The First shall be Last…

In August while we were visiting several of the churches of the ILAG with a delegation from Saint Paul Area Synod we spent several hours in La Libertad a mission start of the ILAG.

We gathered in the early afternoon under a sheet metal roof on wooden benches and a hand full of plastic chairs. The community had set up an altar on one end with fresh flowers and candles. In small groups members of the community gathered and took their places under the roof where there was a reprieve from the heat of the day and later on shelter from the rain.

As we began our meeting, the teacher of the community presented a typed letter asking to be recognized as a church along with a census of those who wanted to be members of the church. Then they shared with us their needs and their story.

They had fled with nothing, only the lives that they were able to save. They fled into Mexico. They were among the first to return to Guatemala, to El Quetzal. They returned as they had left, with nothing. Several of their children did not return with them either. They were among the last to be resettled and were resettled in a farm that is better suited for cattle than for crops as it does not have any natural water source. They are incredibly poor. The lectionary text for the day was the first shall be last and the last shall be first… the people gathered under that sheet-metal roof were the last.

The delegation, the community commented, was the first group from another country that had visited them. The government of Guatemala has not even responded to their solicitations for water, homes, education… etc. The delegation presented a certificate signally a Companion Synod Relationship between St. Paul Area Synod, Southeastern Synod and the ILAG. The community saw the delegation as answers to prayers.

Padre Horacio had the difficult call to preach to them that day. Talking to them about how we are here to walk with them and not to give money as the answer, that our center is Christ. We need to come close to Christ. He is the one who is faithful and that was with them in the mountains as they were fleeing and continues to be with them now.

He said later that it was one of his more difficult sermons to preach… as he had to look into their need, seeing and living their pain… it was beyond words. Yet he was called to give words that day and he did.