilities and an apartment to house a vicar in January. The plan is for myself and another man to serve both Corpus Christi and la Caramuca as vicars.

Ash Wednesday 2007

My fellow students and I observed Ash Wednesday at El Salvador Lutheran Church in Caracas Following an ancient tradition of the Church, Pastor Alfonso Prada marked our foreheads with the sign of the Cross. He used a paste made from ashes and water.

Then we sang the Spanish words to this hymn:

Christ, the Life of all the living,
Christ, the Death of death, our foe,
Who, Thyself for me once giving
To the darkest depths of woe,--
Through thy sufferings, death, and merit
I eternal life inherit:
Thousand, thousand thanks shall be,
Dearest Jesus, unto Thee.

I love Lenten hymns in general and especially this one because it was part of the music for our wedding service in Maracay, July 25, 2004.

The training in Caracas is going well. We continue to explore the nature of the Church and the relationship between its doctrine and mission. One of our textbooks is C.F.W Walther's "Law and Gospel." We are using a Spanish translation of the original German text.

Meanwhile, back in Barinas, we have nearly completed the first step in fencing our property for a playground. The property is roughly L-shaped with the preschool and our house in the small leg of the L. We are on top of a hill overlooking the alluvial plain of a small river. The long leg of the L slopes down to the paved road which runs along the perimeter of the large cattle ranch here the river runs through. There is an existing concrete-block wall, built many years ago, which separates our property from the road The wall begins on west end of the property at the bottom of the hill, angles north up the hill, then continues west on top of the hill, extending past our property line onto the neighbor's land. To completely enclose the property, we need to build along the east and south borders. We have built a new wall on the most difficult part of the south border, where the incline is steepest and a huge tree-stump had to be removed.

Our plan is to eventually turn the land at the bottom of the hill into a parking lot with a gate opening onto the paved road. The playground will be at the top of the hill Along the east side, which faces the street of our barrio, we want to build a masonry-and-ironwork fence as is the common practice in Venezuela. A few weeks ago we had some hogs that escaped from a farm up the road wander through our property, but livestock are really the least of our concerns in maintaining a pleasant and secure refuge for the children.

We continue to use some of the funds we have received for the preschool to support the hot-meal program. Because the attendance at our preschool has increased faster than the budget of the state program which provides most of the funds, we still are short of state money to provide meals a week or two every month. All of the preschool children depend on this service. If we do not provide the meals, the only breakfast they would receive would be a cup of coffee mixed with milk and their only lunch would be a thin broth. Many health problems in Venezuela are a direct result of malnutrition in childhood.

May God bless you all during this season of Cuaresma (that's Spanish for Lent).

Pirates of the Caribbean

Luz Maria and I now have seen "Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest" twice: one in the United States with my mother and sister, Deborah, and once in Venezuela with Luz Maria's daughter, Wuendy, and Wuendy's husband, Jesús.

I do not mind having seen the movie twice. I have always enjoyed stories of real or imaginary adventure on the high seas, from Homer's Odyssey to the works of Robert Louis Stevenson and Herman Melville to C.S. Lewis' Voyage of the Dawn Treader" -- even Acts 27-28, which although a brief account, remains one of the most gripping accounts ever of shipwreck and survival at sea (Rudyard Kipling thought so, too, since he wrote a short story retelling the story of Paul's voyage to Rome from the ship's captain's point of view). Then there is the life's story of John Newton, writer of "Amazing Grace" and other well-known English hymns. He ran away to sea when he was 11 years old and eventually became the captain of a slave-trading ship. On one memorable voyage, his crew mutinied and left him lashed to the mast of his ship and drifting alone on the open water. He prayed for the first time in many years. A ship appeared in time to rescue him and that was the dramatic beginning of Newton's journey back to faith.

But "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" piqued my interest for three additional reasons.

First, it's fun to see on film places that you have visited in real life -- or at least, places that are similar to those you have seen in real life. From what I know of Venezuela's coast, I can testify that the waters of the Caribbean really are that blue and the tropical sun does shine that brightly.

Second, the movie reminded me of when Dr. David Coles of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana, came to Caracas and taught a short course on church history, with an emphasis on Latin American missions. During the period when Protestant missionaries were banned from the region, Reina-Valera Bibles (the Reina-Valera translation is the Soanish equivalent of the King James Bible) and Protestant tracts nevertheless showed up in some places. No one is certain how this happened, but one theory is that real pirates of the Caribbean (many of whom were of Anglican, Huguenot and even Lutheran backgrounds), included Bible smuggling among their clandestine activities. I still find this possibility intriguing.

Third, like the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie, this one is a fantasy filled with ghostly sailors, sea monsters, cursed treasure and the like. Its metaphysical musings were interesting, especially this one:

"Life is cruel. Why should the afterlife be any different?"

Interesting because, while phantom ships and magic compasses are imaginary, this way of thinking is as real as the crystal-blue sea and golden sun.

Many North Americans, perhaps most, think all religion is wishful thinking, although in a good way. That is, people will believe in myths and legends that make them feel good about themselves and their world, and if that seems to keep them healthy and happy, what's wrong with that? But here in the sunny Caribbean one encounters a darker reality on a daily basis.

In Venezuela it is a common belief that making a pact with spirit beings, even evil spirits, can bring one worldly wealth and power. A majority of Venezuelans are involved in the practice of witchcraft and divination on at least a casual basis. The more deeply one becomes involved with brujeria (witchcraft) or espiritismo (spiritism), however, the more difficult it becomes to break off the relationship. There are people who are afraid of what they have become involved with, but more afraid of what might happen if they tried to get out. There is the quite physical danger of assault on themselves and their families. There are other risks, that whlle quite real have less tangible causes. Psychiatric wards in Venezuela are full of people with problems that stem from their involvement with brujeria and espiritismo, and the drug use that often accompanies brujeria and espiritismo.

Some time ago I read a story in the Barinas newspaper about two infants from different families stolen almost literally from under their parents' noses. One baby was taken in the street and the other, a newborn, from its hospital bed. Those I asked about this story matter-of-factly told me it most likely a professional job and the children had been taken to be sold. The most lucrative buyer would be an illegal adoption ring. Because of the prevalence of contraception and abortion in North America, there are never enough healthy babies to supply all the childless couples who want to adopt. So a black market in babies from Latin America, where birth rates are still high, has developed.

But if the illegal adoption rings wouldn't take them, the children would be sold to one of the cults that practice human sacrifice in order to curry favor with powerful spirits. I do not know whether to completely believe this. I know I really do not want to believe it. But it is all too consistent with a "spirituality" based on an awareness that there is a dimension of life that defies naturalistic explanations, but is based on fear, lust and greed rather than faith, hope and love. It is truly spiritual bondage and a primary reason for mission work here.

Last night I listened to my friend Edgar Coronado lament that so many of his fellow Venezuelans are caught up in this darkness and do not know the light of Christ. Luz Maria and I have been in Caracas this past week, attending an intensive course in systematic theology taught by José Pfaffenzeller, director of Concordia Seminary in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I have found the study of systematic theology to be intellectually stimulating since the days when as a small boy I would slip into my father's study to read Franz Pieper's "Christian Dogmatics." However, the discussion really livened up when we got to the topic of fallen angels and the possibility of demonic activity in today's world. Nearly every Venezuelan present was able to relate experiences which were...let's just say uncanny.

Sometimes you hear certain Bible verses read and explained just when needed. At this time of year and in this place I especially recall the first New Year's sermon I heard in the 21st Century, preached by Pastor Phil Bickel at St. Michael's Lutheran Church, Bloomington, Minnesota. It was based on Revelation 22, verse 16:

"I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star."

"Root and descendant of David" of course is a reference to the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies. While the implication of the title, "bright morning star" is less clear, once explained, as it was in Pastor Bickel's sermon, it is most comforting to us in our situation. For in the Greco-Roman world, the morning star was called "the light-bearer" or, in Latin, Lucifer. There are two who claim the title "light-bearer" and in this verse Jesus spells out for us who is the real one.

Likewise, in 2 Corinthians 4:4, Satan is called "the god of this world" or "the god of this age", depending on your translation, and in Ephesians 6:12 it is written:

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."

But we are promised the victory. The gates of hell will not stand.

We return to La Caramuca tomorrow. Luz Maria's daughters, Yepci and Charli, have been assuming more and more responsibility for the preschool and Sunday school, allowing us time for some travel. But it will be good to see the children again.

My pirate name is:

Black Davy Flint

Like anyone confronted with the harshness of robbery on the high seas, you can be pessimistic at times. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
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