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.

Quarantine may be lifted before the Ascension

Did you know the word quarantine means 40 days? It is derived from the Latin word for forty, quadraginta. So is its Spanish equivalent, cuarentena, and so is the Spanish word for Lent, Cuaresma. We spent most of the 40 days of Cuaresma under national cuarentena, which has been extended to May 15 at least. But here’s a thought; the Feast of the Ascension is May 21, forty days after Easter. And, if we cannot celebrate the lifting of the national quarantine on the final day of our Lord’s exaltation, there’s Pentecost on Sunday, May 31.

Our new confirmation class.

In that light, it is good to reflect on our Gospel reading for this fourth Sunday of Easter, John 16:16-23. In this chapter, Jesus tells His disciples that after His resurrection, they will see Him again for a time, but then He must return to the Father that the church might receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit’s power on Pentecost. After the Ascension, He will not be with them in visible form until He returns in glory. But He makes this promise: “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” Times of trial and suffering which turn to joy in the end wll not only be the pattern of the church’s story until the Lord’s return, but also our lives on this earth until we are called home to heaven.

We also are conscious of what the Apostle Peter writes in Sunday’s epistle (1 Peter 2:11-20. “Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.”

The current situation in Venezuela is hard to assess. There are many who think the official coronavirus count is much too good to be true. Nevertheless, no one in our immediate vicinity seems to be affected by the virus itself. All of us are dealing with the consequences of the plan to control its spread. No one is supposed to go out on the street without a facemask and must stay at least a meter apart in public places. Certain businesses may open for a few hours during the day.

As far as I know, there are no specific rules in regard to religious activities. Luz Maria and I, of course, can enter the chapel without going out into the street. If it came down to it, just the two of us could worship together (Matthew 18:20). But if we leave the doors open and people enter, the same people who come to us every day for food and water, shall we turn them away?

However, to show that we do respect the government’s efforts to control COVID-19, we are not offering weekly communion for the time being. Rather we follow the order of morning prayer. We did celebrate the Eucharist on Easter Sunday, and, God willing, we may do so again on Ascenscion Sunday or Pentecost. Please pray that Venezuela might be spared the worst of the pandemic as we pray for the whole world on Sunday and every day.

Luther's morning prayer by Karla Frias 

 

From deadly pestilence deliver us

Distribution of food.

“Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the Most High, who is my refuge, no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. for He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” Psalm 91:9-11

Psalm 91 is the basis for the Introit on the first Sunday of Lent. Although the psalm promises the Lord’s protection and care for the faithful in every trial, sickness and danger, this passage from the psalm seems particularly pertinent now. The Old Testament lesson appointed for the second Sunday in Lent, Exodus 8:16-24, dealt with the 10 plagues of Egypt, and I preached on that text. Although the purpose of the 10 plagues of Egypt has been revealed to us, tooday we may not sure of the purpose of this plague. However, we trust that everything is under God's control.

Since our last newsletter, the coronavirus arrived in Venezuela. There have been 77 confirmed cases in 14 states. However, no cases have been documented in Barinas, the state where we live. So far, the only Venezuelan to die from COVID-19 was a 90-year-old man who had been living in Madrid, Spain.

Distribution of food.

The Venezuelan government has declared a “national quarantine”. No one is supposed to leave home without a respiratory mask and only to perform essential tasks. International flights have been suspended and the borders with neighboring countries closed. Traffic in and out of the areas where the virus has appeared, including the capital city of Caracas, is being monitored and restricted. Teams of government workers are fumigating public spaces in the urban centers (these spaces are nearly empty, anyway). Nationwide testing for COVID-19 has been promised.

It remains to be seen how effective this program will be. One problem is many, if not most, Venezuelan households are not like middle-class homes in the USA where there are many comforts like wide-screen television, continuous high-speed Internet service and well-stocked freezers and refrigerators. Many Venezuelan homes now have no running water, fuel for cooking and are without electricity for several hours per day. The people have to get up before sunrise to fill up jugs of water for daily use, purchase firewood or LP gas if available and stand in line for food distribution. Actually, all of these things require standing in line for hours. In addition, gasoline sales have been all but halted in petroleum-rich Venezuela.

Homework.

No doubt all of you have seen the infographic which shows the two bell curves. One, in which no preventive measures are taken, predicts COVID-19 infections taking off like a rocket and overwhelming the capacity of healthcare facilities. The other curve indicates that, with preventive measures, the spread of the virus may be kept within the capacity of exisitng healthcare facilities, although extended over a longer period of time. Of course, this graph does not calculate the social and economic costs of maintaining strict “social distancing” measures across entire countries. The world already is feeling the impact of these costs, which will only increase exponentially over time. There also are not completely satisfactory explanations as to why the virus is spreading more rapidly and with greater impact in some regions of the globe compared to others.

Again, the situation is particularly critical in Venezuela, which, with the crippling of its once-proud agricultural sector, has become heavily dependent on imported food. Medicine and medical supplies also are in short supply. We will have to wait and see to what extent “humanitarian aid” will be allowed to pass the imposed barriers.

Preparing food.

Our preschool classes have been suspended, but last week our teachers distributed food and homework plans for the children and their families. Up to now, at least, Luz Maria has continued her afterschool tutoring and we have kept the doors of the church open on Sundays.

I think that this is a decision that every pastor and congregation must make based on the circumstances in which God has placed them. We interact with our neighbors in the surrounding community on a daily basis, as they come to the mission in search of food, water or other assistance. Indeed, “social distancing” is not very practical for us, because we cannot avoid contact even if we wanted to. Our Sunday morning attendance is small, usually not more than 20 people, and we do not expect many visitors for at least a month or two. But every one of these people are in need of Word and sacrament ministry, which really is what we are about.

The public preaching of the Word is proclamation, or quite literally a broadcast of the Gospel for all who have ears to hear. It make sense, then, to make this proclamation over radio, televison and theInternet. But the sacraments cannot be received through electronic media, because in the visible elements the grace of God is made real for each one of us personally and in a way we can perceive with all of our senses. For that reason, as the Apology of the Augsburg Confession says, “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.”

Faced with the threat of death, it is important that the consolation of personal confession and absolution, and the body and blood of the Lord be available to every believer. God forbid that any of our flock might look to receive the sacrament on their very deathbed, but God willing, I would be availble to offer it to them under such circumstances, as I have in the past.

O God, You desire not the death of sinners, but rather that we turn from our wickedness and live. Graciously behold Your people who plead to You and spare us. Withdraw the scourge of Your wrath and be moved in mercy to turn away this pestilence from us; for the sake of Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.