A milestone in distance learning

On Trinity Sunday, May 30, 2021, Omar Martinez and I represented the Lutheran Church of Venezuela in a graduation ceremony via Zoom videoconferencing with six other seminary students from Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia, Peru and Spain.

The other seminarians had completed their coursework while in residence at Concordia Seminary El Reformador in Palmar Arriba, the Dominican Republic, in preparation for ordination. Because the ceremony was postponed from last year, some of them were ordained and installed as pastors before the “virtual” graduation. For example, Elvis Carrera has been serving as the pastor of the congregation in Lima, Peru, where Luz Maria’s daughter, Yepci, and her family attend.

Omar, who is pastor of Cordero de Dios (Lamb of God) and I were both ordained years ago. We pursued our continuing education an on-line program, Formación Pastoral Hispanoamérica (FPH), offered by the Dominican seminary in cooperation with Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was a milestone for Omar and me, and also for the concept of distance learning.

FPH is an international extension of the Fort Wayne seminary’s Specific Ministry Pastor–Español/English program. This program follows the basic structure, guidelines and restrictions of the regular SMP program as a means to provide ordained men to serve in mission situations where a candidate with traditional residential seminary training is not available or cannot be supported, but it is focused on preparing Spanish speakers for Word and Sacrament ministry.

By divine order, there is one office of the public ministry and, according to Article XIV of the Augsburg Confession, “no one should publicly teach in the Church or administer the Sacraments unless he be regularly called (rite vocatus)”. But the Scriptures do not specify any particular mode, pattern, or length of pastoral preparation. What makes someone a pastor is examination and certification, then call and ordination, in an orderly process.

“For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.” 1 Timothy 3:13. In the New Testament church, pastors were recruited from the ranks of deacons, who were laymen entrusted with the work of the church apart from preaching and administration of the sacraments. As we read in Acts, Philip, one of the original deacons (Acts 6:5) was later sent to preach and baptize in Samaria (Acts 8).

“This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you.” Titus 1:5

The word translated “elder” is πρεσβύτερος (presbuteros), which is the root of the English word, “priest”. It is used interchangeably in the New Testament with ποιμήν (poimén or pastor) and ἐπίσκοπος (episkopos or bishop), all referring to the one office of the public ministry. As Luther writes in his “Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope”: “60. The Gospel assigns to those who preside over churches the command to teach the Gospel to remit sins, to administer the Sacraments and besides jurisdiction, namely, the command to excommunicate those whose crimes are known, and again to absolve those who repent. 61 And by the confession of all, even of the adversaries, it is clear that this power by divine right is common to all who preside over churches, whether they are called pastors, or elders, or bishops.”

Paul had visited the island of Crete after his first Roman imprisonment, and, together with Titus, extended the preaching of the Gospel throughout its length and breadth. When Paul’s presence was demanded elsewhere, he left Titus behind as his representative, to see that a decent order of worship and of conducting the business of the congregations be introduced everywhere. This included, among others, that all the congregations should choose pastors under his direction and with his help.

The New Testament model of raising up local elders, already proven for spiritual maturity and leadership (1 Timothy 3) , is actually much closer to today’s non-residential programs than the sending of potential candidates off to a centralized location for pastoral formation and academic education. The value of a residential seminary program, of course, in consistent doctrinal training for all pastoral candidates and formation of character as well as intellectual growth under the almost daily observation of experienced instructors.

But the costs and other requirements of residential seminary education long have been an obstacle to church planting in Latin America, where many families do not have the resources to send young men away from home for four years, especially if the seminary is located in a distant country. Even before the Internet became available to the public, Presbyterian missionaries to Guatemala in the 1960s developed the concept of theological education by extension (TEE). Under this model, theological educators travelled to regional centers where they provided intensive instructions for men already recognized for their leadership qualities within local communities. In between visits, students were provided with structured self-study materials. The goal was to work toward ordination without the need for abandoning jobs and families. This approach was widely adopted in the 1970s by missionaries in Latin American countries where the establishment of seminaries proved difficult.

In Venezuela during this decade, Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod missionaries organized the Juan de Frias Theological Institute to proved guided instruction not only for pastoral candidates, but also lay leaders and continuing education for ordained pastors. It was training through the Juan de Frias Theological Institute that led to my ordination by the Lutheran Church of Venezuela in 2008.

I had signed up for two years in Venezuela as a LCMS World Missions volunteer missionary in 2002. When I married Luz Maria, I came to share her vision of a church and school in La Caramuca. I began taking Juan de Frias courses with the aim of improving my ability to teach Bible classes in Spanish. More and more of the young people attending our weekday and Sunday evangelistic activities at the mission began asking if they could be baptized and receive the Lord’s Supper, yet there was no national pastor who was willing to serve our rural mission on a regular basis.

So I took advantage of an invitation in 2006 to participate in the Juan de Frias Institute’s renewed campaign to ordain more pastors. This involved setting up a kind of “mini-seminary” in Caracas where students who had already been studying for the ministry lived together in a house and dedicated their time to prayer, Bible study and classes, followed by a year of vicarage before ordination. I was part of this in 2007, except that I went home on the weekends. This meant a six- to seven-hour bus ride back to La Caramuca on Friday night, and ride to Caracas on Sunday night. But it was a great time. We had visiting professors from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis; Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne; and Concordia Seminary of Buenos Aires, Argentina, the world’s largest Spanish-speaking seminary. After a year of vicarage in La Caramuca in 2008, I was ordained at El Salvador Lutheran Church in Caracas, along with two Venezuelans, Sergio Maita and Eduardo Flores.

But opportunities for the continuing education so necessary for a pastor soon became few and far between. Travel within, as well as to and from, Venezuela became more uncertain and risky. Little by little, there were no more weekly, or even monthly trips to Caracas; no traveling Juan de Frias Institute workshops; and no visiting professors. And this was before COVID-19.

Concordia El Reformador Seminary was established as a regional center for residential and distance learning for people in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean islands and South America. Its first students graduated on May 24, 2019. At the same time, more than 30 men in 12 Latin American countries continue their theological education on-line through the FPH program. That fact that this year’s graduation ceremony done by videoconference because of the pandemic shows that distance learning plays a more important role than ever.

Even more videoconferencing

The week before the virtual graduation, Luz Maria and I participated in a virtual symposium on “Life and sexuality: pastoral care and the public voice of the church”, hosted by Concordia Seminary El Reformador.

• May 25: Pastoral Care in Cases of Sexual Sin (Rev. David Warner, former LCMS missionary to Spain and now pastor of two congregations near Custer, South Dakota).

• May 26: Sexuality and Society from a Biblical Perspective (Rev. Dr. David Preus, professor at Concordia Seminary El Reformador)

  

• 
  May 27: The public voice of the Church on sexuality, life and death (Rev. Dr. Clóvis Jair Prunzel, professor at Concordia Seminary, São Leopoldo, Brazil).

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  May 28: What is life and death, from the perspective of the Word of God and the Catechism of Martin Luther (Rev. Dr. John Pless, professor at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana).

We participated on May 10 to 19 in an online workshop on confessional biblical interpretation with the Rev. Dr. Roberto Bustamante of Concordia Seminary El Reformador, Brian Gauthier from Concordia University of Nebraska, Pastor Roberto Weber from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Argentina and 60 pastors and seminarians from all over Latin America.

On Thursday, May 13, and Friday, May 14, we participated in the LeadaChild Symposium 2021 by Zoom videoconference. LeadaChild is a Lutheran mission agency dedicated to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ to children through Christian education in five regions of the world, Guatemala, Central America and Haiti, South America, West Africa and Asia, and also supports an after school program. in Bethlehem. LeadaChild's method is to provide scholarships, school enrollment, and supplies for children so that they can attend Lutheran schools and after-school programs. Also to provide professional development for leaders and teachers, with an emphasis on effective ways to share the gospel and teach Bible truths to children. LeadaChild began supporting educational projects in Venezuela in 1991 and has supported our mission since 2006. The theme of the symposium was changes in education around the world due to COVID-19. We reviewed new software and strategies for online Christian education.

And, every week, Luz Maria mentors 40 women enrolled in the deaconess training coordinated by Danelle Putnam of Concordia Seminary El Reformador and Eliezer Mendoza, director of the Juan de Frias Theological Institute.

COVID-19 claims a life in our community

We received word that Global Lutheran Outreach and the Confessional Lutheran Church of Chile are planning another shipment of non-prescription medicines to Venezuela. We give thanks to God for this. Pray for us as the COVID-19 virus has arrived in La Caramuca and adds to the health risks that already threaten our people. This past week COVID-19 claimed the live of Rafael Méndez, a prominent member of the community and proprietor of a general store and butcher shop near the town plaza. We remembered his family in prayer on Sunday and also others among us that suffer from the virus.

“You will not fear the terror of the night,nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.” Psalm 91:5-6

Almighty God, Who forgives all our iniquities and heals all our diseases, Who has proclaimed Your name to be the Lord that heals us and has sent Your well-beloved Son to bear our sicknesses, look in mercy upon Your servants, pardon and forgive us our transgressions, and of Your lovingkindness remove the plague with which You have visited us. This we ask according to Your will, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

 

A house of prayer for all the nations

José Miguel Albarran Pumar was baptized on on August 16, 2020, the 10th Sunday after Trinity. Since 2005, 23 people have been baptized at our mission. Of those baptized, 11 have received their first communion here.

The sermon text was Luke 19:41-48, which is St. Luke’s account of the cleaning of the Temple by Jesus. I noted that the Israelites in the Old Testament had a special place, a house for all the people to come together for worship, prayer and thanksgiving to the Lord. In the beginning that place was a tent, built in front of Mount Sinai under the direction of Moses. This tabernacle served the people on their pilgrimage in the desert. When the people of Israel entered the Promised Land, the tabernacle remained for many years in the city of Shiloh, then in Jerusalem. King Solomon replaced the tabernacle with the first temple of wood and stone a thousand years before Christ. At Epiphany Lutheran Mission, we worshipped first under a roofed patio, but now we have a beautiful chapel. Like the Temple of Jerusalem, this is a house of prayer for those of all nations who worship in Spirit and in truth. For us, the house of the Lord is wherever the Word is preached in its purity and the sacraments administered according to the Lord’s command. It is a special place because the Lord Himself has invited us to gather at an appointed place and time to receive His gifts (Hebrews 10:25). Our bodies also are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corintios 6:19). As our Lord cleared the moneylenders from the Temple, he cleanses our bodies and renews us in spirit through holy baptism. The church, both as the assembly of believers and place where believers assemble, belongs to Christ. He is the One who sustains it and has promised to keep it until His coming.

Distribution of food from LeadaChild

That same Sunday we distributed foodstuffs to 27 families, thanks to support from LeadaChild, a mission society based in Olathe, Kansas and dedicated to supporting Christian education around the world. We have received financial support from LeadaChild since 2006. In the past, we have distributed donations from LeadaChild as “scholarships” for students in our preschool and Luz Maria’s afterschool tutoring sessions. That is to say, as cash for the families to buy school supplies, clothing and food. This time around we purchased food

items in bulk, in order to get better value for our rapidly devaluing Venezuelan currency. Dividing the currency among the families would mean each household would get less than if we bought the food in one purchase. We were able to do this because of the automobile that we purchased with other donations this past year. Thanks to the car, we drove to the food distribution point and brought the food back to the mission.

On Saturday, August 8, we participated in a Zoom videoconference with Nury de Millian, LeadaChild director for Latin America. We listened to presentations on how to reopen Christian schools during the pandemic, testimony from a COVID-19 survivor, and advice from the Rev. Abdiel Orozco Aguirre, the pastor of Castillo Fuerte (Mighty Fortress) Lutheran Church in Guatemala City, Guatemala, and a immunohematologist.

LeadaChild was founded in 1968 as Children’s Christian Concern Society (CCCS) by Jim and Edie Jorns as agricultural missionaries to the Zacapa region of Guatemala. Their idea was to build a boarding house next to the new Lutheran school in Zacapa so that poor children would receive proper care while attending at the school. Jim and

Edie diligently gathered support from friends, family, and church members in their home state of Kansas. Throughout the years, CCCS grew to provide support to project sites in five world regions – Guatemala, Central America and Haiti, South America, West Africa, and Asia – and also supports an afterschool program in Bethlehem. The organization’s name was changed to LeadaChild in 2013.

I had heard of the Jorns’ mission work in the 1980s, when I was a member of St. John’s Lutheran Church, Topeka, Kansas, the congregation in which Edie was raised. Luz Maria and I were privileged to meet Jim and Edie in 2006. Last fall we met Dr. Philip J. Frusti, the current executive director of LeadaChild, in the Dominican Republic. Dr. Frusti, a Lutheran teacher and former school principal, graduated from Concordia University, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Pray for recovery

 

We praise the Lord that Yepci Santana, Luz Maria’s daughter, is recovering from COVID-19 in Lima, Peru. Other members of Luz Maria’s family, with who we have not had face-to-face contact are recovering as well. Also in Peru, Kalen Yolanda Incata Fernández, wife of Martin Osmel Soliz Bernal, a pastor with the LCMS Mission in Lima, was diagnosed with COVID-19 after giving birth to her first child. Also, we should remember Diana Malik, a Global Lutheran Outreach missionary, who has lost 11 members of her extended family to COVID-19 in Kazakhstan. Holy and mighty Lord, who has promised, “no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent” (Psalm 91:10), we beseech You to hear our cry for those who are suffering and dying under the visitation of COVID-19. Mercifully bless the means which are used to stay the spread of the pandemic, strengthen those who labor to heal and comfort the afflicted, support those who are in pain and distress, speedily restore those who have been brought low, and unto all who are beyond healing grant Your heavenly consolation and Your saving grace, through Jesus Christ, Your only Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen.

Adapting to uncertainty

 How very quickly the "festival half" of 2013-2014 church year has passed for us, but especially the seasons of Lent and Easter. We observed Ash Wednesday amid political unrest that claimed  a number of lives, left many more people injured, and led to the suspension of traditional pre-Lenten festivities in many Venezuelan cities. Since then, annual inflation of Venezuela's currency has topped 60 percent, resulting in spiralling food prices. In the first quarter of 2014, inflation climbed by 10.1%, the highest jump in Venezuela's history for the first three months of the year since 1996. According to the newspaper, El Universal, spiraling inflation comes hand in hand with signals that the economy is heading towards recession, amidst a slowdown in manufacture, construction, trade, and stagnant oil production. Recession plus high inflation could mean a new increase in poverty, which in 2013 soared to 27.3%.

 Shortages of basic products, like milk, paper and medical supplies, have continued and extended into new categories. Venezuelans, who place a great deal of importance on personal grooming, have had to get used to scarcity of shampoo, cosmetics and deodorant. Coffin production has dropped between 20% and 30% this year for lack of materials, forcing funeral and burial delays. Power outages have continued as well. El Universal reported that on June 18, localities in the Venezuelan states of Anzoátegui, Sucre, Nueva Esparta, Aragua, Carabobo, Miranda, Vargas, Mérida, Zulia and Falcón all suffered power outages at the same time. Of course, these blackouts do not make national or international headlines if they are only on a local scale.

Here in La Caramuca, we experience power outages at least once or twice a week, usually lasting two to three hours. Last weekend we were without power for 12 hours. These lengthy blackouts result from the fact that workers for the state-owned electric utility receive less than 40% of the materials needed to fix generation and distribution facility breakdowns. These problems have led to continued protests, a shake-up in the federal goverment and, of course, increased uncertainty about the future for many Venezuelans.

We have adapted to this constantly changing situation as best we can, primarily by growing more and more of our own fruits and vegetables on our property. In keeping with the objectives of our mission, we have shared our produce with the neediest members of the surrounding community. We also have offered cooking classes to teach the preparation of nutritionally balanced meals in the most economical way possible.

 And we have continued to celebrate with joy the great festival days of Easter, the Ascension, Pentecost and Trinity Sunday. One Sunday we used white wine for the sacrament of the Lord's Supper because there was no red wine available.  I explained to our congregation that we would not change any aspect of the order of Holy Communion to suit our own whims, but the general scarcity of everything now included red wine and that Scripture only requires that  the visible element must be wine and not grape juice.  The color and other secondary attributes are not of the utmost importance. By God's grace, someone took my little speech to heart and through personal contacts located a place where we were able to buy a case of red wine.

Members of Corpus Christi Lutheran Church in Barinas joined us for our Easter Sunday service. The Corpus Christi congregation was planted years before our mission in La Caramuca, but has not had its own pastor for some time. We pray for them as Miguelángel Pérez, the presiding pastor of the western zone of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela, helps them in extending a call to a new pastor (in fact, Miguelángel and myself are the only ordained pastors of Lutheran Church of Venezuela in the western third of the country at this time).

 In my Ascension Sunday sermon, I emphasized that the Ascension of Christ is linked with the mission of the church, which is this: To prepare people for the second coming of Christ, when He will come in glory to judge all nations. How do we do this? By proclaiming the gospel, to call people to repentance and salvation before the second coming of Christ. We could not do this without the Ascension of Christ, because with all authority in heaven and earth, He sent the church the Holy Spirit to help proclaim the gospel everywhere. Like the angels, this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven said, will come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven. Clouds hid Christ, and Christ in the clouds revealed. Among his Ascension in the clouds and his return in the clouds is the time to proclaim the gospel, to repent for his glory in Christ as Lord and Savior. But the apostles had a question for Christ before His Ascension. "Lord, will you restore the kingdom to Israel at this time?"

The apostles, like many people at that time thought of the Messiah, the promised Savior of Israel as a political hero, who would defeat the Romans and restore the kingdom of Israel to the glory of the days of David and Solomon. But Christ was not this type of Salvador. He was much more. He won spiritual freedom for the whole world, not just independence for one single country. So Jesus' answer was as follows: "It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father hath put in His own power; But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. "

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Of the Father's love begotten

 

Image via WikiPedia

Trinity Sunday and Father's Day fell on the same date this year (June 19), so there was an opportunity to talk about the person of God the Father and His relation to earthly fathers. That is, earthly fathers are mortal reflections of the our heavenly Father. As it is the divinely ordained role for earthly fathers to protect and provide for their children, God the Father provides and protects us in ways that no human father can. Thus in the prayer that our Lord Jesus taught us, we address God as "our Father" and petition Him for all our daily needs.

In the Large Catechism, Luther writes of the first article of the Apostle's Creed, "We also confess that God the Father has not only given us all that we have and see before our eyes, but daily preserves and defends us against all evil and misfortune, averts all sorts of danger and calamity; and that He does all this out of pure love and goodness, without our merit, as a benevolent Father, who cares for us that no evil befall us."

But the Father is only one of persons of the Trinity that we celebrate on Trinity Sunday, so after we recited the Athanasian Creed, I spoke of the relationship between the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit as well.

The Athanasian Creed has always been my favorite of the three great creeds, It has a poetic rhythm that the Apostle's and Nicene creeds lack, but it also is the longest and most complex of them. It is named after, and in times gone by, was attributed to Athanasius, the fourth-century bishop of Alexandria, Egypt, who was the great champion of trinitarian theology agains the heresy of Arianism. Much like the Jehovah's Witnesses of our time, Arius and his followers believed Jesus was the incarnation of a created being, superior to humans, but not equal in divinity to God the Father.

However, it is very doubtful that the creed as we know it was written by Athanasius. There are several reasons for this, but the most important is that the Athanasian Creed specifically addresses heresies that did not emerge until after Athanasius' death (although Arianism still was alive and well in the fifth century, when the creed probably was written).

The doctrine of the Trinity was attacked on several fronts by false teachers because of its importance to our understanding of the person and unique authority of Jesus Christ. We have the revelation of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the New Testament (although there are hints of it in the Old Testament as well) so that we may understand how God could be walking around on earth incarnate as Jesus, while still maintaining order in the universe as the Creator of heaven and earth. Or how Jesus, as true God could take our place on the cross to pay for our sins, while as true man asking the Father, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?" Or how God the Holy Spirit can live and act in and through each of us while the Son is no longer with us in visible form.

The Holy Trinity is not a useful hypothesis, but divine revelation. We can understand what it is not, but not completely comprehend what it is As we read in our epistle for Trinity Sunday (Romans 11:33-36, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!"

We can only know God from what He reveals to us about Himself. He has revealed something of Himself in His creation (thus, as Paul writes in Romans, none may plead complete ignorance of God and His Law), but most of what He has revealed about Himself was revealed first to the prophets of the Old Testament and later to the apostles of Christ. And the apostolic teaching is none may know the Father except through the Son and none may know the Son except through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, sent by both the Father and the Son.

There is a hymn written close to the time of Athanasius, that beautifully expresses the doctrine of the Trinity. The English version, "Of the Father's Love Begotten", is often sung at Christmastime. Unfortunately, we do not have a Spanish translation in the Spanish hymnal that we use in La Caramuca. This is quite ironic, because the author was what we would call a Spaniard today. His name was Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, and he was born in 348 A.D. in what is now northern Spain. He studied law, served as a judge and twice as governor of a province, and finally received high office in the court of the Emperor Theodosius. He retired from public life at age 57 to devote his time to writing Christian poetry.

"Of the Father's Love Begotten" is a translation of "Corde natus ex parentis", set to "Divinum Mysterium," a 12th Century plainsong (a single melodic line without harmony).

Of the Father's love begotten
Ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega,
He the Source, the Ending He,
Of the things that are, that have been,
And that future years shall see
Evermore and evermore.

Oh, that birth forever blessed
When the Virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving,
Bare the Savior of our race,
And the Babe, the world's Redeemer,
First revealed His sacred face
Evermore and evermore.

O ye heights of heaven, adore Him;
Angel hosts, His praises sing;
Powers, dominions, bow before Him
And extol our God and King.
Let no tongue on earth be silent,
Every voice in concert ring
Evermore and evermore.

This is He whom Heaven-taught singers
Sang of old with one accord;
Whom the Scriptures of the prophets
Promised in their faithful word.
Now He shines, the Long-expected;
Let creation praise its Lord
Evermore and evermore.

Christ, to Thee, with God the Father,
And, O Holy Ghost, to Thee
Hymn and chant and high thanksgiving
And unending praises be,
Honor, glory, and dominion,
And eternal victory
Evermore and evermore.

New communion set in service

My mother gave us some money to buy a chalice and platen in membory of my father, who died in 2000. I had hoped to introduce the new chalice and platen on June 19, but the logistics of delivery did not allow me to do so until the following Sunday, June 26. Thanks, Mom, and thanks to former missionary Richard Schlak for bring the set to Caracas from the United States.

We also are grateful to the Crosswalk Sunday School of St. Michael's Lutheran Church, Bloomington, Minnesota, for a donation that allowed us to buy materials for the preschool and afternoon tutoring programs, as well as school uniforms for some of our older youth.

Sandro Perez, Jeison Arellano, Pedro Santana, Oriana Montoya.

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