Hazards of Ministry

In every ministry situation there are hazards.  Some are larger than others.  Some are easily seen, whereas others stay hidden for a long time, until they leap out full-blown.

Here is one that was certainly unexpected, though not surprising when discovered -- a 6-foot Anaconda in the ditch in front of Ebenezer, found by the workers cleaning the ditch.  The parsonage is directly behind the man's left shoulder.  

One can only wonder what it's been eating that allowed it to get that large in the location where it was found.  There are always animals on the roads in Guyana - but usually they are donkeys and goats and cows.  The anaconda brings to mind the fact that we are not in some rural place in North America, but we are truly in South America.  The ministry is much the same as it would be anywhere, but some of the hazards are a bit different.

Still, the Pastor is expected to conquer all. 

Everything you wanted to know about life in Guyana

My sister emailed me to mention that I have not done any blog posts in August, so I figured I should do one right away.  Although I have thought of several to write, life here does not include the incessant internet use that made so much of my life in North America.  This is said to cover any lack of initiative or laziness on my part, and sounds so much better - noble even.

Sister did ask some questions which will be the basis of this blog.

The Rain -- We are moving into the 'hot' season [everything is relative] so it does not rain every day like it did when we came, but today we had what they call a 'white rain.' I think because it is heavy enough to make the air look white, not to mention that the whole sky is white as well.  Since most places on the coastal plain are barely above sea-level, and some not quite above high tide, a heavy rain means flooding.  The city is full of ditches which they call gutters, and like any gutter, they are intended to take the rain away.  But when it rains heavily, the water stretches from the one gutter to the other on the sides of  Lutheran Courts - surrounding the church with water and generally making a mess for about half a day or more till it subsides again and you can distinguish the gutters in isolation.

Gutters are not only the storm sewers, but they are the 'grey water' sewers as well.  While the toilets go into a septic system, the sinks and shower and laundry go directly into the gutters.  Gutters are often filled with weeds, grasses and even larger aquatic plants.  Surprisingly, either they don't smell bad or we have gotten used to the smell, because although the one gutter runs directly behind the house, we don't smell it.  But with everywhere being so close to sea-level, the water must run very slowly.

The Fresh Water system is quite simple:  Water flows by gravity from the 400 gal. black tanks (B) into the house [and, in our case, the church] for domestic use. The concrete reservoir holds about the same amount of water as the two tanks.  It is filled by rain water from the eaves of the house - much like prairie cysterns once were - and/or by the city water that comes in via the pump and pipe system (C).  The pump also allows for filling the tanks from the reservoir.  This is all a manual operation in that someone [that is, me] has to set up the pump and plug it in  properly either to pump from (A) to (B) or from the city main to either place.  City water runs three times a day for one to three hours each time.  Although 'natives' can generally drink this water, visitors can't and some natives don't, so there is quite a market for bottled water.  We use bottled water for drinking, but the piped water can be used for most cooking and washing.

What came as a bit of a surprise is that there is no water heater - other than the kettle on the stove.  Early morning showers can be quite cold, but by afternoon water sitting all day in a black tank can be quite warm.

Food -- The fruit pictured at the top of the page is Breadfruit.  It is cut from the tree by using a hook on a stick or a machette in the hand of a climbing person.  The hook is an iron knife on a long pole.  Since breadfruit trees can be 30 to 50 feet tall, with a long pole you can at least get the lower ones without climbing.  One of our favourite new foods is breadfruit. Not native to this part of the world it was brought to the Carribean as a cheap food to feed slaves.  It turns out that it is also easily grown, nutritious and tastes good.  There are many ways it is prepared, many of which are similar to potatoes.

Beside breadfruit, several fruits that are not exported and a few that are expensive in North America, are also available for reasonable prices at the local market, stores, or from street vendors, as are ones you would know like bananas, mangos, limes [usually key limes], oranges, etc. Many fruits and vegetables that are available here are not actually grown here.  Most root vegetables are difficult or impossible to grow here because they would rot in the ground, but you can find potatoes and carrots in the stores and markets.  In the Lutheran Courts are several trees and fruit bearing bushes.  In our garden [about 50' x 65'] we have two coconut palms, one mango tree, two pomegrate bushes, a guava bush, a 'five-finger fruit' tree [known to you as 'star fruit'], an orange tree,  two stands of banana trees, and a stand of 'soft' sugar cane [not the same variety that commerial sugar comes from], a passion fruit vine, and three pigeon pea bushes [a bean similar to navy beans], three different kinds of Thyme, plus a variety of flowering plants.  And the garden isn't half full.

Any of the items mentioned here can be further researched on the internet, but if there's some clarification needed, I am always here - leave a comment.

I'm ending here so as not to be overly boring.  Bits and pieces will continue to unfold about life in Guyana.

Peace.

The 'true' Christian and the other

I was at an auto mechanic shop, getting the very old Parish car looked after.  Another man who was there asked me if I was the Pastor at Ebenezer - he had recognized the car [they have had it for 11 years and it was used when they got it].  I told him that my wife was the Pastor, that we had recently come to Guyana, that we would be staying here for two years.  He asked if I were a Pastor, also; no, I am not.  'But you are a churchman?' he asked.  'Yes, of course,' I replied.
  I felt like I should have been on the dark side of a confessional, because he proceeded to tell me that although he was 63 years old and had five children, that he had never married.  If he thought that might surprise me or produce some stronger reaction, it did not - absent fathers are a fact of life everywhere, even if they are perhaps more prevalent in Guyana than in North America.
   Then he told me that he had a girlfriend [a Christian girl], but that they were having some difficulties.  I listened:  He is a Christian - he believes in God and attends church, but she is a 'true' Christian, he said, and she seemed to speak a lot to him about such things as 'fornication.' I'm guessing she was not in favour of it, but considering his history, that he was of a different opinion, hence, the 'difficulties' in the relationship.  
   I didn't want to get into a theological/ethical debate over what constituted fornication, or whether there was a way out of his difficulties with this woman.  I suppose that marriage might have been the solution she was looking for, but certainly didn't seem to have much appeal to the gentleman.
   But it struck me that although he referred to himself as a Christian and even gave evidence that indicated he knew what that meant, he referred to the lady in question as a 'true' Christian. I assumed he meant that her strict moral code made her somehow more of a Christian than he. 
   We often hear the word Christian used with qualifiers: true Christian, born-again Christian, Bible-believing Christian, Evangelical Christian, Lutheran Christian.  But there are only Christians.  Now, don't get me wrong - I am a Lutheran and proud to be; whether Lutherans have a more correct notion of Christian doctrine than others might is a debatable point.  But the debate is not about who is a Christian and who isn't, or which is somehow more Christian than another.
   This brings me to the point that I find increasingly important in my life and my faith, namely, that there is one ministry [mission] for the Church [that would be the one, holy, apostolic Church] ---- Proclaim the Gospel in word and deed, or as the old Augsburg Confession says - preach the Gospel in its purity and rightly administer the Sacraments [it's from memory, so correct me if you need to, or call it a paraphrase, if you like].  
   One important thing to note in that phrase is what it does not say - it does not say we have to decide who are the true Christians and who are not; who are saved and who are going straight to Hell.  Or as I am wont to say, we are not about the business of sorting potatoes.  The mandate at the end of Matthew is to go, preach, baptize.  In John, the new command is that we love one another.  Neither of these say anything about dividing people into catagories, identifying the true Christians, or assigning eternal destinations for people.

Lutherans have often been seen by conservatives as part of the 'other' sort of Christian, because we do not have a strict moral code.  But I would submit that there is a difference between proclaiming the Gospel and teaching moralism.  But that is the topic of another posting.  For now, just know that Christians are Christians without need of qualification.  We debate morals, we debate doctrine, but it's not our job to sort potatoes -- unless, of course, you are cooking them for dinner.

Mosquito netting

I planned to write this blog right after worship on Sunday.  In the Caribbean, this is right after - so I'm good.
  Vivian delivered her first sermon on Sunday past.  She talked about mosquito netting, and sleeping under them.  It did take us awhile to get all the nuances straight - people who have lived with something all their lives sometimes don't cover all the salient points on the first go round.  By now we are doing everything properly, I think, and the number of mosquito bites is greatly reduced.
  The point of her mention of same was to point out that to the uninitiated, sleeping under a net seems to be a sort of captivity.  You are trapped inside this net in fear for your life [which considering the various sorts of infections mosquitoes carry, is no exaggeration], not being able to move or especially get up to go to the bathroom without risk.
  Galatians 5 1 For freedom Christ has set us free.   Just as the net encloses us in a freedom - freedom from mosquitoes, freedom from threat, so that our night can give is peaceful rest, so Christ encompasses our lives in freedom, so that we can serve God and neighbour.  To the uninitiated, that freedom to serve might look like slavery, but to those who are in Christ, it is true freedom.  
  So we live here, sleeping under our net - 'safe and secure from all alarms.'  We are free from mosquitoes [mostly] and also free from the need for blankets.  And secure in the Freedom of God's love.

Here and Blogging

So, we have now been in Guyana for two weeks.  I figured it was about time I started blogging - especially since the title of the blog is literally true now.  There were a few internet issues like they couldn't find the modem they knew they had, and a few other housekeeping issues like a fridge that broke soon after we arrived and had to be taken away to fix.  Driving on the other side of the road from the other side of the car is, as many said, not that hard.  Knowing where to buy the things we needed when we got here, some of which we didn't know we needed, was a greater challenge, but we have managed as we always do when moving to a new place.

It is too easy with this sort of blog to spend most of the time talking about the differences in culture, social standing, economic levels.  But as my son pointed out to me it is important to see the similarities rather than the differences first.  Of course that will not stop the occasional cultural reference such as how to make a good Guyanese 'cook up.'

This blog is the reflections of a Lutheran in Guyana, not a Canadian or North American in Guyana, so while it is true that some of my musings will be thoughts I might have anywhere, they will often be about the Lutheran Church in Guyana - its worship, its mission, its heritage, and what our place in that might be.

For this first post in our new home, let me end with the National Anthem of Guyana.  I find it moving [as my wife pointed out I mention frequently] because it is not about bombs or banner or standing on guard, but rather about the struggle to create a nation out of divergent groups most of whom were brought here by the British to work the sugar cane fields.  That is an ongoing struggle in a country the size of Colorado with a population slightly smaller than Calgary, Alberta.  We join with them for the next two years.

Dear land of Guyana, of rivers and plains

Made rich by the sunshine, and lush by the rains,

Set gem-like and fair, between mountains and seas,

Your children salute you, dear land of the free.

Green land of Guyana, our heroes of yore,

Both bondsmen and free, laid their bones on your shore.

This soil so they hallowed, and from them are we,

All sons of one Mother, Guyana the free.

Great land of Guyana, diverse though our strains,

We're born of their sacrifice, heirs of their pains,

And ours is the glory their eyes did not see,

One land of six peoples, united and free.

Dear land of Guyana, to you will we give,

Our homage, our service, each day that we live;

God guard you, great Mother, and make us to be

More worthy our heritage, land of the free.

God and Tragedy

 The devastation in Oklahoma is horrifying.  We look at it and weep.  At least most of us do.  Being far away from the Christian Right theologically and being somewhat removed from their US base physically, I usually hear about their machinations later.  Apparently some are already blaming the OK tragedy on the victims for their godlessness, etc.  For more on those specifics, read the article by Rachel Held Evans on Abusive Theology.

Tragedies like the OK tornado always bring up questions about the nature of God.  'If God is good, then why do bad things happen?' This and similar questions abound.  I have often been asked this question in smaller context about things like a family member dying unexpectedly, or some other personal tragedy.  
  The easiest, simplest, and most direct answer is 'I don't know.'  But that is the beginning of a conversation, not the end to it. Though the above answer is literally the truth, it is very unsatisfying for the victims or bereaved. What we [The Church] do know is that we are to stand with those who suffer tragedy and to help them heal physically, emotionally and spiritually - to help them to continue to experience the Love of God or to introduce them to it.  As I have mentioned before , Jesus gives one commandment in the Gospel of John [13:34]: Love one another.  At a time of tragedy this commandment is important for what it doesn't say, too -- Do not seek explanations, do not blame victims, do not blame God.  Just love, help, comfort.  This is the Ministry of the Church.  For those of us far away, we help by helping the helpers with donations and prayers.  There will be a time for explanations, for prevention, for assessment, but that time is not now.  Now we help heal.

Forgiveness

First, let me say that it has been a long time since I last posted, which you already know if you have followed. [Are you following?]  I [we] have been busy packing and sorting and then resorting to get down to a manageable size to be able to store a few things while we are in Guyana.  We have had to rethink what is 'essential' several times, but I think we are getting there.

But that is not the topic that is pressing on my mind at the moment.  Forgiveness as a topic has come up several times in the last few days.  We have finished our Bible study of the Gospel of John.  In the second appearance of Jesus after his resurrection [and ascension] he meets the disciples and says, 'If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.' (John 20:22-24)

As the Pastor pointed out, this is the 'great commission' in John - not to go, teach and baptise,  but rather we are told to forgive.  The last bit has bothered me since I was a young child - being able to retain sins at a whim.  But it is not a club we hold over others, rather it shows the power that has been given to humans, and the consequence if we fail in our mission.  If we do not forgive, we miss the opportunity to show God's love. ' For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn [retain the sins of] the world, but that the world might be saved [forgiven] through him.'(John 3:17)

I have been practising to sing Malotte's Lord's Prayer for a funeral which will happen soon.  While going over the markings in the sheet music with the accompanist, we noted that 'Forgive us our debts' is sung a bit faster than what comes before and then 'as we forgive our debtors' is slower.  The accompanist's comment was 'that's because we are slow to forgive.'  Though the comment was humorous, it was nonetheless true.  We are too often slow to forgive, but quick to want it when we err.  A pastor of my youth once told me that 'unfortunately we live in a world where forgiveness is neither understood nor practised.'  It is sad to realise that, since Forgiveness is the heart of the Christian message - not just to forgive when wronged, but to live lives of forgiveness, to have a forgiving spirit, to know that the same forgiveness that God gives to us, we can share with others. 

Lord, give us this spirit always.