One flock, one Shepherd

Jesuly Marianyelis Fernández Torres and Josué Manuel Fernández Torres were baptized on January 6, 2019. Their older sister, Diana, was baptized January 8, 2017, at the dedication of our chapel, an anniversary that we marked on this Epiphany Sunday as well.

Their mother, Yexi Karina Torres, was baptized at Epiphany Lutheran Mission, along with her siblings, Deisi, Yovanny, Yhonny and Yaneth, March 23, 2007. Deisi and Yovanny received first communion on October 25, 2009, and Yhonny on October 31, 2010. Yaneth received first communion on December 13, 2015. Deisi’s daughter, Emily Antonella, was baptized on December 24, 2017. We give thanks for the grace that God has shown the Torres family.

In the week before Epiphany, the mission hosted a vacation Bible school with total attendance of 70 children over three days. “Jesus the Good Shepherd” was the theme. The first day focused on the shepherds who visited the Christ Child in Luke 2:8-20. The Bible story for day two was David the shepherd boy who faced the giant, Goliath, in 1 Samuel 17. On the third day we looked at John 10 and what Jesus meant when he said “I am the Good Shepherd; I know My sheep and My sheep know Me.” (verse 14). Also, how the words of verse 16, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd” relates to the Great Commission, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20).

We distributed among the families of the vacation Bible school children copies of “A Child’s Garden of Bible Stories in Spanish”. The original English version by Arthur W. Gross was first published in 1948. The Spanish version was made available to us through the efforts of the Lutheran Heritage Foundation. Some copies received from Castillo Fuerte Lutheran Church in Lima, Peru, during our visit there. Others were shipped to the Lutheran Church of Venezuela and brought to us by Roamird Castillo, Luz Maria’s nephew. The Spanish translation was by Luz Guerrero-Pacheco, a deaconess at Woodbury Lutheran Church of Woodbury, Minnesota. She, Luz Maria and myself served as volunteers in Monagas state, Venezuela, in 2004. In 2006, Luz Guerrero visited us in Barinas with a short-term mission team from Woodbury. We also put on a puppet show for the vacation Bible school with handpuppets given to us by Nancy Kapernick of Woodbury Lutheran Church in 2004.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with a vespers service on December 24 and the Divine Service of Christmas on Sunday, December 30. At our New Years Eve vespers service, we thanked the Lord for His protection and guidance in years past and prayed for more of the same in 2019.

Challenges ahead

About three weeks have passed without power outages that lasted more than an hour (we still may lose electricity at any time night or day, but not the entire day). This is good, because we have to rely on our electric stove for cooking, as there is an extreme shortage of LP gas. We have both electric and LP stoves in our living quarters. During the lengthy power outages, the LP gas stove held us in good stead. Now it’s the electric range’s turn. The preschool has its own LP gas stove, but we will have to replace it soon, because of its bad state of repair.

Last week a neighbor right across the street from us was robbed in the wee hours of the morning. He asked if we could review our security camera recordings, as we have a camera trained on the street in front of the mission. I did so, but was unable to find images of suspicious activity. The thieves had figured out that the neighbor’s house was in a blind spot, since the camera does not turn automatically. We are thinking about installing another camera for a more panoramic view of the street.

The lack of public transportation is getting to be more and more of a problem. For years, the government kept gasoline prices artificially low, which allowed dozens of bus and taxi lines to operate. Once there were three taxi lines operating full-time in La Caramuca’s plaza, now there is one that only sporadically working. Even gasoline is scarce in Venezuela now and it’s no longer true that a liter of gas is cheaper than a liter of water. What that means for us is that it takes all morning and most of the afternoon to run two or three errands in Barinas. We lose a lot of time just waiting for a bus (we no longer use taxis, because they require more cash than we usually have on hand). It would be very helpful now to have a truck or van to haul people and supplies for the mission. We even have worked out a plan for parking it at an undisclosed location in the evening, so we do not have to build a fortified bunker of a garage. But the challenge remains of finding a reliable vehicle at an affordable price.

A prayer for refugees

The coda to the story of the Magi in Matthew 2:1-12, of course, is the massacre of children in Bethlehem and the Holy Family’s flight to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-23). This year is a particularly good year to reflect on this narrative.

According to the 1951 United Nations Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, “Refugees are people who have fled war, violence, conflict or persecution and have crossed an international border to find safety in another country.” It is estimated that record numbers of people were driven from their homes in 2017 by wars, violence and persecution, bringing the number of forcibly displaced people living around the world to 68.5 million.

Joseph, Mary and the Child in Mary’s womb were not refugees on the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem as recorded in Luke 2:1-20. They did not flee war, violence, conflict or persecution and they did not cross an international border. However, when Joseph and Mary took Jesus and fled to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-23) , they certainly were fleeing politically motivated violence and persecution, of which Jesus was, in fact, the prime target. Did they cross an international border? You could argue that nearly that they never left the Roman Empire, even by traveling from the Holy Land to Egypt. Yet they were escaping from one jurisdiction to another. The Romans had declared Herod the Great king over all of Palestine in return for his defeat, on behalf of Rome, of an invasion by the rival Parthian Empire. The Romans gave Herod a free hand, for he also had executed his own wife, two brothers-in-law, three of his sons, and hundreds of non-relatives that he considered his political enemies, or just people he did not like very much.

The Scriptures have much to say about people we would classify as refugees today, and homeless and displaced persons in general. To unpack these verses in all their profundity, and avoid adding fuel to the fire of current political debates, requires discussion of the different Hebrew and Greek words that can be translated as “foreigner” and explaining the historical-cultural context of each passage. Someday I would like to prepare a lecture on the whole topic, but today is not that day.

Suffice it to say that the Scriptures in general teach us that God’s mercy and love knows no national boundaries, and therefore our compassion should not be limited to those of our own family, tribe or nation (see Luke 10:25-37; 17:11-19; John 4:1-30).

In fact, the visit of the Magi is all about the first revelation of God’s love in Christ to “all the nations” (etnias). So here is a prayer for all the refugees:

Heavenly Father, you who led the Magi to the Savior’s light and delivered the Christ Child from Herod’s wrath, preserve and protect all who travel by land, sea and air; especially those who are in danger or need. Defend them from fire and flood, war and want. Suppress the evil influence of all who would disturb the peace and order of human society and persecute your church. As we all are strangers and pilgrims on earth, guide to share your love with the less fortunate as we prepare for the life to come. Amen.