Communion wafer conundrum

When I was a boy, my father would from time to time take me with him on his trips into "town". We actually lived in the town of Yale, but the population was only about 200 people. The "big town" was Huron, SD, which today has a population of a little less than 12,000. It may have been a little more back in the 1960s. The South Dakota State Fair has been held in Huron since 1905.

On these trips my Dad would make his hospital calls (I would read magazines in the waiting room or in the car during these), record his monthly sermonette at KIJV radio, and buy supplies for the church, including the communion wine and wafers. As I recall, he would buy a couple of big boxes of the communion wafers.

I never thought much about the communion wafers at the time, since I was more fascinated by the radio station and the Christian bookstore that we sometimes visited (it was there I first encountered the works of C.S. Lewis). For 40 years afterwards, I never thought much about the communion wafers, either. But lately I have been thinking a lot about the ease with which Dad was able to procure them.

Because, at least at that time, Roman Catholic and "mainline Protestant" churches all used the same mass-produced communion bread. It was always a specialized market and nowadays it seems more than 80 percent of all communion wafers used by Catholic, Episcopalian, Lutheran and Southern Baptist churches in the United States are produced by the family-owned Cavanagh Company of Rhode Island.

The situation is a little different in Venezuela. Communion wafers here are not commercially produced, but rather baked in convent kitchens. The preparation of special altar bread in convents and monasteries is a tradition that predates even the split between western and eastern Christendom in 1054 A.D. (when the churches of eastern Europe and the Middle East rejected the Pope's claim to be visible head of the Christ's church on earth).

Luz Maria's father, Antonio Rivero, died when she was eight years old, leaving behind his wife and eight children. Luz Maria was placed in a convent school, where she lived until she was 13. She remembers the nuns making communion wafers in a device similar to an electric waffle-iron.

So in Venezuela you only can obtain traditional communion bread through convents or Roman Catholic churches. For many years the Catholic institutions were happy to share (unconsecrated, of course) communion bread with Lutherans. You could just go to any Catholic church and receive a package of wafer in return for a nominal sum (a free-will offering, more or less). Unfortunately this situation has changed.

I first became aware of this when I was in Caracas with Pastor Miguelangel Perez, just before returning with him to Barquisimeto for the 15 anniversary of Cristo es Amor (Christ is Love) Lutheran Church. He needed communion wafers for Barquisimeto and I needed some for La Caramuca. He said it would be best to look in Caracas, because it was becoming difficult to obtain communion bread in Barquisimeto.

So we took a bus to the center of Caracas, then we walked down one street, took a left, walked some more, took a right, took another left, etc. Finally we wound up in front of a grated window on a backstreet. Miguelangel explained who we were to the nun who let us in a narrow door into a very nice convent lobby. She told us she only had a couple of hundred wafers to spare, but we will welcome to them for free. So we accepted the Glad bag full of communion bread.

I realized later that there was no way I could find my way back to the same hole-in-the-wall convent in Caracas on my own, so a couple of weeks ago, when we again needed more communion bread, Luz Maria decided to look in Barinas. She had to go to the main Catholic church, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Pilar (built between 1770 and 1780, it is a fine specimen of Spanish colonial architecture) and do a lot of talking before she was able to get a new supply of communion wafers.

We could order packages of communion wafers on the Internet, but in order to have them delivered to Venezuela we would have to pay the extremely high import duties placed on all food products. More likely we will begin baking our own communion bread, since we have the exact recipe for unleavened bread that is traditionally used in the sacrament. Luz Maria would like to buy a wafer mold like she remembers the nuns using in the convent, but that we have not been able to find on-line or anywhere else.

This may seem trivial, but the underlying reason for our difficulty in obtaining communion wafers is more serious. We have been told the Roman Catholic churches are becoming more reluctant to share communion bread with people who do not have proper Catholic credentials because of the growth of Santeria in Venezuela.

Santeria is a cult that originated in Cuba among African slaves. Most of the slaves brought to Cuba were from the Yoruba tribe that lived in what is now known as Nigeria.

As slaves, the Africans were forced to convert to Roman Catholicism, but continued their ancient traditions by identifying their tribal gods with the Virgin Mary and Catholic saints. Santeria literally means "the way of the saints", but the phrase has a connotation of contempt in Spanish. Among themselves, practitioners of Santeria refer to their religion as "la regla lucumi" or "la regla de ocha" (lucumi and ocha are both African words). The practice of Santeria involves persons becoming possessed by the orisha (saints/gods), animal sacrifices to gain the favor of the orisha, casting of spells and fortune-telling. Many santeros (Santeria priests) insist Santeria is all about white magic (using the power of orisha only for benevolent purposes), but there is ample evidence of black-magic Santeria (casting spells to injure or kill) as well.

This is very similar to other Caribbean and South American cults, such as voodoo in Haiti, candomble and macumba in Brazil, and, of course, Venezuela has its homegrown versions of this type of thing, such as the worship of Negro Felipe (Black Philip), an Afro-Venezuelan deity. Underlying it all is the fundamentally pagan world-view in which the Creator (although identified with the Christian God due to the historic dominance of the Catholic Church) is not interested in the everyday affairs of human beings, but there are intermediate gods and goddesses who will help or hinder one's fortunes depending on their whims.

The existence of these cults is largely the result of forced conversions and Roman Catholic teaching regarding the Virgin Mary and the saints. Catholic theologians try to draw a distinction between their veneration of Mary and the saints and polytheistic worship, but this abstract difference is impossible to maintain in practice (as well as being contrary to the plain teaching of Scripture in the first place).

In fact, the practice of Santeria is growing throughout the Caribbean Basin (and parts of the United States with high concentrations of Latin-American immigrants) precisely because the santeros have become particularly aggressive in insisting that there is no essential difference between their beliefs and practices and those of the Roman Catholic Church.

Santeria may have received something of a political push as well. Reportedly santeros were patronized by people from all levels of Cuban society before the revolution, including one Fidel Castro. When Cuba became a client state of the Soviet Union, Castro began suppression of all religion to conform to Marxist ideology. With the decline of Russian Communism, the open practice of Santeria was allowed to re-emerge and has become a tourist attraction. Today, to the extent that there is a favored religion in Cuba, it is Santeria. As Cuba has developed closer ties with Venezuela, there has been increased movement of Santeria into Venezuela.

What all of this has to do with communion wafers, I am not quite sure. Although there are some things commonly known about the practice of Santeria, the details of many Santeria rituals have been kept secret. There seems to be a reluctance to talk about just what the santeros are doing with communion wafers. But I may have found a clue in "Santeria: The Soul Possessed", a low-budget film, supposedly based on a true story, about a Mexican boy who received a "cursed" communion wafer.

The growth of Santeria in Venezuela and the scarcity of communion wafers are both real phenomena. As is usually the case with matters regarding magic and the occult, I am not sure I want to know more about the connection between the two. But I urge you to pray for us on both these accounts.

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.

Effects of espiritismo

We lost one of the little girls in our preschool. She had lived in La Caramuca with her mother as the only parent in the household, but then the mother's mind became unbalanced as a result of her involvement with "espiritismo", or attempts to communicate with the spirit world. Because of some experience she had while engaged in this occult activity, the woman was found running through the streets of La Caramuca stark naked and stark raving mad. So the little girl and her mother have been taken in by relatives in Barinas and no longer live here. We will continue to pray for them.

This kind of thing is not at all uncommon in Venezuela, where much mental illness is associated with the witchcraft that pervades the culture here. The practice of magic is not confined to the poor and uneducated, but is found among the highest levels of society as well. Astrologers and mediums take out advertisements in the newspapers, television and radio, boasting of their supposed accuracy in predicting the future. especially in regard to the lottery, horse races and other forms of gambling that are so prevalent here. It is often said that when Venezuelans get sick, it is typical for them to consult a bruja (witch) or espiritista (medium) before going to a medical doctor. Of course, many people seek magical aid in gaining either love or revenge, too.

We discussed much of this in the seminar on the Psalms that Eduardo and I attended in Caracas during the last week of May. Our professor was Dr. Rudy Blank, who currently is a member of the faculty of the Center for Hispanic Studies at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Mo.

Dr. Blank was born the son of German immigrants in Chicago. He graduated with a master's degree in divinity from Concordia Seminary in 1959, after serving a year of vicarage in Venezuela from 1957 to 1958 (the year of my birth). From 1959 to 1962 he served as pastor of Resurrection Lutheran Church in Cambridge, England. In 1963 he returned to Venezuela to serve as a missionary until 2003. During this period, he was also able to complete additional postgraduate studies at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif., and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. For 19 years he was based in Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela, where Luz María lived at roughly the same time. She received much of her theological instruction from "Pastor Rodolfo."

Concordia Publishing House has published several books by Dr. Blank. One of them, "Salmos: Una Ventana Al Antiguo Testamento Y Al Mesías" served as a our textbook for the seminar in Caracas.

There was a lot of material to cover. Perhaps most enjoyable was learning how the Psalms have inspired many hymns in many languages. For example, Psalm 46 provided the basis for Martin Luther's hymn, "A Mighty Fortress" ("Castillo Fuerte" in Spanish) and "Dios es nuestro amparo", which is a favorite at Corpus Christi Lutheran Church in Barinas:

"Dios es nuestro amparo, nuestra fortaleza,
Nuestro pronto auxilio en la tribulación.
Aunque se traspasen los montes a la mar,
Y aunque la tierra tiemble, tenemos que cantar.
Aunque la tierra tiemble, tenemos que cantar.

"Cielo y tierra pasarán, más Tu Palabra no pasará
Cielo y tierra pasarán, más Tu Palabra no pasará.
No, no, no pasará. No, no, no pasará."

Likewise, Psalm 92 is the basis of another Spanish hymn, "Bueno es alabarte, Jehová," which Pastor Francisco Cabarcas, chaplain of Cristo Rey Lutheran School in Maturin, recalled singing in the small village in Colombia where he was born and raised:

"Bueno es alabarte, Jehová, cantar salmos a Tu nombre.
Bueno es alabarte, Jehová, cantar salmos a Tu nombre.
Anunciar por la mañana Tu misericordia
Y Tu fidelidad de noche.
Anunciar por la mañana Tu misericordia
Y Tu fidelidad de noche."

Just as enlightening, but more sobering, were the parallels between the culture in which the psalms were written and that of Venezuela today, especially the psalms which declare the sovereignty of God over all other powers, whether those of human government, the forces of nature or spiritual entities.

"Ba'al" was a Canaanite word that meant, in its broadest definition, "lord". It was used in reference to human kings and heroes as well as many local deities. The great Ba'al spoken of in the Old Testament, the chief god of the Canaanites, was believed to have the power to send rain for annual crops and fertility for crops, livestock and humans. The priests of Ba'al were believed to have the power to foretell the future and cast spells. Worship of Ba'al included animal and human sacrifice, self-mutilation, and acts of ritualized sex, both hetero- and homosexual, all aimed at placating the god and gaining his favor.

Perhaps even more terrifying than Ba'al was his consort, the goddess Anat, who, it was said, liked to bathe in the blood of her enemies. Worse than either Ba'al or Anat was Mot, the god of death and chaos, who was Ba'al's chief adversary. Nevertheless, Mot had his worshipers, too.

There were many other cruel and capricious deities worshipped by the nations surrounding Israel, such as Moloch, the Phoenician god who specifically demanded child sacrifice.

Many of the ancient Israelites believed that the supplication of these dark deities could be harmonized with the worship of Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who revealed Himself to Moses on Mount Sinai. In an age of tribal gods, they thought perhaps the power and authority of Yahweh had geographical limits. Or, if Yahweh seemed distant and unwilling to answer their prayers, other deities could be called on to lend their aid.

Attitudes in Venezuela today are not very different. The Triune God is only one among a number of spirit-beings to whom one may appeal. These may include the Virgin Mary and the saints, pagan deities peculiar to Venezuela, and "imported" cults such as Santeria (a Caribbean-based cult derived from ancient African beliefs) and the cult of Santa Muerte (Holy Death).

The cult of Santa Muerte is similar to ancient Canaanite worship of Mot, the god of death and chaos. As a modern cult it originated in Hidalgo, Mexico, in 1965. Now with millions of adherents in Mexico, the United States and Central America, the cult has made some inroads into Venezuela. It is a revival of the worship of the Aztec goddess of death, who in ancient times was offered animal and human sacrifices. The cult is especially popular among drug traffickers, other smugglers, gangsters, prostitutes and homosexuals, but also claims followers among the higher classes. The basic idea is that by making a pact with Santa Muerte, one can gain invulnerability to death, the power to inflict death upon one's enemies, or other benefits in this life.

Thank God the Psalms affirm now, as they did in ancient Palestine, that the practitioners of witchcraft and idolatry, whether they are simple con artists or actually in communion with demons, have no real power. As Psalm 96 says:

"For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised,
He is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
But the Lord made the heavens."

It is the Triune God who is truly Lord of creation and in Whom we can trust for whatever we need. We also have the messianic promises of the Psalms which have been fulfilled in Jesus, as in Psalm 110:

"The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.
The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion,
Rule in the midst of Your enemies!"

We say in the Apostle's Creed that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty because in the imagery of the ancient Near East this means Jesus has been invested with all the authority of God the Father and speaks for Him. Likewise, "Till make Your enemies your footstool" refers to the custom of a conqueror placing his foot on the heads of the kings that he has vanquished, who have been forced to lie face down in the dirt.

And finally, we have the promise of Psalm 22:

"All the ends of the world
Shall remember and turn to the Lord,
And all the families of the nations
Shall worship before You.
For the kingdom is the Lord's,
And He rules over the nations."

Elemental spirits and vain philosophy

"See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ."
Colossians 2:8

I rely on the Internet to keep up with what is going on in the world outside of Venezuela. One blog that I regularly read is getreligion.org. On this site, professional journalists of various religious backgrounds post comments about how the "mainstream media" covers news about religion.

One contributor is Mollie Ziegler Hemingway, a Washington, D.C.-based journalist who is also a member of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod and, in fact, a pastor's daughter. On June 28, 2007, she cited a Los Angeles Times article that she thought was a good example of writing about religion, especially for the sports section of a newspaper. The article actually had to do with Venezuela.

More specifically, it had to do with Santeria and Ozzie Guillen, the Venezuelan who is manager of the Chicago White Sox. Guillen became a national hero here after the White Sox won the World Series. Here is what sportswriter Kevin Baxter reported about Guillen:

"Guillen’s religion is Santeria, a largely misunderstood Afro-Cuba spiritual tradition that incorporates the worship of orisha — multidimensional beings who represent the forces of nature — with beliefs of the Yoruba and Bantu people of Africa and elements of Roman Catholicism. And Guillen, born in Venezuela, is one of a growing number of Latin American players, managers and coaches who are followers of the faith..."

“When you talk about that religion in the States, people think you’re a monster,” said Guillen, whose children were baptized in the Catholic faith and have become, like their father, babalaos (followers of Santeria). “Sometimes you have to be careful what you say about religion and when and how.

"Because in this country there’s so many different ideas, people get offended so easy.

“People call me a criminal because we do stuff with blood and animals. I don’t blame these people. They believe what they believe and I believe what I believe. Have I ever killed an animal in the States to do my religion? No. I did in my country.”

Ms. Hemingway's only criticism of the article was that the writer repeatedly described Santeria as "misunderstood" without offering any evidence of that being the case. My observation is that the rise of Santeria in Venezuela, Latin America and the United States is something to think about the next time you hear someone say there is no need for Christian mission work in Latin America.

In addition to Santeria, there are in Venezuela, as I have mentioned before,various other forms of witchcraft and occultism. For example, there is the cult of Maria Lionza, who combines aspects of a fertility goddess, a water elemental and elements of the Roman Catholic concept of the Virgin Mary. Even before I came to Venezuela, I was struck by pictures of a 15-foot-tall image of Maria Lionza located next to the Caracas freeway. The figure depicts a nude woman astride a tapir (a pig-like animal native to South America) who is holding a human pelvic bone above her head. Worshippers adorn this image (idol) with flowers and other offerings every year. Vibrations from heavy freeway traffic have done some structural damage to the statute and there has been talk of moving it. One proposal is to relocate it in the same district as the city's main mosque, synagogue and Maronite Catholic church. Needless to say, Muslims, Jews and Maronite Christians are as one in their lack of enthusiasm for this idea. (Ironically, the presence of a large Maronite church, and of Maronites, an ancient people from Lebanon and Syria, in Caracas is the result of native Christians fleeing the Middle East in the face of Muslim persecution).

Maria Lionza actually is supposed to "live"on a mountain in the western state of Yaracuy. Devotees gather there annually during which time it is said non-believers who value their lives are best advised to stay away.

Maria Lionza is said to be one of the three most powerful spirit-beings in Venezuela. The other two are Negro Felipe (Black Philip), an earth elemental who also represents the spirituality of African-Americans, and Chief Guaicaipuro, a wind elemental who represents the wisdom of the indigenous tribes.

In addition to these beliefs, you can also find throughout Venezuela Masons (despite the Roman Catholic Church's opposition to Freemasonry), Rosicrucians, Gnostics, practitioners of yoga and New Agery, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh-Day Adventists (the last two being particularly numerous around Barinas).

July 12, 2007, marked the end of my fourth year of living in Venezuela. As the date rolled around, I took some time to reflect on some of the things I have described above and other things that I have learned during my time here. One important lesson has been the importance of apologetics (reasoned defense of Christian doctrine) in mission work. Even when working with children, as we do, a shallow understanding of what you believe and why you believe it is not enough. Subjective experience is not enough, nor, in the grand design of things, is your "personal testimony" particularly important. Above all one must present the promise of eternal life in Christ, revealed in Holy Scripture, as sure and certain. If you believe this yourself, you can do no less.

Many people want to reduce the faith once delivered to the saints to a series of vague platitudes that no one in their right mind would disagree with. For people in Latin America and other parts of the world where life is still a series of storms and trials, platitudes are not enough. Everyone needs solid truths to live by and to die by, when their last hour is at hand. If we believe we have the pure, apostolic doctrine, we cannot stand silent when there are so many peddling spiritual counterfeits.

This past Wednesday, July 12, was also the day that we had a graduation ceremony for the children that will be leaving us for first grade. Each one received a little banner inscribed with Psalm 16:7: "I will bless the Lord who counsels me and gladdens my heart."

Unfortunately I have no photos of this event. Nor do I have photos of the great progress that has been made on our new fence. My digital camera is broken (to make a long story short, it's the monsoon season here and I had to walk over a mile in a tropical downpour). Now I have to decide between getting it repaired (very expensive here; they want more than I paid for it in the first place) and seeing if someone will bring me a replacement from the United States, where anything electronic is much cheaper.

Finally I would like to note that we continue to pray for the family of Kent Heidenreich, a member of Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church, Freeburg, Illinois, who recently died in a farming accident.

What does the Bible really say?

"But what does the Bible really say?"

She blurted out this plea after we had spent some time discussing the commandment to remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy. We talked about why most Christians worship on Sunday, but she was still confused because the Seventh-Day Adventists (another group that is active in the Barinas area) insist with all sincerity that Saturday is the proper day of worship.

Our reply: The way to salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who became incarnate as a man to suffer and die for the sins of the whole world and be raised from the dead on the third day. The Bible testifies to this and we who call ourselves Lutherans consider the Bible to be the inspired Word of God and the final authority for all matters of faith. But we Lutherans have no new revelation from God and no secret key to the Scriptures. Understand first that Jesus died for your sins, study what the Scriptures have to say about Him and judge the teachings of all who claim to have the truth by that standard.

Understanding this woman's question and our reply requires an explanation of the spiritual situation in Venezuela.

The historical relationship between church and state in Venezuela is much different than that in the United States. One thing that fascinates Venezuelans about the U.S. is that there are so many thriving denominations, but none is the nation's official church. Luz Maria commented on this frequently during our visit to my homeland.

She also insisted specifically that I take a picture of a Baptist church. Why? To show her mother, who is a member of the Baptist church in Barinas, that Baptist churches in the U.S. have crosses prominently displayed outside their sanctuaries. Her mother's Baptist church does not have a cross displayed where passers-by can see because that would be too "Papist." That's another aspect of religion in Venezuela that I will explain in more detail.

One of the realities of the Spanish colonial period is that the Spaniards forced many native people to be baptized whether they were convinced of the truth of Christianity or not. One legacy of this period is that people here are baffled by the idea of total separation of church and state. Another legacy is widespread formal acceptance of Catholic Christianity but day-to-day practice of folk religion and witchcraft.

But over the last 100 years or so, Venezuela, much like the United States, has become a more secular society and traditional institutions, including the Catholic Church, have lost influence. Many people now live strictly for the pursuit of money, power and/or pleasure. Of course, these things, even when one is fortunate enough to have them, do not bring lasting joy in life, so there is great spiritual hunger as well. A great many things have moved in to fill this void. Islam, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, the New Age movement - they're all here and aggressively seeking converts.

But the most noteworthy trend has been the rapid rise of "evangelical" Christian churches over the last 20 to 30 years. According to Venezuelan government figures, up to 40 percent of the population in certain districts consider themselves "evangelical." This is not necessarily a positive development.

As I have mentioned before, the term "evangelical" is used as a much broader term here than in the United States. Often Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses are often lumped into the category "evangelical" even though their doctrines as far outside Christianity as Islam and Buddhism. But even "evangelical" groups that are not as readily identifiable as non-Christian cults may be just as problematic.

Often developing from disillusionment with "cultural Catholicism," the evangelical churches often reject anything that might smack of Catholicism. Unfortunately, this means some of them throw out parts of Catholic tradition that are good. Most disturbing is when, while disdaining any centralized ecclesiastical authority, these churches will give unquestioned authority to their local pastor, who may be someone without much formal training but feels he has been "anointed by the Spirit" to preach. These preachers often "micro-manage" the lives of their followers, laying down all kinds of rules that they must obey (for examples, absolutely no alcohol or dancing for anyone, and for the ladies, no makeup or skirts cut above the knee).

Some people are attracted to this kind of thing, again out of reaction to the prevailing culture in which sexual immorality and alcohol and drug abuse are common. But many are not attracted to this kind of Christianity, and the message that nearly everyone receives is not the Gospel, but that one earns God's favor by good works.

So what are we trying to accomplish? To witness to what we believe about Jesus, teach those who will listen and point all toward the truth of Scripture.

Three visit the farm

On April 29, 2004, a crowd of people from Maturin, Banco de Acosta, Rio Chiquito and Quebrada Seca gathered at the farm to welcome our visitors, pastors Jorge Groh and Phil Bickel.

Dr. Groh is the new director of missions in Latin America for the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. Phil Bickel is missions pastor at St. Michael's Lutheran Church in Bloomington, Minnesota, the church that commissioned me to serve in Venezuela. He came as a representative of the Venezuela Lutheran Mission Partnership, a mission society dedicated to working with the Lutheran Church of Venezuela for the evangelization of Venezuela.

I believe both of them were pleased with the number of people who turned out and with the work that has been done on the farm. Pastor Bickel was under the impression that the farm was farther up in the mountains, but no such luck, I am afraid.

Just a few days before they arrived, there was a big grass fire on the farm. No crops were harmed, but the workers were hard-pressed to keep the blaze under control. In the end, however, the fire cleared away a lot of heavy growth and eliminated the need to mow before tilling the land.

But it seems the dry season here may be ending early. The farm has received much rain this week. On Monday, in fact, work had to be called off for the day because the rain was so heavy.

Luz Maria spent a week in Barinas taking a big step of faith. When we were married, she
received six months of paid leave from her job at a preschool in Barinas. She hoped that there would be the opportunity for her to become involved in the farm project and she indeed has become a vital part of it.

Nearly every day she was gone the workers would ask me when she was coming back and one of them said to me, "Señora Luz is a gift to us from God." As I was waiting for the bus to Maturin one day, an old man that I had never met before came walking by and asked me, "Where is the señora?"

However, she has been greatly concerned about providing for her two youngest daughters, Sarai (15) and Charli (18) without the steady paycheck from Barinas. There are plans to support her work as well as that of Armando Ramos as the farm's pastor with revenue generated by the farm as well as contributions to an evangelism fund.

The farm, however, is still about six months away from being a self-supporting enterprise. The main irrigation pump broke down at a critical time for the papàya crop and much revenue was lost due to the drop in production. Also, repairing the pump was a major expense.

Dale Saville estimates the farm needs to gross one million bolivars every week to be self-supporting. Presently it is grossing about one million bolivars per month.

Despite this shortage of funds, Luz Maria has decided to leave her job in Barinas. In part, this is because I promised her that I would provide the $300 per month that she needs for her daughters regardless of whether she received any support from the farm project.

This increases my need for financial support, of course. Any help in this regard would be appreciated. Also please consider contributing to the farm project itself as more workers are needed and much equipment needs to be repaired. Financial support can be sent to:

Venezuelan Lutheran Mission Partnership
3089 Leyland Trail
Woodbury, MN 55125

or

St. Michael's Lutheran Church Venezuelan Ministry Fund
9201 Normandale Blvd.
Bloomington, MN 55437

And please continue to pray for us. Although we have material needs, these are not the greatest
challenges that we face. Everyone involved in the project has been or is being tested spiritually
by an enemy that knows our every weakness and shortcoming.

This is a place where the roaring lion does not bother to hide his true nature. I am reminded of the words of Jesus to the church in Pergamum in Revelation chapter 2, verse 13: "I know where you live - where Satan has his throne..." (NIV)

In my final lesson in the Gospel according to Matthew course, my instructor, Amichel Ventura, and I discussed the sovereignty of God as it relates to the prevalence of magic and witchcraft in Venezuela. Amichel told me how his grandmother would regularly visit a brujo (wizard or warlock) and he demonstrated for me part of the brujo's ritual for healing the sick. There are many people in Venezuela who prefer a brujo or bruja (witch) to a doctor of medicine.

Every year brujos and brujas from all over Venezuela gather on a mountain in the state of Yaracuy. Maria Lionza, the fertility goddess whose 15-foot-tall statue can be seen from the Caracas freeway, is supposed to live in this mountain. There is great danger, including physical danger, for anyone who visits this mountain during the brujo convention, Michel said.

But the point of my lesson was that the power of God is greater than that of witches and evil spirits, and that those who follow the path of faith and prayer will prevail with His help.