Until day dawns and the morning star rises

Studying the Transfiguration.

It began with a star.

 

In Venezuela, dates are written day/month/year, rather than month/day/year as in the United States. But on the first Sunday of this month, that distinction did not matter, as it was 02/02/2020 either way. Not only that, but the date could be read the same way from left to right or right to left. This was the first such “palindrome day” in 909 years and the only one that will occur in this century.

Of course, Sunday also was Groundhog Day (the prediction is an early spring) and the first time the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl in 50 years. 

For us, however, it was Transfiguration Sunday. Epiphany season is all about the light of Christ. The Magi saw it in the Star of Bethlehem. Three of the disciples, Peter, James and John, saw one last vision of it before the darkness of Gethsemane.

. “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to Him by the Majestic Glory, this is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with Him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit.” 2 Peter 1:16-21

Baptism of Jesus.

Just three of the apostles were taken to the top of the mountain where they saw the light of Christ made visible and audibly heard the voice of the Father. But our faith does not depend on mountaintop experiences, but rather the Holy Spirit speaking to us in the clear Word of the Scriptures.

Likewise the sacraments. As at the Transfiguration, the Father’s voice said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him” at the baptism of Jesus, which was our theme for the first Sunday after Epiphany. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are present at the baptism of every Christian.

Please pray for us

Well, January 2020 was a month that got people talking about end-time texts, what with earthquakes in Puerto Rico and other parts of the world, wildfires in Australia and floods in Indonesia.

We continue to pray for the victims of these natural disasters. We would ask you to pray for us as Venezuela already is in the midst of a public health crisis due to shortages of medicines, and is not prepared to face the threat of a new virus from China. Venezuela was hit hard by the last great pandemic, the Spanish flu of 1918.

Our preschool is back in session, but of 31 children enrolled, eight have at least one parent who has left Venezuela to find better-paying work abroad. Please pray for the restoration of united families.

Heavenly Father, bring relief to all who suffer this day.  Ease the anxieties of those who are distressed. Send help to those who are distraught. Graciously defend all from fire and flood, war and pestilence, hunger and want. Deliver us from our trials that we may be free to give You thanks and praise. Amen.

Studying geography.

The light that shines in darkness

"In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." John 1:45

We began 2018 with the loss of artificial light: A power outage that lasted from 4:30 to 8:30 a.m. on January 1. These outages have become a fact of life as Venezuela's economic crisis worsens. There is a spiritual darkness here much worse than when the electricity goes down before dawn. There is the loss of joy and hope as children die of starvation and diseases that once had been nearly eradicated; the mourning of old people as their children and grandchildren flee to other lands, perhaps never to return; the fear of someone trying the lock on your front door in the middle of the night.

But there is the light that no darkness can overcome, and that is the light of Christ. We began the chuch's year by lighting Advent candles and celebrated the beginning of the Christmas season with the baptism of Emily Antonella Torres on Sunday, December 24. Her mother, Deisi, was baptized at our mission in 2007, along with her sisters, Yexi and Yaneth, and brothers, Yovani and Jhonny. Yexi's daughter, Diana, was baptized on January 8, 2017, at the consecration of our chapel. Deisi and Yovani were confirmed on October 25, 2009. Yaneth was confirmed on December 15, 2015.

The following Sunday, December 31, we remembered the circumcision and naming of Jesus. On Wednesday of the following week, we began a vacation Bible school (since schools were closed and most people were on vacation until January 6).  The theme of vacation Bible school was "epiphany" as the manifestation of the divinity of Jesus Christ.

On Sunday, January 7, we remembered the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem and celebrated the first anniversary of the consecration of our chapel. Our preschool resumed on January 8. In the weeks that followed, I shared with the preschool children the stories of the baptism of Jesus and 12-year-old Jesus in the Temple. We concluded the season of Epiphany with the celebration of the Transfiguration of our Lord on Sunday, January 21.

The book of Genesis says that in the beginning God created light by the power of His Word. The Apostle John says that by this Word all things were made, in fact, because the Word existed in the beginning with God, that is, with the Father and the Spirit who hovered over the face of the great deep. This Word was God, along with the Father and the Spirit, and it may be spoken of as the Son, for it it was begotten, but not made, in the mind of the Father from eternity. This same Word was made flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and He became the light and life of men through His death and resurrection. By the power of the Word that created the world, sinful humans gain new life through baptism. In this there is joy, hope and love that lasts forever, which casts out fear, sadness and despair. Amen.

Epiphany's end: a fruitful year

January 6, 2016, the traditional date for the celebration of the Epiphany, for us marked not only the end of the Christmas season, but also an extended period of vacation for our preschool children. Normally all schools are closed for the last two weeks of December and the first week of January, but this time the year-end vacation period included the entire month of December. This was because of national elections that were scheduled for December 6.

The high level of political tension in Venezuela raised fears of violence, so schools were closed early. In fact, there was an apparent assassination, but nevertheless the elections took place and proved to be historic. Opponents of the current government of Venezuela won a majority in the national legislature for the first time in 18 years. We continue to pray for political and economic stability, and the peaceful and just resolution of the country's problems. Luz Maria continued her afterschool tutoring for most of the vacation period.

Following the baptism of Maria Rosales and the confirmations of Elias Montoya and Yaneth Torres on December 13, we celebrated Christmas Eve on Thursday, December 24; Christmas on Sunday, December 27; the Circumcision and Naming of Jesus on Thursday, December 31: and Epiphany (the visit of the Magi) on Sunday, January 3. Finally, we closed the season of Epiphany with the Sunday of the Transfiguration on January 17.

 We follow the lectionary from "Culto Cristiano", a Spanish-language hymnal first published in 1948 and still published today by Concordia Publishing House. This is the historic one-year lectionary (although the Old Testament lessons are somewhat different from other versions of the lectionary that I have seen), which retains the three "pre-Lenten" Sundays of Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima (also found in the 1941 Lutheran Hymnal). The revised three-year lectionary omits them, continuing with Sundays after Epiphany until celebrating the Transfiguration on the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday (which would be February 7 this year).

Anyway, I was pleased with the attendance at these services, because the Christmas/New Year holiday generally is a time for most Venezuelans to head for the beaches or the mountains, or stay home and party, rather than attend worship services. The reason we scheduled some of our services for early in the evening before the appointed dates was to avoid interference by the street parties that begin late in the evening and last until the morning hours.

In keeping with the season of gift-giving, our mission was blessed with some donations. We received a shipment of Spanish-language Arch Books and other educational materials from LeadaChild, a missionary society that sponsors Christian education around the world. As soon as preschool classes resumed, I used one of the Arch Books to teach the children the story of 12-year-old Jesus in the Temple. Luz Maria uses the Arch Books every day in her tutoring. We also received a donation of textbooks from Fundación de Edificaciones y Dotaciones Educativas (FEDE), a Venezuelan foundation dedicated to improving education. Of course, we are grateful for the end-of-the-year financial gifts at our crowdfunding site.

We give thanks that the preschool playhouse has been restored after a bout of severe termite damage, due to the hard work of Luz Maria's grandson, Pedro José Santana. He also built a chicken coop, for we have been provided with chickens to raise, in return for sharing the eggs and meat.

May God bless everyone in this new year!

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