An Average Day

An average day???

Often people are curious what an average day looks like for me here. When there are not church-wide workshops, day trips with the children and youth from the parish (we try to have two a year), visiting delegations, music or liturgy workshops, rehearsals with the ILEP (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Peru) choir or music team, the average day probably looks alot like ministry in a Canadian context. Although everything is conducted in Spanish, there are church council meetings, bible studies, children's ministry, youth ministry, confirmation classes, ministerial meetings, worship services, preparing the sermon, ILEP committee meetings, etc, etc...

There was a very average day a few weeks back: after replying to some emails from our ILEP secretary, a couple of pastors, and a few others from members of San Juan's companion congregation in Texas (planning their visit for July), I was off to Serpost (Peruvian postal service) to pick up a parcel that was sent from Grace Lutheran in Victoria, our companion congregation in BC.

Double-checking the school supply bags (from Grace in BC) to be sure everyone gets the same thing!

Knowing the wait might be up to two hours, I brought with me various resources: a devotion to prepare for that evening's church council meeting, youth group activity to prepare, along with research and reading for that week's sermon. It ended up being a little more than a two hour wait due to system failures and my name being mis-spelled.(It was a very strange version of a foreigner's name that included half my name and half the name of the person who sent the package). For about a half an hour that day, my name was Farb Schmart. How could I not laugh out loud? In an English-speaking country, it would be obvious this isn't a name. But when one postal worker noticed that my passport name did not match the one on the last permit form (that THEY had written), I showed them the original postal document with both sender and recipient names, explaining that Farb Schmart did not exist. Another 40 minutes of conversation ensued. Finally, a superior to the employee I had been talking with, returned from her lunch break and sorted out the whole thing in five minutes. I was able to prepare the devotion and do some reading for the youth group in between the conversations with confused postal workers. And none of this is unusual, by the way...the waiting and the incorrect copying of information. I was prepared for the delay, I am always prepared to wait, this is how life is here.  A great big THANK YOU, by the way, to Grace Lutheran for sending care packages of school supplies!!!!

Next it was time for a quick lunch/coffee during which I read and prepared for that week's sermon, reading the text and different commentaries, reflecting on what it means in this context....looking for a theme to emerge that speaks to us.

LWF sponsored retreat, beginning of March, about
sustainability in the church...Gustavo Dirau (front row left) was our facilitator,
from our sister Lutheran Church in Argentina

From sermon prep to a pastoral visit with a family whose troubled teenage daughter was wreaking havoc on the family dynamics (or so I was told). We visit, talked, shared, clarified many issues, negotiated some others... then we prayed together. Then it was off to our monthly Church Council meeting, which are always interesting and unpredictable: many people arrive late and some only arrive when you call them to remind them OF the meeting....We end the day with a song so we can pray twice, "Amazing Grace".


From communication, to parcel retrieving, to sermon prep, to a pastoral visit, to our monthly church council meeting...what a day!

Our beach trip in February, some of the youth in our
newly formed youth group at San Juan Camino de Esperanza.

I do not know if there can be an "average" day, especially here, and especially in ministry anywhere! But on this particular day, I was reminded that it is IN the daily struggles of traffic and chaos, of unemployment, family conflicts, and discussing the workings of the church, that God calls us and claims us. It is in the average day, in ordinary places and ordinary elements (water, wine, and bread) that God  pours out for us grace upon grace so that we can be in relationship with God and our neighbour. Wherever we find ourselves, whether we are a pastor or lay person, relationships deepen and strengthen because of God's amazing love shown to us in a humble birth, in an ordinary stable.

In my short two and a half years here, the deepening of relationships has brought a trust that is impossible to express. It has grown with time, in crisis,in ordinary moments, in the challenges and changes, in difficulties and joyous celebrations and triumphs, too! There is a trust that has been built because our faith in Christ Jesus has been the foundation. Brick by brick, cemented and solid, we can share laughter as well as pain. There is a mutual understanding and sharing that has taken us beyond cultures, beyond language, beyond countries and this is the marvelous gift of faith and trust in our God who calls us, beckons us, challenges us, and moves us beyond ourselves, to step out in service for others, on average days.

We are claimed, forgiven, sanctified, freed, renewed, and justified to be SENT out into the world to witness and share with others what we ourselves first received: God's grace and abundant love. This happens even, and perhaps especially, on average days, wherever we find ourselves.

With peace, love, and grace,

Pastora Fran