August 2008

The steps heading down into El Tuerto towards the ILA “La Resurreccion” were not laid with any regulation in mind or with the promise of an inspection. They were simply placed by the church years ago so that people could reach their homes and their church when coming down the ravine. In the past months a second set of stairs is being put in on the other side of the church. These are a gift from the mayor of Guatemala City and even though they are supposed to reach every home and building on that part of the ravine, they have stopped short of the church. The material has disappeared and the workers want to erect a wall in front of the churches second entrance so that when the mayor comes to inspect he will not notice that they did not bring the steps down to all the homes and buildings. Our church is growing in El Tuerto and nearly half of our members now come in that back door. Currently, because of where the construction stopped, they have to walk across a plank that Don Ramiro puts up every Sunday over the 6 foot drop. We have the right to appeal to the mayor for justice or even appeal to the law for restriction of our right of movement, however that would simply cause more tension between our church and our non-Lutheran neighbors. So we will build a platform, fix the drainage problem ourselves and save the workers the need to put a wall up blocking our church.

During a recent ILAG retreat in which we brought representatives in for training, we withdrew one invitation two weeks before the event. When Padre called to confirm that one of the women was coming, she said yes but only if he came (only about 8 hours of driving one way) or at least sent a car to pick her up. She believed that if she was going to have this particular commission in her church that she deserved special treatment. For our events, leaders travel up to two days to arrive—walking, traveling in the back of pick up trucks, vans and the last leg in bus; it is simply the reality of living in rural Guatemala. We did not want to begin an important holistic ministry of the ILAG with someone who was not feeling called to serve.

One of our rural churches is having a conflict with a former leader of their church. The leader had asked for a break as leader, not expecting that the church would accept his request. When the new president was elected, the old became angry and began speaking poorly of the church in the community. When that did not bring enough attention, he demanded all the wood planks nearly all the walls of the church) that he donated for the construction of the church back.

In contrast a five year old in one of our churches just became a big brother for the first time. When we asked him how his sister was doing, he responded without pause “Good, thanks to God.” This little boy has a spirit of love and service to God that is clear at his young age. During the worship service, his little voice can be heard when he sings the liturgy, and he is in charge of collecting the offering.

Many people want to be served in the church. They come in order to receive a position, so that people will listen to them, so that they can have control of the offering or even have control of the keys of the church. Others come humbly to serve as they can, to be part of the community and work together in love and faith.

When Padre Horacio was a young boy a missionary came to his home church. The missionary talked about churches around the world that needed prayer and support in order to share the gospel with their neighbors. The missionary asked for an offering to support this important mission. Padre Horacio came forward and took the wooden offering plate off the altar, set it on the floor and stepped into it. He asked the missionary to send him to serve the Lord and the church. The missionary got down on one knee and told Padre Horacio that he would be sent, but he needed to be prepared first.

In the ILAG we have the call to teach our brothers and sisters what it means to serve out of love, what it means to be community, what it means to be children of God. We have the call to teach about giving to a people who lack many of the basic needs in life and the training and tools to use the resources that they do have but who have many blessings that they are blind to because they simply want to receive without any effort on their part. They, along with all of us, have already received in abundance and are now responding out of that abundance.