Honduras Trip--Days 4-5

Honduras Trip—Day 4-5, Sunday: We all got up later than usual, and met for breakfast in the cafeteria, as we had done throughout the weekend. The assembly continued for 90 minutes more as they considered the Minutes that had been completed the night before. The tradition is that the assembly approves the minutes of the assembly before closing. Not a bad idea, actually.

We ate lunch early this day so that we could be in the chapel for the closing service and the installation of the new national church council at 1:00 pm sharp. The service was led by the pastor from Colombia (who had come to serve the church while the theological students were finishing their studies this year) and the Brazilian pastor who was called to serve as a specialist in adult Christian education. The Bishop of Costa Rica presided at the installation service and was quite moving. Several of the visitors were asked to help with the distribution of communion, which was done in a circle around the table. The pastor from Columbia is a very gifted woman, and very prepared liturgically. Though trained in the seminary in Brazil, she managed to learn how to be an effective liturgical leader. Unfortunately, though this is an area in which she could offer pastoral leadership in the ICLH, she is returning to Colombia at the end of the month. As always, the service ended with the passing of the peace that lasted for some time, as each participant made sure that they greeted all the others.

All kinds of good byes followed the service, as we all prepared to depart the place of our meeting for several days and return to our homes. Mary and I rode with Josefina and the ELCA representative for Latin America, to Tegucigalpa, to our hotel room. There we met several other folks returning from the assembly, and we all got in a large van that took us to Los Angeles, a small town just north of Tegucigalpa, so that Mary and I had an opportunity to buy some regional gifts for family and friends. We had a great time together in the ride and shopping, as we laughed and learn from each other. We ended the day at a Honduran version of KFC. The meal gave us a great opportunity to talk with these former’ church leaders in a less formal setting. We wanted them to know what we witnessed and what we saw as the challenges ahead, and we wanted to discover their reaction to the leadership changes in the assembly. I raised the idea that the church, as policy, needed to require the pastors to have a given number of continuing education hours in several areas, every two years. This would make them accountable to the church and might make them more a part of the church’s emphasis that ALL members need to be trained for their ministry in the church. I also expressed my impression that the ICLH is on the cutting edge of ministry by Lutherans in Latin America, and that I hope that was not in danger of changing with the presence of two newly ordained clergy.

Monday: Mary and I had the most beautiful view of Tegucigalpa from our hotel room, at night and in the morning. We enjoyed a filling and wonderful breakfast, but our time had come to an end. Josefina met us with a taxi to take us to the airport where we met Rolando and the Colombian pastor (Mary and I think that they have something going on between them). We said our last good-byes and then headed toward our plane. The return flight was good, a lot shorter than the many flights we took to Argentina. We were back in Houston in 2 ½ hours, and into Grand Rapids in about the same time. Our trip back to Suttons Bay took the longest of the legs of our trip—3 hours. We were exhausted, and we both took Tuesday off from work.

Observations: The church seems a bit fragile to me, but I stand on my impression that the ICLH is setting a model on how to do Lutheran mission and ministry in Latin America. The force for this comes from the base and membership of the church, not from the clergy. Maybe the “greenness” of the clergy will actually help that process to continue. Nonetheless, there is a real need for pastoral, liturgical, confessional, and educational assistance. They are really open to new ideas from the outside, but they also want a church that is Honduran. They need to set the tone of what assistance they get from outside, and set the parameters of that assistance. At the same time, those of us who wish to help, we need to always be attentive to the needs they have, try not to solve all those needs with money and cash, insist that they continue in their mission of being a self-supporting church (no matter how long that might take, and how unrealistic it might seem to us), and to be conscious of what it means to be an Honduran Christian Lutheran Church. This assembly was centered so on structure that I heard very little about mission and ministry. I know that they are doing some very important things, such as the work of Josefina, but we heard nothing about it. I know that what the Minnesota synod is doing is very important, but we heard very little about it. I need to know more of what they do in mission, ministry, and worship before I agree to too many more commitments to the church in Honduras. More on this tomorrow and December 7^th.

Honduras Trip--Day 3

Saturday: After a lovely breakfast and a moving devotional, the assembly was called back to order and I was given the opportunity to address the assembly on behalf of the synod. Not having a command of the language as the other visitors did (all of them were native speakers) I wrote down what I wanted to say ahead of time so that I could be both prepared and speak in intelligible Spanish. Several people came up to me afterwards and said, “You speak better than most of us.” That made my day!

Most of the day was spent in discussing and approving the rest of the Internal Rules and Regulations of the Church. The first point today was to define the process for dealing with serious conflicts and ethical violations in the church. I thought this would take hours, but they resolved it in 20 minutes.

Elections were held after lunch. After a long explanation concerning the rules of the elections and a prayer by yours truly, Rev. Martin Giron won the presidency by two votes in only one of two secret ballots. The bishop from Costa Rica counted the votes in the presence of the assembly. Martin was one of two pastors recently ordained by the ICLH and was serving a church in La Ceiba. Unfortunately, that church will now be without a pastor, again. Rev. Hernan Lopez, the recently ordained pastor, was chosen as the new Secretary General of ICLH. This is also a paid position, as is the presidency, but I was under the impression that it is NOT a full-time position, meaning Hernan will probably still serve the congregation he has in his charge. The young, 25 year old, Gloria Rodriquez was elected treasurer, and Suyapa Ordonez became the Fiscal for the church, a position defined as a kind of administer (a position uniquely Latin American, from what I can tell). The regional members of the council include Inmer Martinez from the Atlantic Region (a young man trying to get into college), Susana Barahona from the Northern Region, and Mauricio Barreatos for the Central Region.

The new council is very young, and everyone seemed truly excited for the new council. A group photo followed the elections, and the assembly took some time to present a list of challenges for the future work of this new group.

A letter was received from a congregation in San Pedro Sula announcing its withdrawal from ICLH. It were a former Anglican church that decided it wanted to go in a different direction. After a lengthy conversation, the assembly organized a group to visit the congregation to express their sorrow for their leaving and to find out the reasons.

The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent with the DECOFE chairperson reviewing the areas of strength and weakness of the work of each congregation and mission point of ICLH. It seemed a bit painful for some of the participants to hear the summary of their respective congregation, and some of the evaluation was quite pointed. But the church is committed to growth, Christian education, mission, ministry, worship and stewardship and they definitely hold one another accountable, in a public way. I was wondering how our own congregations would like to have such a public accounting of their mission and ministry. I am sure that many a pastor and lay leader would cringe at the thought.

They set the date for their next national assembly: June 11-13, 2010 in La Ceiba. I would love to attend that one. La Ceiba, as many of you know, is on the coast of the Carribean. What a great place to hold an assembly.

As night came, Mary and I found that everyone wanted to celebrate, both the end of the meeting and the close of a long session. We found the visitors gathered in the lobby drinking wine, and we took some time to talk with them about the events of the day. We then headed upstairs to our room, but another party was going on in the upstairs lobby, where all the Hondurans were drinking beer and sharing stories.

They loudly invited us to join them. The conversation was centered on the church and some of their own personal stories. They are a happy group and we shared in their joy of being together.

Observation: I still hold that the future problems facing ICLH will be centered in the ministerial—the pastors. I wanted to watch and listen to them throughout the assembly to see how well they fit into the process of the church, how open the assembly was to hear their ideas, and how prepared they were to speak theologically to the issues facing the church. I must say I was greatly disappointed in the new pastors. They are just that, NEW pastors, with all the stuff that goes with new pastors serving a church for the first time as an “ordained’ clergy with four years of theological education. They are “green” and unaware of the issues, conflicts, and trials they will face. But more importantly, they seemed unable to speak theologically or spiritually to any of the issues to which they spoke. They did not present any kind of spiritual insight or piety that could rally a frustrated and confused church. The young members of the council will look to the clergy for guidance, but they are so young and theologically fragile to be of much inspiration, in this stage of their pastoral development. I pray that the pastoral leadership offered by LWF and the many other bodies that have contributed spiritually and financially to ICLH through Latin America and the world, can still offer some guidance for this struggling and precarious church. How our synod might be a source of insight and strength during the next two years needs to be discussed.

Honduran Trip--Day 2

Friday: Mary and I met together for breakfast with the other participants of the annual assembly in the cafeteria of the school. The meal was simple but quite filling, as were all the meals during our stay. More importantly, the food was fresh and wholesome. Most of it came from the farms owned and operated by the school and the students. After breakfast we met in the grass on the campus for devotions. They were quite good, and included testimonies from several members about why they were members of the Lutheran Church.

After a lively discussion of the minutes from last years annual assembly, the meeting passed to the General Secretary’s report. Rolando gave a summary of what he had been up to this past year, and his report was received enthusiastically. The Treasurer’s report was presented, and revealed a savings of nearly $11,000 since the end of 2007. They owed this to being more vigilant in their use of the funds, and keeping closer tabs on project administration. Everyone was encouraged with the changes that have improved the administrations of funds, since a deficit of $28,000 was experienced in 2007. The General Secretary challenged the assembly to ask questions about where, how and from what sources the funds came from and how they were spent. “This is our church and these are our finances. We need to know!” was his challenge to the assembly. After lunch Roland gave a very detailed presentation of where the funds came from and how they were spent.

Most of the rest of the assembly that day, and most of tomorrow, would be concerned with the “Internal Rules and Regulations” of the church—rules that further define certain aspects of the operation and function of the constitution. The mediator facilitating the discussion, made clear to the assembly that between the large number of rules being considered and the allotted time for discussion, they should spend no more than 45 minutes on each point. I had to chuckle a bit, wondering how he was going to keep them moving on such a rigorous schedule. It soon became evident that some issues would take as much as 90 minutes to resolve. The visiting leaders from LWF, ELCA, and the other Latin American Lutheran churches seemed to become a bit frustrated with the discussion, but I found it to be quite enlightening. I was frustrated because I would have liked offering an opinion or idea. But I vowed to be an observer and support only. Nonetheless, they have come a long way in the last six years, from being a church “led” by a president, to a church trying to grown from the base up. Their extensive discussion was important for the growth and unity of the church. Though at times the discussion became somewhat heated, they always respected their differences and worked hard together to maintain their unity. This was a long day, but very productive for the ICLH. I was proud to have been there through this historic process.

Mary and I bugged out about 30 minutes early, thinking that they would not cover much ground before closing and continuing tomorrow. We met most of the other foreign visitors in the lobby of the center where we shared several bottles of some good South African wine, conversation about Obera, Misiones, Argentina, and many funny stories from everyone present.

Observations: One thing is evident throughout the world, when Lutherans get together, there always seems to be good food, and a lot of it. This is true even in Honduras. I was amazed to see the differences between the members on any given issue, and how quick they would remind each other to allow everyone to express themselves, and to maintain unity of the body. Many of those present had never participated in an assembly, and most of them did not know the others there, beyond the group from their conference. Yet, they seemed to truly care about each other and the mission and ministry of their church. I also found out that, like in the US, not everyone is of the same political persuasion, and certainly not everyone is poor. The Lutheran church in Honduras is quite homogeneous, which surprised me. Mary and I spent all of the meal time and free time getting to know the different people at the assembly. We made sure that we talked often with everyone from the assembly who came from Honduran congregations. They share much about their lives, their politics, their church, and their many recipes for preparing plantains, a green fruit similar to the banana. They are a very gracious, hard-working, industrious group who love the Lord, their country, and life.

Honduras Visit--Day 1

The following is my journal during our recent travels to Honduras, which I sent to the members of the synod Global Missions Committee, which I wanted all of you to see:

Mary, my wife, and I left Suttons Bay early in the afternoon of Wednesday, November 11 (Veterans Day), and drove to Grand Rapids where we picked up the plane for our first leg to Houston, Texas. We had a 13 hour layover, so we rented a room at La Quinta Hotel near the airport. The next day we returned to the airport around 7:00 am and picked up the plane for Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

We arrived a little after Noon on a sunny day in Tegucigalapa. Josefina was there to meet us, though we did not see her right away. After a 45 minute car ride from the airport through the mountains south of the capital, we arrived at the Kellogg Center, part of the Zamorano Panamerican Agricultural School. This school was purchased by the United Fruit Company and includes a 1500 acre estancia that has been turned into a world renown agricultural school for kids 17 years and older. It is simply beautiful, with open stone buildings all over the main campus, and farms all around for the students to learn and attend. Students come from all over the world, but mostly from the US and Latin America. Every one of them greet each other and the guests with a hello every time they pass you. They are the cream of the crop throughout the western hemisphere, and many or most are on scholarships of one kind or another. It costs $15,000 a year, and the education, food, and housing is simply top notch.

When we arrived the dining room was filled with foreigners, representatives from LWF, ELCA, the Swedish Church, and Lutherans from throughout Central America, to participate in a round table event just three days before the ICLH's annual assembly. Most of them stayed for the assembly and then headed on to El Salvador for a similar round table event with the Lutheran church there.

Josefina took us to our room in the Kellogg Center where we relaxed for an hour or so to get ready for the opening worship at 5:30 pm. The room was exceptional, with a widescreen television, our own shower and a queen-size bed. I felt like I had not left the US, the room was so well put together. We walked around the grounds of the Center for a bit, took a few pictures, and then met Josefina and another large crowd that walked about a 1/4 of a mile to the chapel of the Institute. The chapel was a beautiful building, with the sides open to the grounds around it, six narrow but tall stained glass windows in the narthex, and a huge balcony. Obviously they must fill this place on Sunday for Catholic mass.

The worship service began on Honduran time, closer to 6:00 pm, and included the leadership of their two newer pastors. I thought I knew most of the songs sung in Latin American Lutheran churches these days, but was I wrong. I did not know any of them. The spirit of worship was quite evangelical in nature but with a strong "liberation" element to it, the clergy were vested only in clerical shirts and colorful Honduran stolls, and there seemed to be more confusion during the service than I had expected. But the congregation knew the songs quite well, even if the melody was difficult to make out, and they sang with enthusiasm and life. I was asked to help with the distribution and many people, foreign and Honduran, lay and clergy, participated in the leadership of the event. Worship ended with the passing of the peace, Honduran style, which means everyone greets everyone else, si or si. The day ended with a very typical Honduran dinner (we were told). Mary and I returned to our rooms tired, and ready for some much needed sleep.

Observations: I was really wanting to worship in this opening service, expecting something better organized. I was surprised to see that the new pastors knew less about worship leadership than the members. They seemed to be well prepared theologically, but their pastoral, worship skills have not yet been honed. Nonetheless, the Honduran members were enthusiastic, joyful, and appreciative of the opening worship event.
Mary and I felt a bit like fish out of water, knowing only a few people there, but we figured that would change when we had the chance to get to know more of the people during the next few days of meetings and meals.
We both noted that there were quite a few young people present, some elderly, a good mix of clergy (I use that term loosely), and quite a mixture of social-economic levels. We were glad to be there, and we were looking forward with anticipation to the next several days.