Eight graduate from preschool in 2011

We closed the 2010-2011 school year July 11 with an informal graduation ceremony for the eight children who will be leaving our preschool for first grade in September. Our graduates are:

• Marli A. Albarran P.
• Karla V. Altuve R.
• Dayimar A. Aranguren F.
• Brayan J. Arteaga P.
• Geiver J. Cordero U.
• Marlenis J. Piñero R.
• Solibeth del V. Sanchez S.
• Lorianny P. Vivas. M.

All of these children were born in 2005, three years after my first visit to Venezuela.

We also were delighted that many of the older children in our afternoon tutoring program finished the school year with overall grades of "A" or "B", a fact for which we gave thanks during the Sunday service.

My second bicentennial

I am experiencing a national bicentennial celebration for the second time this year. The first time, of course, was in 1976 in the United States. Now, in 2011, Venezuela is marking the 200th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence from Spain. Actually, not just Venezuela, but also Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico are celebrating their national bicentennials.

There was a big parade in Caracas and formal ceremonies in other parts of the country, but no fireworks to mark the bicentennial on July 5. That's Independence Day here, but fireworks are not part of the Independence Day tradition in Venezuela, but rather are associated with the Christmas season (setting off fireworks in the nighttime to early morning hours is supposed to mimic the appearance of the angels to the shepherds watching their flocks by night). By the way, Venezuelans also observe April 19 as a national holiday since April 19, 1810, was the day when revolutionary forces deposed the Spanish governor of Venezuela, effectively ending Spanish rule. However, July 5, 1811, was when Venezuela formally declared its independence.

The last decade has been one of economic and political upheaval, conflict and controversy in Venezuela. Despite being on different sides of the issues, I have been impressed from the beginning with the common desire of Venezuelans for a strong, independent nation. No one wants outside interference in Venezuelan affairs, which perhaps reflects the fact that despite winning independence from Spain 200 years ago, Venezuela has since struggled to be free of foreign economic domination and to realize the ideal of equal economic opportunity for all.Venezuela has enormous potential with abundant natural and human resources waiting to be used in the right way.

And what do I remember about my first bicentennial? Apart from the U.S. flag-themed license plates, T-shirts and other paraphernalia, more than a decade of scandal, disillusionment, inflation and unemployment, with still a few dark, depressing years to go.

But in the decade that followed, there was a renewal of national hope and confidence, buoyed by nearly 10 years of sustained economic recovery and the unexpected collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. It was an exciting time to be alive to be alive and to be an American. I saw really grand fireworks displays for the first time during this period, over the waters of Lake Michigan. This occurred at at various times in Chicago, Racine, WI, and Milwaukee. It was one great bicentennial decade.

Those happy days came to an end, of course. Both the best of times and the worst of times in this world pass. The ultimate triumph of good over evil will not occur in the political arena, and the interests of one nation, or alliance of nations, cannot be equated with the kingdom of God (for the elect of God will be gather from all nations, Isaiah 66:18, Revelation 7:9) God will raise up a nation or alliance of nation as a judgment against those that tolerate immorality and injustice (Job 12:23, Jeremiah 25:14). Yet for this reason, all kingdoms and empires of the earth eventually crumble to dust, for all are tainted by sin. Thus the counsel of Psalm 118:9, "It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes." We should beware of political movements that promise the complete elimination of war, poverty and other societal problems, for only the Gospel of Christ can transform sinful human nature.

Nevertheless, God Himself ordained civil government to execute the first use of the divine Law: to restrain the outward manifestations of sin, maintain external order and the safety of its citizens. Good government is a blessing and so St. Paul in 1 Timothy 2:2, admonishes all Christians to pray "for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty" and so we do every Sunday in La Caramuca, first for the peace of the whole world, but especially for the national leadership of Venezuela, that it, too, may know a period of confidence, independence and hope for the future.

Related articles

• Venezuela's Chávez Given Anointing of the Sick (onecatholicnews.wordpress.com)
• Venezuela unable to determine cause of Bolivar's death (csmonitor.com)

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.

Advent wreath ablaze!

It can terribly distracting when the entire Advent wreath catches on fire during the worship service.

Here is how it happened: Corpus Christi Lutheran Church does not have air-conditioning nor what we North Americans would call “storm windows”. Most of the windows in the church are protected by a wrought-iron framework which includes louvered glass panes which may
be closed in the event of rain. The window nearest the altar, however, only has iron bars to keep out intruders, but no louvered glass.

Often we have trouble keeping the candles on the altar lit when there is a good, stiff breeze blowing. This time, however, the problem was not keeping the candles lit. Rather, the breeze fanned the flames into a close encounter with less-than-fireproof material.

Luckily, there was no serious property damage, although Virginia Jimenez burned her finger helping me put out the fire.

The beautiful Advent wreath, with four blue candles and one white Christmas candle, was made by Ludy de Tarazona, a member of Corpus Christi. We thank God that it served its purpose in marking the weeks of Advent before this unfortunate incident and that it almost certainly can be repaired for continued use. We also give thanks that the Advent season and Christmas Day passed with little incident and the receipt of many gifts, including hallacas (the traditional
Venezuelan Christmas dish) and a bottle of wine from the older fellow who lives at the bottom of our hill.

There were more than 30 people in attendance at Corpus Christi on Christmas Eve. We thank God for this also, for as I have explained before, the idea of attending a midweek service is quite novel for most Venezuelans. The majority spend their Christmas/New Year vacations in the mountains or on the beach, or partying at home with family and friends. We had no December 25 service, so Sunday, December 28, was our Christmas service, more or less. There were about 20 in attendance.

That same Sunday I also led a complete worship service in La Caramuca, with Holy Communion for our confirmed young people. Eduardo Flores said his farewell to Corpus Christi and returned to Caracas after Christmas Eve. Corpus Christi still does not have its own pastor, so this is the plan for now: I will lead the service and distribute Holy Communion every Sunday morning at Corpus Christi and every Sunday afternoon in La Caramuca.

Alonso Franco will arrive in January to serve as vicar at Corpus Christi for three months, thus sharing some of the load. We look forward to seeing Alonso, because he and his parents, Pastor Alcides and Nancy, are old friends of Luz Maria and her children. Luz Maria considered Alcides Franco her mentor in the faith during the years she lived in San Felix de Guayana.

Remembering the Holy Innocents

According to the church calendar, December 28 is always the day dedicated to the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem, the male children that King Herod slaughtered in his rage against the newborn Christ (with whom Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt), and to Christian martyrs around the world. I would recommend the Web site, www.persecution.net, for learning about the more obvious ways in which Christians are persecuted today and how Christians in many parts of the world do not have the blessing of religious liberty that Christians have in the United States. The Web site is sponsored by “Voice of the Martyrs”, an organization founded by Richard Wurmbrand.

It was about 20 years ago that a friend gave me copies of Wurmbrand's books, “Tortured for Christ” and “In God's Underground”. Born a Romanian Jew, Wurmbrand flirted with Marxism
as a young man, converted to Christianity and eventually was ordained a Lutheran pastor. He was imprisoned for many years by the Romanian Communists. He at last found political asylum in the United States and western Europe.

Of course, this year December 28 also was the first Sunday after Christmas, so although I mentioned persecuted Christians in the general prayer, we used the Scripture lessons appointed for the first Sunday after Advent rather than the Day of the Holy Innocents.

Historic lectionary a help

Starting with this liturgical year, the Lutheran Church of Venezuela has returned to “the historic one-year lectionary”. The practice of preaching from a text appointed for the day predates the New Testament. When Jesus revealed Himself as the Messiah in the Nazareth synagogue, according to Luke 4:16-21, He preached from Isaiah 61:1-2, the appointed reading for that day. Various other passages in the New Testament indicate that the early Christians continued the practice of Scripture readings as they did much of the rest of Jewish liturgical tradition.

The church calendar developed as a way of rehearsing, through the course of the year, the important events in the life of Christ, especially His birth, passion and resurrection. A common lectionary designed to follow this annual cycle first appeared in 471 A.D. Further standardization of the lectionary occurred 300 years later in western Christendom under the reign of Charlemagne. Finally, by the end of the 13^th Century, the lectionary had taken the form
it would retain until 1969.

In that year, the Roman Catholic Church abandoned the one-year lectionary in favor of a three-year cycle of Scriptural lessons. In a fit of ecumenical fervor, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians and other Protestant church-bodies followed suit. The reasons given for this change were that:

1. The three-year cycle would give pastors a wider range of Scripture verses on which to base their sermons, and;

2. Increase Biblical literacy among the laity.
   

Ironically, although the one-year lectionary had been used by Catholics and Protestants alike for nearly 400 years, the united front for the three-year lectionary soon began to splinter. Each
denomination began revising it, until each had their own distinct version.

Never mind the Catholics, Anglicans and Presbyterians. The Thrivent pastor's agenda that I was given to use for 2008 has three different Lutheran versions of the Series “A” readings for each Sunday: one for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), one for the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod and one for the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (the Lutheran Church of Venezuela followed the WELS version last year). Personally I found it difficult to just glance at the agenda to make sure I had the right lesson in hand when my eyes had to run down the list of the three versions.

My point being, the three-year lectionary does not make preaching easier for novices like myself. I find the one-year lectionary simpler and more useful. Also, the idea behind a common lectionary never was to “widen options” but to sharpen the focus of preaching throughout the church and discourage pastors from using the Christian pulpit as a soapbox for their personal opinions.

As for increasing Biblical literacy among the laity, a review of research by George Barna and associates will reveal how unsuccessful the three-year lectionary has been at achieving this goal.

Finally, one great advantage to the one-year lectionary is the rich heritage of hymnody, sermons and other liturgical resources that have been based on it. There is much material from which to draw inspiration, including the sermons of Martin Luther himself. Concordia Publishing House
just released a volume of Luther's sermons translated into Spanish that I purchased through the Juan de Frias Theological Institute for about $8. However, Luz Maria grabbed it and won't let me have it until she is done reading it.

Workshop on Christian art

Luz Maria has been organizing a workshop on Christian art to be held in Caracas on January 9. The idea came to her after the ordination service in December. As part of our ordination, Eduardo, Sergio and I were presented with red stoles (symbolic of Pentecost, the season of the Holy Spirit) hand-made by Yoxandris Marcano, a young woman from Monagas. Yoxandris also made a beautiful green stole (for the Trinity season on the church calendar) for her boyfriend,
Sergio.

Also, the three pastors from La Reforma Lutheran Church in San Felix de Guayana – Alcides Franco, Jonathan Franco and Luis Moya – wore elegant chasubles made by Luis' wife. The chasuble is a poncho-like garment which, according to the ancient liturgical tradition, is worn over the alb and stole by the presiding pastor during the service of Holy Communion. During the 16^th Century, Lutheran pastors wore chasubles as a matter of course, but with the rise of Pietism in the late 17^th Century and the continuing influence of Calvinism, many such “high church” accoutrements were abandoned. The anti-liturgical influence was particularly strong in the United States, where the strains of Pietism, Calvinism and Arminianism have formed the basis of popular religion from the nation's beginning. In recent years the chasuble has been reintroduced in some Lutheran churches in North America and now, apparently in Venezuela.

I should explain that, despite external pressures, Lutherans historically have held to the “normative principle of worship”, which may be summed up as saying that the ancient traditions of the church should be preserved as long as they do not conflict with the doctrines of Holy Scripture. This is opposed to the “regulative principle of worship” held by Calvinists, Arminians and Anabaptists, which says that only practices explicitly commanded in Scripture may be allowed in public worship. Once this principle was taken to the extreme of prohibiting all musical instruments (because none are mentioned in the New Testament) and all hymns other than
metrical versions of the Psalms (in England, the Puritans advocated “the iron rule of psalmody”).

The Westminster Confession states:

"The acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture." (WCF 21.1)

Nowadays many churches in the Reformed tradition allow “contemporary Christian music” and “praise bands”, but remain fairly hostile to the use of visual arts which do not require a video screen. In Venezuela, many “evangelical” churches take this to the extreme of not allowing even plain crosses, much less crucifixes (with the image of Christ), set up inside or outside their sanctuaries. The only way you can tell these churches from public auditoriums is the presences of plaques bearing Bible verses on the back walls.

It is for this reason that one of our neighbors in La Caramuca, a staunch Roman Catholic, declared that the spread of Protestantism within the community was destroying traditional Christmas customs (such as the construction of elaborate manger scenes, which Venezuelan evangelicals regard as idolatry).

In contrast, the Lutheran Confessions say:

“Falsely are our churches accused of abolishing the Mass; for the Mass is retained among us, and celebrated with the highest reverence. Nearly all the usual ceremonies are also preserved, save
that the parts sung in Latin are interspersed here and there with German hymns, which have been added to teach the people.” (Augsburg Confession, Article XXIV: Of the Mass)

“At the outset we must again make the preliminary statement that we do not abolish the Mass, but religiously maintain and defend it. For among us masses are celebrated every Lord's Day and on the other festivals, in which the Sacrament is offered to those who wish to use it, after they have been examined and absolved. And the usual public ceremonies are observed, the series of lessons, of prayers, vestments, and other like things.” (Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article XXIV (XII), Of the Mass)

“For although the holy Fathers themselves had both rites and traditions, yet they did not hold that these matters are useful or necessary for justification; they did not obscure the glory and office of Christ, but taught that we are justified by faith for Christ's sake, and not for the sake of these human services. But they observed human rites for the sake of bodily advantage, that the people might know at what time they should assemble; that, for the sake of example all things in the churches might be done in order and becomingly; lastly, that the common people might receive a sort of training. For the distinctions of times and the variety of rites are of service in
admonishing the common people. The Fathers had these reasons for maintaining the rites, and for these reasons we also judge it to be right that traditions [good customs] be maintained.” (Apology of the Augsburg Confesson, Article XV (VIII): Of Human Traditions in the Church)

The Lutheran Reformers realized that certain rites and practices, while not absolutely required by Holy Scripture, were valuable in a number of ways, for example, as visual aids in teaching
the people. Stained-glass windows originally were a way of illustrating Bible stories for a largely illiterate population.And, of course, music and visual arts provide avenues of artistic expressions for believers as signs of their devotion to God.

Which is what Luz Maria's workshop will be about. In addition to the examples that I mentioned above, many members of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela have demonstrated their talents in the making of stained glass, baptismal fonts, crosses and crucifixes and in other ways. Luz Maria has been very pleased with the enthusiastic response to the workshop so far.

What about Papa Noel?

During Advent we covered the Nativity story with the Sunday school children. But one boy asked, “What about Papa Noel?” Papa Noel is another name for Santa Claus in Venezuela. The boy was particularly interested because his name is Jefferson Noel, his brother's name is
Noel Alexander, and his sister's name is Genesis Noeli.

So I told him that Papa Noel was really Nicholas, bishop of the city of Myra, in what is now Turkey, in the fourth century after Christ. Once there was a very poor couple who had three
daughters. It was the custom in those days that the family had to provide a dowry for each daughter to get married. This family did not have any money, so it appeared the girls had no other options in life but to become prostitutes. Nicholas gathered up enough gold coins to
provide each of the three with a dowry, put the money in three bags and in the dead of night threw the bags through a window in the family's home. That is how the legend of Papa Noel, or Santa Claus, got started.

I did not tell him my favorite part of the real St. Nicholas story: How the bishop of Myra attended the Council of Nicaea as a defender of Trinitarian doctrine against the heresy of Arianism and how he supposedly punched the arch-heretic Arius right in the face!

With that image of “action hero Santa” in mind, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Back from the United States

We have settled back into our routine after our whirlwind trip to the United States. Luz Maria brought back many good ideas, some of which she immediately put to use.

For example, at Christ Our Lutheran Church in Freeburg, Illinois, she saw on the wall a big cross composed of little personalized crosses that members of the church had made. So she had the children engage in this activity last Sunday.

She also shared many observations she had made at St. Michael's Preschool in Bloomington, Minnesota, with the public preschool teachers who instruct the children in our home on weekdays. They were impressed with how the staff of St. Michael's Preschool had organized so many activities into two and a half hours in the morning. They also liked the idea of teaching the children to memorize and write not only their names, but also their home addresses and telephone numbers.

I mentioned in my last newsletter that Luz Maria had never seen trees without leaves before visiting the United States. This is because in Venezuela, deciduous trees do not lose all their leaves at one time once a year. Rather they shed old leaves continuously as new leaves develop. That means raking the yard is a daily, yearround chore. In addition to this task, I also water the flowers every day. Luz Maria has planted circular plot that she hopes will one develop into a floral replica of the Lutheran seal: purple flowers forming a cross in the center of red flowers in the shape of a heart inside white flowers symbolizing a white rose.

Actually it doesn't look anything like that right now. But if you look at it in the right way, you can see that is what it might become. That is as good a metaphor for our project as I can think of.

Touring North America

I am writing this newsletter from the United States of America, where Luz Maria and I have spent the last two weeks visiting my family and two of the churches that have supported me as a volunteer missionary. This has been Luz Maria´s first trip outside of her native country and the first time that she has seen snow and trees without leaves. Tomorrow we return to Venezuela.

The first thing we did after arriving at my mother's house was give a presentation on our work at Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church, Freeburg, Illinois. We were overwhelmed by the response and are very grateful to Pastor Bruce Keseman and the people of that congregation.

Then we journeyed to South Dakota to visit my grandmother, who celebrated her 88th birthday in January. We also got to see my mother's two surviving brothers and most of their families. Luz Maria was suitably impressed by the faces of the four presidents on Mount Rushmore. I already knew that Abraham Lincoln is greatly admired in Venezuela and that there is a Lincoln Plaza in Caracas with a statue of the Civil War president. Luz Maria told me that there in Barinas there is a Roosevelt Plaza with a statue of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. That I didn't know and plan to make a point of seeing once we return.

We also visited the site of the Black Hills Passion Play where, long before Mel Gibson's movie, the family of Josef Meier brought the European tradition of passion plays to the U.S. Although the play is not in production right now, we were given a tour of the museum by Guido Dellavecchia, MeierÂŽs son-in-law. Guido spoke to Luz Maria in Italian and they had some success in communicating that way. For more information about the Black Hills Passion Play, see this Web site.

From there we traveled to Bloomington, Minnesota, and gave a presentation to St. MichaelÂŽs Lutheran Church. Once again we were overwhelmed by everyone's support. Luz Maria taught some of the Sunday school children some Spanish songs and enjoyed a tour of St. Michael's preschool. We especially thank Pastor Phil Bickel and Sue Timmerman for organizing everything.
We returned to St. Louis where Pastor Keseman gave us a tour of Concordia Seminary. The Lutheran Church of Venezuela has no seminary and Luz Maria was very interested in all aspects of Concordia, including the deaconess program.

God willing, the next time you hear from us we will be back in Barinas, Venezuela.