I came to Guatemala with a Graduate Preaching Fellowship in 2004 to learn to be neighbor. I was ordained at the St. Paul Area Synod Assembly in June 2007 as a pastor of the Iglesia Luterana Agustina de Guatemala and commissioned for service by two Synods of the ELCA and the Global Mission Unit of the ELCA. I serve in Guatemala with the ILAG as a missionary and a pastor.
Santa Amelia on the day of their 10th anniversary of returning to Guatemala also celebrated their first day of being Lutherans as they joined the Lutheran Church on September 28, 2006. Members brought their light into the church as we began our walk together. Please pray for this new congregation.
And our work, in part, is to teach them to use power and influence for the good of all and not simply for the good of themselves.
A pastor who attends to one of the communities of the ILAG has been tempted by members of the community in which he works. The words of the serpent are indeed sweet… “Padre Horacio does not value you as he should… you could be the next President of this church. We could even become an independent Lutheran church, and be legalized—then we would have resources and not be held back by the Pastoral Team. Padre Horacio should come to us, why should we go to him….” So they ask Padre Horacio to come into their community, and he does because he has dedicated his life to bring the gospel to the people and to help them have better lives here and now.
The realization that the devil is the serpent and the apple is bitter.
In another of our churches a young “leader” rises—chosen by his family to lead… but not chosen by the church. They see possibilities for their family to receive $ but the problem is the Pastoral Team wants a work plan for the church, wants leaders who are called, prepared, transparent. This family prefers to work outside the meeting, under the table… Padre Horacio wants to come to agreements officially and have agreements recorded in the council minutes—that is not convenient for them because Padre Horacio wants every offering, every receipt, every bill to be recorded—no side deals. Honesty, Transparency. The church counsel fights over the right to possess 10 quetzales… imagine if they had direct access to a thousand dollars. Trust.
We fully trust few of our leaders. Bringing in economic aid is needed but needs to be done very carefully… from their very need people will do horrible things. We are seen as enemies at times because we help them learn to be honest, learn to plan, learn to think about the future, learn to work together. We call on the sinner to repent and the sinner replies over my dead body and if you threaten me again it will be over yours.
We keep preaching. We keep teaching. We keep demanding accountability.
Tonight in El Mirador, they tried to bury us during the council meeting and then threw me a birthday party (how thoughtful =D ). Now Horacio is out pruning the rose bushes and I am reading Psalm 119.
Bury us? How? Well you see we are being unreasonable and asking the members to not agree that we will do services or sacraments upon order but want the members to ask instead of telling us when they have planned services for us so that we can teach the parents what baptism is or have more than a week to prepare a young woman for confirmation—or be asked for a service of 9 days or 40 days (both services after a death) or 15 years with some notice.
For one, we have other churches to attend and even with the 9 day memorial service there are by nature 9 days to ask—and 15 years, well even longer. Second, these are promises from God. We have the responsibility to give them freely—which means that people know what they are receiving because if not someone will come and say that it didn’t count precisely because it was free! 
A young child of the household are Jill (from Memorial Lutheran Church) and I are staying is reading her homework by candlelight as the two of us are attempting to rest. Alone she is reading out loud about women, and their fight to live. Alone she is reading about the flight into Mexico to save their lives and how they arrived with nothing but their lives. Alone she is reading about the difficulties in Chiapas, Mexico and lack of education so that they could read or write. No opportunities beyond second grade. Alone reading a powerful and painful story.
When Americans arrive and are confronted with the suffering and pain of a church in Guatemala, they are faced with death and each will react in order to preserve their lives.
Americans are so analytical and experiences here cannot be quickly understood, explained, sorted out and filed away neatly. It’s messy. Americans respond by trying to figure out why or how to fix so they can move on. (Like our baptisms—move beyond… when frankly we begin each day as the baptized, punto.)
Face to face with people dying – maybe not physically for in many ways it is worse to kill the spirit, to destroy the faith. Many people die at 18 and are buried at 80.
It’s overwhelming for them and they do not want to accept it… death/ resurrection and the incarnation.
We made it! Left at 5am and arrived at the entrance at 4pm to walk in. Once again it is interesting that someone from the community thanked the delegation for visiting—that no one has visited them before. The twist is that since they suffered a massacre in 1996 they have had Americans living with them as peace observers.
But it is different when it is with the church—a deeper relationship. A visit of brothers and sisters and for this reason they can say that this was the first visit.
Women of Santa Elena 20 de Octubre looking at a picture of the members of Memorial Lutheran Church. 5 representatives of the church made the journey to this Guatemalan community so that all could begin to know one another.
For years the Augustinian Lutheran Church “La Resurreccion” had been living in exile—celebrating and worshipping in garages, in members homes and for the last months in the patio of the Monroy Lux family—rain or shine. The congregation’s church perched on the side of the ravine still lacked a roof. The congregation had worked to raise the walls with the Sunday offerings and special gifts but the roof remained the heavens due to increasing prices and the difficulty of bringing supplies down to the church on unstable steps.
On the 14th anniversary “La Resurreccion” decided to return from exile and reclaim the presence of the church in the midst of those in most need. The members were committed to come home even if they would be having the worship service under a tarp. A lemon tree had grown to about 5 feet within the church—life continues even in exile.
Marcelina Monroy and Ramiro Sarat agreed that a tarp would not be enough. They cleaned out half the church of years worth of dirt and construction waste. They bought and carried down 2”x4” boards and sheet metal by hand one at a time in order to proudly raise a roof that would allow worship to continue until funds could be raised for a formal roof. Others joined in the task and continued with a carpet of pine needles and a cross of rose petals over the dirt church floor.
The morning of the anniversary, we gathered in the house of the Monroy Lux family. As we celebrate in Guatemala Los Posadas during Advent—bringing Mary and Joseph house to house asking for a place to rest… this family had opened their home and hearts to the people of God.
Together we carried the cross, sacristy, bible and other items of the church through the streets of Zone 1 down into the ravine of El Tuerto. As we processed more and more people from the ILAG Lutheran Churches of Guatemala City joined in the joyous celebration.
One by one we descended slowly to the church, careful not to slip on the rain soaked steps… 14 years ago before the members placed the concrete steps arriving to the church was even more difficult as people had to descend into the ravine grasping at twigs and making their way through the dirt.
Entering the church on this morning we were greeted by the smell of pine needles, fresh flowers and incense. We were protected from the rain and found rest on benches and chairs occupying every corner available—until even the aisle disappeared sometime during the service.
A joyous return accompanied by brothers and sisters. We are abundantly blessed.
Now that we have made a very public return, prayers are needed so that no one tries to hush the voice of the church for selfish motives. We are sure that God will continue to bless His church.
Padre Horacio, Horacio, Kristen (a friend of mine from MN) and I visited Santa Elena 20 de Octubre in early July in order to prepare them for a delegation visit. They have had a difficult year… or more. In May 2006 Padre Horacio brought seeds to help relieve the hunger caused by Hurricane Stan. About a month later a week of rain caused the river to rise and destroy much of the disaster relief.
These are the moments in which it is clear that our call is to keep walking with the people of God, to keep telling them about the faithfulness of our Lord and to share their story with others. Their faith remains steadfast even as their means of life is washed away.
During our meeting with the church members, 4 Americans (US citizen) entered the church. One had been a peace observer in the community three years before and was returning to visit and bring her friends to see. Since the community was victim of a massacre, they had peace accompaniers as part of the peace process.
Padre Horacio welcomed them and told them they were welcome to attend activities if they were around. Upon asking if they were Lutheran or from another church, they responded with blank stares until finally one responded that they did not belong to any church.
As we continued with our meeting we talked about how the church members could make humble crosses out of wood to give to the delegation members. As the members were nodding in agreement, the 4 Americans were visibly laughing.
After our meeting Kristen and I went up to them to greet them—American to American. It was the 4 of July after all. They were not interested in talking to us until I said that I was a missionary here in Guatemala.
This small comment opened the floodgates… one of the young women very rudely told us that what I was doing was wrong and that the church should not be coming in trying to change these people, that they had hope before us and our “charity” was just an attempt to buy their consciousness and that the history of mission only proved that the church is wrong.
Trembling, I responded that we are in solidarity with this community and bring the hope that only Christ can bring, we do not buy anybody (after all Christ paid the ultimate price for us!)
She persisted. I told them that I was sorry that they felt that way but that they were welcome here in the church while we were visiting.
I gave Padre Horacio and the church leader a heads up… we would be leaving the next morning and these 4 would be there another week. People listen to the discontented who are disposed to try to plant seeds of doubt. Thankfully the text of the day, Matthew 8:23-27, allowed for a sermon stressing solidarity in Christ, hope in Christ alone and not in any material possession that we may have the opportunity to provide them.
It was a day in which I mourned the hatred that entered the church as a welcomed guest and left equally welcome despite the venom that it tried to strike with.
Today a woman came by the office of the ILAG with her six year old daughter. The girl had a suitcase in hand. The mother entered and said in front of her daughter that she did not want her daughter any more and that we could have her. She had heard that we had several youth living here on scholarship. According to the mother, the daughter was not well behaved and she was sick of her. If we did not take her daughter she knew of others who would.
October 3, 2006
Today Horacio and I went to ask for a VISA in the US Embassy. We were granted one thanks be to God but it was not easy.
Our interviewer could not fathom why we didn’t stay in the US with our Finance VISA. We didn’t stay because we have compromisos (commitments) here—Horacio is a Pastor, VP of the ILAG and a Law Student. I am a missionary.
Then she wanted to know why I am here. I said I have a call here. She looked at me as if I was crazy and asked if it was a personal call or an official call. I don’t have an official call so I said I have an MDIV, hope to be ordained and that the ILAG agrees with my presence as pastor here.
She was right to ask—internal/ external call. She hit me right in the sore spot hard. One of my professors worried some time ago that in waiting for the system of the church to ordain me, I would be brought low… and I have been.
Our church has the responsibility to order, to call externally those who are called and prepared. It has been almost 2 ½ years since I graduated from seminary and I am waiting patiently but painfully hoping.
Delegations come and go—I care for them as a pastor would. I deliver the Word to them, for them. Again and again I hear exasperated comments about why I am not ordained and questions about what they can do to help make it happen.
Here in Guatemala I am being used up in my vocation. Rural male church leaders are coming up to me for council—no small feat… I teach theology, children and preach. Space is not automatically given but I have been given it… but every new member I have to start again. I am a woman after all. I don’t doubt that I have a call—but I doubt deeply that I do as well.
After all we are taught over and over in seminary that internal calls are important but the external call “to be our pastor” is essential.
I find myself in a tough spot. My church is the ELCA. I went to seminary and was approved ELCA. I feel called to serve in the mission field in Guatemala. The Guatemalan church aggress as do many delegations who we receive… but these people cannot extend me a call… the Division for Global Mission has this role, and they say no.
It affects me not being ordained. I feel like who I am is being denied. Call me self important but sometimes maybe the Holy Spirit is working outside of the structure and norms of the Division of the Church… just a thought.
