Where eagles fly

"Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars and spreads his wings toward the south?
Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high?
On the rock he dwells and makes his home, on the rocky crag and stronghold." Job 39:26-28

Luz Maria and I took some time off one Saturday and went on a road trip to the mountains with vicar Alonso Franco; Luz Maria's daughter, Charli; and Luz Maria's brother, Robert Henriquez. Let me give you something of a travelogue.

We live on the western edge of Venezuela's broad central plains region, which is known as "los Llanos". This region is characterized by large, Texas-style cattle ranches and is the center of Venezuela's cowboy tradition. It has its distinctive musical style, called "la musica llanera", although radio stations which play la musica llanera also sometimes play North American country music. For example, as Robert drove us up into the mountains, at one point we listened to T. Graham Brown's "Come Hell or High Water" and also to Bonnie Tyler's 1980s hit, "It's a Heartache" (this one is actually quite popular in Venezuela, you hear it on the radio rather often).

The three neighboring states of Barinas, Portuguesa and Cojedes form a subregion known as "los Llanos Altos" or "the High Plains" due to the altitude. I find this ironic because I used to live in Dodge City, Kansas, and traveled the High Plains of the United States. From where we live you can see the outline of the Andes Mountains on the horizon, in much the same way that you see the outline of the Rocky Mountains from the plains of eastern Colorado.

Directly west of us lie the three most mountainous states of Venezuela: Tachira, Merida and Trujillo. The five highest peaks in Venezuela are found in this Andean region. In fact, there is a name for them the Five White Eagles. That is because of this ancient American Indian story:

When the world was new, five gigantic white eagles flew down from the heavens. As they flew over the earth, the shadow of just one of them would obscure the sun. The five giant white eagles made their nests and would perch on the five highest peaks of the Andes.

One day, Caribay, a beautiful chief's daughter, decided she wanted to adorn herself with feathers from one of the five white eagles. She pursued them up to the heights of the mountains, but when she was able to creep close to them on their perches, she found that the gods had transformed
the birds into figures of solid ice.

Caribay gave a great cry which momentarily roused the eagles from their slumber. They shook their wings and snow fell on the Andes. Caribay was tranformed into a wind spirit and her voice still may be heard in the howling of storms high in the mountains.

This myth was first translated and put in written form by Tulio Febres Cordero, a noted regional author. His son, Gerardo Febres Cordero, become the founding pastor of Corpus Christi Lutheran Church in Barinas, but is no longer associated with the Lutheran Church of Venezuela.

Today, the Five White Eagles are known as Pico Bolivar (height, 16,427 feet above sealevel); Pico Humboldt (16,214 feet); Pico la Concha (16,148 feet); Pico el Toro (15,600 feet); and Pico el León
(15,551 feet). These are the only mountains in Venezuela that are permanently capped with snow and ice.

But we did not visit any of the Five White Eagles. Rather our destination was Pico el Aguila (Eagle Peak), at 13,510 feet above sealevel, the highest mountain in Venezuela accessible by
highway.

Along the way we stopped at la Cascada el Velo de la Novia (Bridal Veil Falls), a waterfall which begins many feet above the highway, but we had to hike down from the highway to reach the mail pool formed by the falling water.

Another stop was la Laguna de Mucubaji, also known as la Laguna Negra, or "the Black Lagoon". This is nothing like the fictional setting of the classic 1954 horror movie, "Creature from the Black Lagoon". That lagoon was located within the steamy Amazonian rainforest, but this Black Lagoon is found among the the cold mists of the mountains. There is no amphibious fish-monster lurking in its depths, but you would not want to go swimming anyway, because it is so chilly.

We ate lunch at a restaurant near the Black Lagoon. On the menu was trout with mushrooms. There are many trout farms in the Venezuelan Andes. This restaurant and others in the region, with their wood paneling and record-setting fish mounted on the walls, almost make me think I am back in Wisconsin or Minnesota.

After lunch we continued on up to Pico el Aguila. We encountered bicyclists on the highway, which was not too surprising, but more noteworthy was the guy skateboarding down the narrow mountain highway with its steep cliffs and hairpin curves. Talk about extreme, dude! He looked like he stepped out of a Mountain Dew commercial (except that he was wearing a helmet, knee and elbow guards).

Our view from the top of Pico el Aguila was obscured by a thick cloud that had enshrouded the mountain. There was no snow, but it was one of the few time I have been able to see my breath in Venezuela. Near the top of Eagle Peak is a monument recognizing another winged creature, the
rare Andean condor. One of the world's largest birds, the endangered condor sometimes can be sighted in the area.

Also, many of the souvenirs in the inevitable souvenir shop had a frog theme because the Andean region is home to many rare species of frogs (how that is consistent with the cool climate, I don t know, but that is what I was told). Actually, Venezuela in general is home to hundreds, perhaps
thousands of plant and animal species either found only here or in very few other locations in the world.

At the very top of Pico el Aguila stands a chapel devoted to the Virgin of Coromoto, an apparition of Mary believed to be the "patroness" of all Venezuela. There are other "manifestations" of Mary, such as the Virgin of the Valley, who is supposed to be the patroness of eastern Venezuela. but the Virgin of Coromoto is number one.

However, I could not help but notice, when we looked in the chapel, that the statue of Dr. Jose Gregorio Hernandez was larger than the image of the Virgin. Dr. Hernandez, who lived from 1864 to 1919, was a brilliant yet kindly
physician who took his practice into the poorest slums of Caracas. He died after being struck by a car while on his way to deliver medicine to patient's home.

Dr. Hernandez has not officially been declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, although the process has been initiated for him. Nevertheless, that does not stop people all over Venezuela from praying to him for health and healing. You may see his image in chapels, businesses and homes. It is always the statue of a mustachioed man wearing a black Homburg hat, sometimes with a black frock coat or otherwise with a physician's white lab coat.

This is typical of the "folk Catholicism" you find practiced in Venezuela. Usually it does not have the official stamp of approval from the Roman church, but is not discouraged by the Roman clergy, either.

Also typical was the celebration of St. Joseph's Day, March 19, in La Caramuca. There were parades, fireworks and much more to-do than for, say, Christmas or Easter. This is because St. Joseph is the specific patron of La Caramuca.

But the St. Joseph's Day festivities in La Caramuca pale in comparison to the annual Procession of la Divina Pastora in Barquisimeto. La Divina Pastora is yet another manifestation of Mary, considered to be the patron of the state of Lara.

A couple of years ago, another of Luz Maria's brothers, Moises Henriquez, appeared on "Todo por Venezuela", a game show similar to "Jeopardy" which is broadcast on national television in Venezuela. The questions all have to do with the history, geography and culture of Venezuela.

Moises was asked a question about the Procession of la Divina Pastora, and the hostess added the comment, "I bet you are praying to la Divina Pastora right now". Moises replied, "No, I pray only to the Triune God". Luz Maria was very proud of her brother at that moment. Ultimately, Moises won the equivalent of 500 U.S. dollars.

Spanish sermons on-line

The Spanish-language Web site for our mission may be found at caramuca.ilv-venezuela.net. I have added a new feature to it: an archive of sermons that I have preached in Spanish. I have uploaded the text of 19 sermons so far, and have begun uploading audio recordings in mp3 format.

Uploading of audio files is a rather difficult process, since we still must rely on a 56k dialup modem for Internet access. It takes about two hours to upload a 20-minute sermon. Not only does this keep our phone line tied up for two hours, there is the added complication that we are
subject to power outages without warning. The power goes down at least once a week, and if it happens while I am uploading audio, I have to start over once the electricity returns.

We hope eventually to have broadband access, because one of our goals is to make La Caramuca Lutheran Mission a center for distance learning. But some challenges remain. First,
there is the cost of additional equipment and broadband service. Then there is the fact that we simply cannot obtain a DSL line at our location.

There is a cellular telephone provider, Movistar, which is offering wireless broadband Internet access through EVDO technology. Supposedly there is wireless Internet access wherever there is Movistar cellular coverage. The problem here is, Movistar coverage at our location is spotty. The EVDO modem could be connected to the large television antenna on top of our house, which I believe could be the solution. But we have to devise some kind of test before we actually purchase the equipment (which we cannot do, anyway,
because we are short of funds right now).

Our Spanish site is powered by WordPress software. I have tried several types of blogging software for content management purposes. In my judgment, WordPress rules (and it's open-source).

For the sermon archive, I am using a WordPress plugin, Sermon Browser, originally developed by Mark Barnes for Bethel Evangelical Church of Swansea, England, and now used by more than 200 churches and missions worldwide. The plugin overall works very and, very important for us, may be set to reference the Spanish Reina-Valera Bible. There are some parts of the plugin that I will have to change to Spanish manually, however.

Working with youth

For Holy Week, we plan to take five older children (8 years and up) and also some from Corpus Christi to El Paraiso Lutheran Church in Barquisimeto for special activities designed
to teach the significance of Holy Week.

In addition to her other work, Luz Maria has begun literacy classes in the evening for older children who still do not know how to read and write.

Alonso Franco joins us as vicar

Alonso Franco was installed as vicar at Corpus Christi Lutheran Church on Sunday, January 18, 2009. He will serve in Barinas and La Caramuca for three months before being transferred to Fuente de Vida (Fountain of Life) Lutheran Church in Puerto Ordaz.

Alonso led the Service of the Word, Pastor Eduardo Flores preached the sermon, and I led the Service of Holy Communion, with Alonso assisting in the distribution of the sacrament. For the next three months, Alonso will preach at least two Sundays per month and lead Bible studies at Corpus Christi. I will be responsible for reviewing his sermons and Bible studies and lending him whatever counsel and aid he requires.

Alonso's father, Pastor Alcides Franco, served as president of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela for 14 years, and also as pastor of La Santa Trinidad (Holy Trinity) Lutheran Church in Caracas, and La Ascensión ( Ascension) Lutheran Church in San Felix de Guayana before becoming pastor of La Reforma (Reformation) Lutheran Church in the same city.

His older brother, Pastor Jonathan Franco, served for a number of years as leader of the national Lutheran youth organization, and is currently treasurer of the national church. Jonathan also has been chosen to go to Argentina for advanced theological study at Concordia Seminary in Buenos Aires. Of course, this means someone else will have to be selected as national church treasurer, but we cross every bridge when we come to it.

We loaned Alonso a microwave oven to use while he stays in the pastoral residence at Corpus Christi. Luz Maria saved up some money and bought the microwave last year, but about that time the wiring in our kitchen died and we have yet to replace that. So up to now we had not even taken the microwave out of the box. I should add that the preschool has its own, separate kitchen where the wiring still is more or less okay.

Luz Maria has been working very hard on completing her thesis for the fifth-level teaching degree. She will finish by the end of this month. However, since the semester does not end until July, she will have to wait until then to receive her degree.

Christian art workshop a success

Twenty-three people attended the Christian art workshop that Luz Maria organized in Caracas on January 9, 2009, including myself, Luz Maria, and Luz Maria's daughters, Yepci and Charli. The emphasis was on visual art (rather than, say, music) in the form of liturgical vestments and paraments, banners, crosses, crucifixes and the like. The attendees included clergy and laypeople from Barquisimeto, Barinas, Maracay, Caracas, Barcelona, Maturin and San Felix de Guayana.

Yoxandris Marcano of Cristo Rey (Christ the King) Lutheran Church in Maturin gave what was perhaps the best presentation. In fact, it was a well-organized PowerPoint presentation highlighting not only her own work, but that of several other members of Cristo Rey. She had stored presentation on a USB flash drive (which are everywhere in Venezuela now, one gigabyte costs about $20 to $25, two gigabytes about $40 to $50). To show it, we used my laptop computer and a projector borrowed from Elsy de Machado (there was no screen, we just used a blank wall).

This may only mean something to my readers who have been to Maturin on short-term mission trips, but Yoxandris is a niece of Dagnys Marcano, who is now married to Pastor Francisco Cabarcas, and Oveida Marcano, former manager of Tierra de Gracia Lutheran Farm. Oveida recently married, but I do not know her husband's name. Yoxandris' father restored the walls and put a new roof on what is not the pastoral residence at Tierra de Gracia. It is rather exciting to have lived in Venezuela onl five years, yet to see already a new generation of leadership emerging within the Lutheran Church of Venezuela.

Yoxandris made the red stoles that were presented to Eduardo Flores, Sergio Maita and myself upon our ordinations. She has also made for me a purple stole for use during the seasons of Advent and Lent, and paraments for our altar in La Caramuca. Our altar consists of a green plastic table about the size of a card table, but without foldable legs. Nevertheless, it looks fairly impressive when covered with the white altar-cloth bearing the alpha and omega symbols in front.

Others who made presentations at the workshop included:

• Natasha Sanchez of La Fortaleza Lutheran Church in Maracay, banners and vestments;
• Luis Miguel Silva, La Fortaleza, wooden crosses and other items crafted from wood and leather;
• Pastor Luis Moya of La Reforma Lutheran Church, San Felix de Guayana, speaking on behalf of his wife, who makes banners and vestments;
• Yepci Santana, Corpus Christi Lutheran Church of Barinas, banners.

In addition, I presented slides of the wrought-iron version of Luther's seal incorporated into the gates of our mission in La Caramuca and the work that inspired it, the windows of Roca de Eternidad (Rock of Ages) Lutheran Church, Quebrada Seca, Monagas. Like many buildings in rural Venezuela, the church in Quebrada Seca does not have glassed windows, but rather ironwork on the outside of the windows to keep out intruders. And the ironwork in every window in Roca de Eternidad has symbols of the Holy Trinity, Baptism, Creation and other themes.

I also showed a picture of the beautiful Advent wreath made for Corpus Christi by Ludy de Tarrazona (the one that caught on fire).

Everyone was excited by the talent and resources on display. There were four major concerns:

1. That Christian art might give members of Lutheran congregations an avenue to use their God-given talents;
2. That promotion of Christian art might preserve Venezuelan folk arts and crafts, which some fear are in danger of disappearing;
3. That artistic expression through liturgical tradition might help the Lutheran Church of Venezuela develop a distinctive identity in Venezuela and a sense of solidarity with other confessional Lutheran church-bodies throughout the world.
4. That liturgical art might serve to express and teach Lutheran doctrine.

Workshop participants favored the inclusion of formal art courses in the curriculum of the Juan de Frias Theological Institute and the formation of committees to promote Christian art in every congregation.

International perspective on abortion

This week marks a definite regime change in the United States as well as the 36^th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision, which legalized abortion on demand. Exit George W. Bush, whose record shows him to have been the most pro-life President so far, and enter Barack Obama, who at the very least promises to be the most pro-abortion President ever.

Here is an on-line chart which shows the status of abortion laws in nearly every country in the world as of 2007. You may notice that while abortion on demand tends to be the rule in the United States and Europe, Latin America is something of a mixed bag. Here in Venezuela, abortion is only legal in situations where the life of the prospective mother might be endangered by bringing the baby to term. Neighboring Colombia is more permissive in regard to abortion than Venezuela (although I am told pious, practicing Roman Catholics are more common there), but more restrictive than the United States. Direct abortion is illegal under any circumstances in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Chile, although the Chilean government in 2006 authorized the sale of the abortifacient "morning-after" birth control pill.

This Sunday Bolivians will vote on a new constitution that, if ratified, would throw open the door to elective abortion. Please pray for Bolivia and also for other nations that are under pressure to change pro-life stands.

Please pray also for the United States and other nations that, hardened in sin, refuse to recognize the sanctity of human life and marriage, and the rights of the unborn, that they may repent before judgment falls.

Fence-building again

We finally have resumed construction of the gated wall around our property. There still are periodic shortages of cement, to the pointwhere the federal government has ordered the nationalization of the cement industry. There continue to be food shortages as well. One local newpaper, De Frente, said the purchase of chicken, beef and milk has become like a lottery:
You just have to be in the right store at the right time because there is no guarantee as to when and how much of these items will be stocked.

Nevertheless, we were able to buy some cement. Luz María's son, Pedro, this week began clearing part of the property for laying the foundation of the wall facing the street. Specifically, he and another fellow cut down the mango tree with large branches that would have been in the way. There were other problems with the tree. In Venezuela, mangos grow in nearly everyone's backyard, so if the tree produces more than your family and friends can consume, there is not really a market for the excess fruit. Keeping the yard clear of rotting mangos is really a chore. The tree also was a magnet for local boys who threw stones to knock down the fruit hanging high in the tree. Recently one boy threw a stone hard enough and far enough to shatter the glass in our bedroom window. So, all things considered, it was time for the mango tree to go.

The last week of March, Eduardo and I traveled to Barquisimeto for a seminar on urban missions at El Paraiso Lutheran Church. The seminar was taught by Jim Tino, a former Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod missionary to Venezuela. El Paraiso actually is located in Cabudare, a suburb of Barquisimeto. The church compound is like a little garden of Eden with many rare plants.

There were perhaps 40 to 50 people in the seminar and even more showed up that weekend for the ordination of Miguelángel Perez. As a national missionary, Miguelángel will serve as pastor to the two Lutheran Church of Venezuela member-congregations in Barquisimeto, El Paraiso and Cristo es Amor (Christ is Love). Eduardo stayed for the ordination, but returned to Barinas Saturday to lead the Sunday service at Corpus Christi Lutheran Church.

I left the seminar with these thoughts about our mission in La Caramuca:


In the Lutheran Church of Venezuela's eastern zone you may find the largest and most stable congregations in the national church, such as Cristo Rey (Christ the King) in Maturin. These are the legacy of Heinrich Zeuch, a Lutheran deacon who came to Venezuela to start a new life after his family's home in Germany was destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II. Zeuch worked at a variety jobs in the agricultural sector in the eastern state of Monagas, all the while starting Bible study and prayer groups. When LCMS missionaries in Caracas heard of what Zeuch was doing in the early 1950s, they quickly contacted him and saw to it that he was ordained as a missionary pastor. The Zeuch family eventually moved to Brazil, but the rural congregations planted by Heinrich Zeuch continued to thrive and serve as seedbeds for congregations in the more highly populated areas of eastern Venezuela.

As in the United States and much of the rest of the world, the tremendous increases in agricultural productivity over the last 100 years in Venezuela greatly reduced the need for unskilled farm labor and spurred emigration to urban industrial areas. Venezuela, which perhaps experienced the most rapid urbanization of any Latin American country, has been ill-equipped to deal with the growth of urban masses, many of whom found the promise of better-paying jobs in the city to be an illusion.

But thanks to a generally high birth rate, rural populations in Venezuela have not declined that much, despite emigration to the cities. Rural Venezuelans face many of the same problems as urban Venezuelans: poverty, alcohol and drug abuse, family instability, lack of any sense of a higher purpose in life. But because economic and human resources have been shifted to urban areas to deal with the high concentrations of people there, rural communities in this most "urbanized" South American nation are more isolated than ever.

For a time families from the rural churches of Monagas served as nuclei for new urban churches. But then a decision was made to move North American missionaries, upon whom the Lutheran Church of Venezuela still was highly dependent, completely out of rural ministries into the cities because "that is where the people are." But this decision to "follow the numbers" proved to be a mistake.

The rural churches were not prepared to deal with this shift and fell into decline. With the seedbeds in disrepair, a generation of leadership was lost. Now, with the withdrawal of nearly all LCMS missionaries from Venezuela (and, in fact, from nearly all of Latin America), the Lutheran Church of Venezuela is in crisis. With a total membership of only about a 1,000 in a nation of 26 million people, there still are not enough pastors to serve all of the exisiting congregations, much less do evangelistic outreach. In Caracas, Venezuela's largest city, the Lutheran Church of Venezuela has only three member-congregations and only one of those is served by a full-time pastor.

Tierra de Gracia agricultural mission, where I served as a lay volunteer when I came to Venezuela, was set up in Monagas to help revive the rural churches there.

Its objectives include:

• Help farm laborers improve their skills and opportunities for employment.


• Evangelize those who work on the farm and their surrounding communities.


• Support evangelization in rural areas and pastoral care in the existing rural churches.

Here in western Venezuela we do not have the historic base that the churches in Monagas have. But we think the development of Christian education in our rural zone can solve this problem. With the availability of quality Christian education, many would not have to leave the area to improve their skills and prospects in life. At the same time, those that did move to the city would be prepared to serve as lay leaders and full-time church workers there. Actually, it is easier for a person from the country to adapt to city life than a city person to adapt to the country.

We have historical examples of how this could work. For example, in the 19th Century Wilhelm Loehe trained and sent Lutheran missionaries to North America, Australia, New Guinea, Brazil, and the Ukraine from Neuendettelsau, a small town in Bavaria.

Likewise, what would become Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, began as a one-room school 100 miles south of St. Louis in rural Perry County, Missouri. Today the seminary has more than 800 students from around the world.

Concordia University of Seward, Nebraska (population 6,500), since 1894 has trained teachers and candidates for the seminary among the cornfields of eastern Nebraska.

From 1893 until 1986, St. John's College of Winfield, Kansas, did the same amid the Flint Hills of Kansas and Oklahoma.

That is why at La Caramuca Lutheran Mission we have these goals;

• To provide Christian education for children from preschool through sixth grade.


• To establish a Lutheran congregation to support the school and serve the surrounding community.


• To establish an educational center for the training of pastors,
  teachers and evangelists for the Andes and Venezuelan Plains regions.

Missionary journey to Apure

On Tuesday of Holy Week, Luz María left with her daughters, Charli and Sarai; grandson, Edwar José; son-in-law, José Garrida; and 11-year-old Sandro Pérez on a missionary journey to the neighboring state of Apure. As far as we know, it was the first time anyone has visited Apure on behalf of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela. I would have loved to have gone with them, but Eduardo and I were committed to leading Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services at Corpus Christi Lutheran Church in Barinas.

We had been invited by the large, extended family to which José and Sandro both belong (they are cousins). Since nearly everyone in Venezuela enjoys a whole week of vacation during Holy Week, they thought it was a good time to have us lead a vacation Bible school for children in Palmarito, Apure.

Sandro lives with his family just across the street from us in La Caramuca. He has attended our Sunday school regularly for a long time and now is one of the students in our confirmation class. This year he is one of the recipients of scholarships from Children's Christian Concern Society of Topeka, Kansas. This trip was a great opportunity for Sandro to meet his grandparents and many aunts and uncles in Palmarito that he had never seen before.

Apure is one of the 23 states that constitute the republic of Venezuela. It lies southwest of our state, Barinas, and is also bounded on the north by the states of Táchira and Guárico. To the southeast of Apure lie the Venezuelan states of Bolívar and Amazonas and to the south and west, the nation of Colombia. Together with the states of Barinas, Portuguesa, Guárico, Anzoátegui y Monagas, Apure is part of a region known as los Llanos, which is Spanish for “the Plains”. This is a broad grasslands region which stretches across the center of Venezuela, north of the Orinoco River but south of the mountains which stretch along most of Venezuela's northern tier and just to the west of the vast Orinoco delta. Los Llanos are home to many Texas-style cattle ranches and, in fact, there is a “cowboy mystique” about the region similar to that of Texas and the southwestern United States.

Apure is the setting of Doña Barbara, Rómulo Gallegos' epic novel about Venezuelan ranch life, which is the Venezuelan national novel. Two feature film adaptations of Doña Barbara have been made, one in 1943 and the other in 1998. A television miniseries was broadcast in 1975. To understand current Venezuelan politics, you must understand the literary allusions to Doña Barbara and Alberto Arvelo Torrealba's epic poem, “Florentino y el diablo” (which also is set in los Llanos).

Our group gathered at 6 a.m. to take a bus to Pedraza, which bills itself as the “river capital of Venezuela” as it is a center for whitewater rafting expeditions. They traveled west to go east, but it was really the most direct route to Palmarito.

It was an hour's ride to Pedraza, and then three and half hours in a rented van to the banks of the Apure River where the town of Palmarito is located. A tributary of the Orinoco, the second-largest river in South America, the Apure is a large body of water in its own right. The van had to be ferried across the river to reach Palmarito and later our group made several visits to peoples' homes by canoe. However, unlike in the novel, Doña Barbara, nobody had to shoot any alligators.

Luz María thinks Palmarito is a larger town than La Caramuca, but it is much more isolated from the outside world. During the last half of the 20^th Century, Venezuela was transformed from a predominantly rural nation into an urban one, much like the United States. However, although the population of Venezuela's urban areas exploded as people moved from the country to the cities, the overall birth rate remained high enough that rural populations did not diminish as in the United States, but remained stable. But as economic resources have been diverted to urban areas to deal with the massive influx of people, the backwoods of Venezuela have been left more backwoodsy than ever.

There is a fairly large Roman Catholic church building in Palmarito, but there has been no priest in residence for many years. A priest shows up about once a year to celebrate Mass, but has no other involvement with the community. This is typical of rural Venezuela as there is a critical shortage of priests to serve the more isolated areas. Three nuns live in the church to maintain it and organize a variety of activities for children and young people. While our group was there, the nuns organized a traditional procession of the Cross, with the help mostly of young people. There are very few adults that are in any way active in the Catholic church, other than possibly attending the once-a-year Mass. Many people in the community, however, are involved in the practice of brujería or witchcraft. The prevalence of brujería in los Llanos also is one of the themes of Doña Barbara.

The nuns also teach classes in cooking, sewing and computation. There is an elementary school in Palmarito, but no opportunities for education beyond that level anywhere near the town. Anyone who wants to learn skills that would enable them to be other than simple manual laborers must leave Palmarito. Of course, most of those who do will not return to provide the community with the benefit of their education. There is great poverty in the area. Many of the children and even some teenagers have never owned a pair of shoes. There are people who work for nothing but to have food and clothes on their backs.

For this reason, our group brought gifts of clothing donated by the Corpus Christi congregation and by interested persons in La Caramuca. For the vacation Bible school, Luz María made use of many of the teaching materials that have been provided for us by our supporting churches in the United States.

The theme of the vacation Bible school was the connection between the Genesis account of the creation and fall of man, and the events of Holy Week. Many of the children had never made this connection before and they had many questions. There were 42 in attendance Wednesday, the first day of the vacation Bible school. The second day there were 29 and the fourth day there were 40.

It was a great adventure for Luz María because, although she was born in the neighboring state of Guárico, she had never been to Apure before. She bought herself an inexpensive digital camera and took over 200 pictures throughout the trip. Thanks be to God, everyone returned to Barinas safe and sound on the Saturday before Easter Sunday.

Meanwhile, we had good attendance for all our Holy Week services at Corpus Christi. I preached the Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday sermons, while Eduardo preached on Easter Sunday. On Good Friday we alternated between reading and offering brief meditations on each of the seven last words of Christ from the cross.

Christ for all the nations

Our Sunday school lesson for the second Sunday in Lent was based on the Gospel of John, chapter 4: The story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. In fact, there are many lessons to be learned from this single story, including:

• The Gospel is to be preached to every nation and tribe, including racial/ethnic groups that have had centuries of conflict with your own, as in the case of the Jews and Samaritans;
• The Jews, not the Samaritans, had the full revelation of God's will and followed the moral and ceremonial laws that God had dictated to their forefathers, it was not the keeping of these God-given laws that made them right with God (for all failed to obey God's Law perfectly);
• Rather, it was faith in the promise of God's Messiah that saved Abraham and other Old Testament believers from God's wrath (Romans 4:1-5, 13-17).
• The Samaritans,too, kne w of the promised Messiah, although they accepted only part of God's inspired Word and mixed it with their own human traditions. Jesus revealed Himself to the Samaritan woman as the Messiah anticipated by both Jews and Samaritans.
• The crossing of political, cultural and religious boundaries with the Gospel can be a difficult, even physically demanding task, which is why God ordained an office of the public ministry, men dedicated to preaching the Word and administering the sacraments wherever the Lord might call them;
• Once the seed is planted, however, the church may grow rapidly through ordinary people, like the Samaritan woman, witnessing to their neighbors;
• It was by the touching of the Samaritan woman's conscience with God's Law that Jesus penetrated her defenses and brought her the Gospel.

We focused on the last point with the children, emphasizing that God knows all of our faults, but given true repentance and a contrite heart, there is no sin that can keep us from reconciliation with God, for He does not will our destruction, but rather our redemption. Given the nature of the Samaritan woman's sin (she had been married and divorced five time and was living with a man to whom she was not married) Luz María saw a opportunity to talk with them about issues that they would face once they passed puberty – such as HIV/AIDS infection.

Thanks to a 2001 decision by the Supreme Court of Venezuela, every citizen infected with the HIV virus is guaranteed free treatment withantiretroviral drugs, the first ruling of its kind in Latin America.

The cost of this treatment is substantial, about 1,000 U.S. dollars per month. Venezuela imports generic antiretroviral medications from Cuba and India in order to meet the country’s demand. However, because of budget problems and poor planning, not all people living with HIV/AIDS in Venezuela have had access to the treatment. It is believed that hundreds of infected individuals have fled Venezuela for the United States and Canada in search of better treatment.

In addition, Venezuela experienced a dramatic increase in the number of adults (15 to 49 years of age) reported to be infected with the HIV virus from around 62,000 in 2003 to 110,000 in 2004. This 77 percent increase raised Venezuela's ranking among the 100 nations with the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS from 53^rd to 49^th place. Even more disturbing is the increased number of women infected with the HIV virus. In the early 1990s, women accounted for one out of every 18 people in Venezuela infected with HIV, but today they account for 31,000 of the 110,000 infected with HIV/AIDS, about one out of four. In 2005, deaths attributed to HIV infection totaled 6,100 (technically no one dies of HIV/AIDS; rather the virus destroys the immune system, allowing other infections (that the body would normally be able to resist) to claim a life).

The number of HIV-infected Venezuelans has remained stable at around 110,000 for the last four years, according to estimates by the United Nations AIDS Program. Currently, Venezuelans infected with the HIV virus represent 0.7 percent of the country's population of more than 27.5 million. In comparison, the percentage of U.S. citizens infected with the HIV/AIDS virus is about 0.6 percent of the total U.S. population.

According to a World Bank report, at the end of 2007 there were around 1.6 million people living with HIV in Latin America - more than in the United States, Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom combined. More than half of Latin Americans living with HIV reside in the region’s four largest countries: Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Argentina.

Brazil is home to 600,000 people living with HIV – more than any other Latin American country – but due to the large size of its population, this equates to a relatively low HIV prevalence of 0.5
percent. The most severe epidemics are found in smaller countries such as Honduras and Belize, where the percentages of the HIV-infected are 1.5 percent and 2.5 percent respectively.

Of course, we did not hit the children with all these facts and figures. Instead, we emphasized that the possibility of HIV/AIDS infection was one reason why sex outside of marriage could have serious consequences for their lives and the lives of others. God designed marriage as a lifelong commitment between one man and one woman, and when people try to step outside that design, all kinds of problems result.

Also, Luz María emphasized, one should not make such a commitment based on qualities that may fade with time, but rather seek the kind of person who can maintain a lifelong relationship – and help strengthen you in your relationship with God.

Eduardo Flores continues to add a lot to our program, especially in the area of music. He has been teaching new songs to the Sunday school, preschool and the congregation in Barinas. Eduardo has a deep appreciation of the rich heritage of Christian liturgy and music. Click on the audio player to hear him singing and playing guitar for an arrangement of Luther's hymn, “Lord, Keep Us Steadfast In Thy Word.”

During the third week of Lent, Corpus Christi Lutheran Church celebrated its 13^th anniversary at its present location. At a special prayer vigil, 7 p.m. to midnight that Friday, Eduardo, Luz María and I led a three-part study on the history and heritage of the church.

I began with a look at the early church and how the first Christians, all Jews by birth or adult converts to Judaism, considered the Gospel of Christ to be the fulfillment, not the negation of Old Testament teaching. Thus they continued the highly liturgical worship to which they were accustomed in the Temple of Jerusalem and in the synagogues. Like the believers of the Old
Testament and the first-century church, our worship today includes the singing of the Psalms, the reading of the Holy Scriptures and public prayers. However, we do not offer sacrifices for the
propitiation of sins as they did in the Old Testament, for Christ has made the one sacrifice which covers all sins for all time on the Cross. Nevertheless, Christ is present in His body and blood in the sacrament of Holy Communion, and God speaks to us through the preaching of His Word. Our songs, prayers and offerings are sacrifices of thanksgiving for His presence among us.

Eduardo talked about the church during the Reformation and how during times of conflict and persecution, the church actually thrives more than during times of peace and plenty. He also spoke of how Martin Luther as a German belonged to a different culture, but had a side that a Latin American could understand in his love of music and children, and in his personal struggle to know God's love.

Luz María focused on the church today and its responsibility to continue its mission. The Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20 emphasizes baptism and discipling, “teaching them all that I have commanded you.” If the church adopts “evangelism” techniques that bring in more members at the expense of sounddoctrine and instruction, it is not really being true to the mission of proclaiming the Gospel to all nations.

God's blessings to all during this Lenten season as we anticipate the joy of Easter Sunday.

Children are a blessing

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,the fruit of the womb a reward."Psalm 127:3

Edymar Mariangel Brito, the first child of Edgar and Mariel Brito was born October 16, 2007, and baptized at Corpus Christi Lutheran Church in Barinas, October 28, 2007.

It was my privilege to hold the basin of water while Edgar baptized his daughter. I wore a white alb and around my neck the pewter cross that the members of my home Bible study group at Michael's Lutheran Church gave me before I left for Venezuela. I did not do much but stand there, but I was dressed for the part.

The parents very much wanted this baby. Mariel had been pregnant twice before, but had suffered a miscarriage both times.

I thought of the rejoicing over Edymar's birth October 23 when a Reuters article appeared in the international press. It quoted Alberto Stella, a United Nations official, as blaming the Roman Catholic Church's stand on birth control for the spread of HIV/AIDS throughout Latin America.

According to the Reuters article, some 1.7 million people across Latin America are infected with the HIV virus. There were perhaps 410,000 new cases in 2006.

Stella told Reuters that condom use "has been demonized" (presumably by the Roman Catholic Church) and that "evidence shows" that abstinance-based sex education "isn't working".

Where to begin? First of all, to make generalizations about a Latin American country like Venezuela based on the assumption that "everyone there is Catholic" is profoundly misguided. As in most parts of the world, the "official" religion does not always play an important role in most people's day-to-day decisions.

Let me be blunt about this: You can walk into almost any pharmacy and many supermarkets in Venezuela and pick up condoms right off the rack. No questions are asked, and actually, it probably would not be that hard to slip out of the store without paying for the product. No one here is having "unprotected sex" because the Roman Catholic or any other church is preventing the distribution and sale of condoms.

Abortion still is illegal in Venezuela except in cases where birthing the baby definitely would endanger the life of the mother. Illegal abortions are performed, but the threat of a two-year prison term does appear to discourage the practice.

Luz María grew up with four brothers and two sisters (one brother died at 21 years of age, the rest survive). Back at that time it was not unusual for there to be as many as 10 children in a household. Now the norm is about four to six children per family, much as it was in the Midwestern United States when I was a boy.

In other words, the decline in the birth rate over the last two generations in Venezuela is consistent with the gradual adoption of non-abortifacient birth control without abortion as a backup plan, as was the case throughout the United States from the end of the post-World War II "baby boom" until 1973, when the Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand.

Which brings me to the second point, that opposition to abortion is not an exclusively Roman Catholic position. Actually, neither is opposition to birth control. Until the middle of the 20th Century, there was no difference between Catholic and Protestant teaching in regard to birth control. The great Anglican author and scholar, C.S. Lewis, considered birth control a sin and made that a plot point in his novel, "That Hideous Strength".

I have copy of "If God Be For Us", a collections of essays by Dr. Walter Maier, the original "Lutheran Hour" speaker. In one essay he inveighs against the evil of contraception. Also, there is an academic study by Alan Graebner, available for purchase on-line, using the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod as a case study of how and why one Protestant denomination changed its stand on birth control.

There is much room for discussion here, but I want to move on to my next point: Today conservative Protestants and Roman Catholics differ on the extent to which "family planning" methods should be used by married couples. There is no disagreement on abortion and the immorality of sexual relations outside of marriage.

It is sexual promiscuity that kills, not abstinence. There is indeed an increase in the incidence of HIV/AIDS in Venezuela and other Latin American countries, but this has more to do with the breakdown of family relationships and increased opportunities for casual sex due to rapid urbanization more than a shortage of condoms. Then there is the fact that world's two greatest multinational evangelistic organizations, the entertainment and advertising industries, are quite active in Venezuela, peddling dreams of sexual pleasure without responsibility.

The question is not whether solutions which emphasize abstinence from sex outside of marriage will work, but rather whether any other approach will. Why are allegedly educated people blind to this?

Well, as I learned many years ago in the bio-ethics course I took in college, there are three presuppositional models that tend to color people's thinking about world population growth, hunger and poverty. Let's examine them in light of these Scriptural principles:

1. God ordained marriage for companionship, procreation and a safeguard against sexual temptation.
2. Children are a blessing from God.
3. God is the true Author of life.
4. All human life has value in God's eyes.

Pro-natalism: This is the idea that a high level of population growth is necessary for a human society to survive and prosper. With birth rates below the level of replacement in the United States and Europe, this point of view is gaining more respect. The recent movie, "Children of Men", based on a bestselling novel of the same name, is set in a near-future world in which all women everywhere have become infertile with disastrous results. Pro-natalism would seem to be consistent with the Bible's positive attitude toward procreation, but pro-natalist policies can exist without the recognition of God as the creator of life and the inherent sanctity of human life. The Nazis, for example, were pro-natalists, but also favored sterilization and killing of the "unfit" and undesirable.

Marxism: This point of view need not be defined strictly in terms of adherence to the doctrines of Marx, but more broadly as the idea that hunger and poverty are mainly the result of an unjust distribution of the world's resources, goods and services. There is not so much a need to control birth rates in developing countries as there is to control consumption of material goods in industrialized nations. This philosophy has become more and more popular in Latin America, especially in light of failed attempts to implement free-market reforms. The development of "liberation theology" has given Marxists a quasi-Christian vocabulary. Although the Scriptures speak against injustice, including the economic kind, and the responsibility of those blessed with more material wealth to share with the less fortunate, this is seen as a voluntary movement resulting from the restoration of a right relationship with God. The Bible affirms the right of private property and the responsibility to work for a living, while the Old Testament history of Israel portrays a government's desire for higher and higher taxes as a cause for civil war.

Neo-Malthusianism: Neo-Malthusians base their thinking on writings of Thomas Malthus, an 18th-Century economist who was the first think about the big-picture effects of unrestrained population growth. However, the "neo" (Greek for "new") in neo-Malthusianism is due to the fact that neo-Malthusians are rather embarrassed to claim Thomas Malthus as their own. In addition to being an economics professor, Malthus was a quite conservative Anglican priest who considered birth control and homosexuality to be vices, and opposed most government welfare programs as encouraging the poor not to work and to bear children out of wedlock. His solution to the potential problem of population growth surpassing the available food supply was "moral restraint". By that he meant avoiding sexual activity outside of marriage and postponing marriage until one had acquired an education.

Malthus published his views on population and economics in 1798. Less than 30 years later, Sir Frances Place in 1822 published a book using some of Malthus' arguments to advocate birth control. This was the true beginning of neo-Malthusianism, a point of view that has become dominant in the United States and Europe. Neo-Malthusianist ideas have become internalized as the reflexive opinions that "there are too many people in the world" and "reproductive choice (prevention of pregnancy) is a health issue". Sometimes neo-Malthusians attempt a Biblical justification of their ideology in terms of an argument for stewardship of natural resources.

In confronting all these thought-systems which can blind people to the truths of God's creation and revelation, it is important to remember the Scriptural principles above, and that the light of Christ's Gospel is what can truly motivate people to love God and their neighbor as themselves.