The Fragile Church

Greetings friends, family, supporters!

There is no snow on the ground here, it is summer. Street performers, like the one in this photo, (often teenagers and children off from their classes for summer vacation), are out in full force, trying to earn a little something. But this juggler dropped his bowling pins, unfortunately, a few seconds after this picture was snapped by a visiting friend a few weeks ago.

This image is perhaps a helpful one when talking about serving in the church. It can often feel like a juggling act between ministry needs, priorities, budgets, and the ever-changing realities of society. While our ELCIC is a changing and transitioning church, it is ILEP (the Iglesia Luterana Evangelica Peruana) or the Lutheran Church in Peru where I witness, more profoundly, the juggling act between transitions, changing finances, discussions of priorities and sustainability, its needs and those of its congregations, as well as managing the relationships with partner and companion churches, synods and congregations. In its juggling act, we recognize that ILEP is a fragile church. 

Pictured with Peggy Hahn, Assistant to the Bishop of the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod, during a recent mission exposure trip to Peru. TLGC is a partner synod with ILEP!

When ILEP's President, Pastor Armando Capcha, addresses a group of visitors to Peru,  he  first describes his church with these first words: we are a fragile church. He goes on to describe ILEP's many faces: we are a church of youth, children, and women; our congregations are in the periphery of Lima and in the poorest provinces; we work with the humble and vulnerable; we are a social justice church; we have 13 congregations, 10 in Lima, 3 in provinces, with 7 communities of faith; we have few pastors; we do not have our own funding to support the ministries of our church; but work together in cooperation, collaboration, and in companion relationships churches from Germany, Canada, and the United States. We are a fragile church.

When I receive a gift from family in Canada, the package inevitably reads "Fragile-Handle with Care". Good thing it is the same word in Spanish! The dictionary describes something fragile as easily broken, frail, or britle. But we need to take care of this definition, because fragile does not mean weak. Indeed, in my two years and two months here, amid changes in church polity (a consitutional change to accept a lay person as President of ILEP, and another change to separate the institutional functions of the President and National Church Council from that of the Pastoral Ministry), interpersonal conflicts, economic crises in the Northern Hemisphere that drastically altered ILEP's support and subsequent budgets, the election of a new President and church council, as well as a change in office locations, and the position of the office secretary, two pastors now on leaves of absences since mid-2010, and another missionary who left having served his term, ILEP has demonstrated that it is not weak. Rather, there is a strength and resilience that is impressive and can serve as a model for us in the global north. Fragile, not weak.

"Kindred" with Youth Encounter, visited San Juan Camino de Esperanza, my congregation. One of our missions is an outreach to neighbourhood children. ILEP is a church of children, youth and mothers as evidenced by our work in the community to help children with their homework, life skills, and faith in Christ, as well as our women's program to help them acquire sewing skills to help in finding consistent employment.

During the course of the last two weeks, there have been many meetings and consultations to discuss the future of the church, to resolve issues of sustainability, how to fill pastoral vacancies, and plan for several workshops supported by the LWF (Lutheran World Federation) to equip and strengthened the church. ILEP's strategic plan is applaudable but the challenges are great. Bishop's offices and congregations who have experienced pastoral vacancies understand this first challenge. But unlike back home, there are no retired pastors to help with interim ministries or fill in the vacancies. The first Peruvian pastors just last year celebrated their 10th Anniversary of their Ordinations. So, there are 7 local pastors and four missionaries serving all of the congregations of ILEP. The students who have been preparing to graduate could be ordained except that there are no funds to pay for new pastors, so they are working in other jobs. The needs are great, the resources few. We are a fragile church.

But ILEP is also a strong and resilient church, creative and hope-filled, too. Our ELCIC presence seems all the more necessary in these delicate times. Not only to assume a greater pastoral role in an interim position at another congregation (which will begin in March), but also to accompany and journey alongside the leaders and members of ILEP, to work together through these critical challenges. We missionaries do not only provide pastoral ministry, it is the support, listening, caring, conversation, reflecting, pastoral care and teaching that is and has been an integral part of the ELCIC's role and accompaniment of ILEP. We are here to assist and accompany the church in finding its own voice, its own Lutheran identity, in the midst of changing, challenging, and fragile times. We promote understanding and appreciation between our cultures, languages, churches, and Lutheran identities. We are building bridges that cross these boundaries in what is a joyous interchange of cultures, resources, ideas, and faith. Together we build up the body of Christ, not only in Peru but also to and with our sending churches.

President Pastor Armando Capcha receeives the gift of a guitar from Normandale Lutheran Chruch in Edina, Minnesota, as presented by Lorna Wolthoff the accompanist of the Youth Mission Choir, during their visit in December 2010.

An ILEP member last month told a visiting friend to our congregation that we are small in number but big in heart. This could not be MORE true! While a fragile church, Lutherans here are, indeed, big in heart as can be attested to by visitors to ILEP, in the hospitality and welcome, how present people are in these visits, the patient caring and in their fervent hope and trust in our God! Despite the trying times, we can learn something from Lutheran Peruvians who continue to be strong, persistent, trusting, patient and hopeful amist continuing changes, struggles, transitions and the fragility of their church. They do not give up, instead, grow in trust and faithfulness, believing this is God's call, God's process, God's church. And our God is a God of faithfulness, who knows the plans he has for each of us...

"For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you in exile."

Jeremiah 29: 11-14

Our hope is in the Lord, a message strongly lived by those I serve and one in which we can all learn and grown, as we journey in this season of Epiphany, of revelation. We may be a fragile church, a fragile people of God, but this simply means "handle with care", recognizing that it is God who continues to sustain, lead, guide, and empower her church through the power of the Holy Spirit and in the grace and love of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

In the peace, grace, and joy of the Lord,


Pastora Fran Schmidt.

Aji de Gallina...

Here is the long-awaited recipe for Aji de Gallina, chicken in an aji sauce, yummy!!

Ingredients:

Servings:
4 4

4-6

Servings Size

• 
  

• 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast halves (3-4)
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup cubed white bread
• 1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
• 1/4 cup walnut pieces
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon aji amarillo chili paste (available at Latin markets)
• 1 tablespoon ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 pinch saffron (optional)
• salt & pepper
• 1 1/2 cups rice

Garnishes (optional)

• 1 sweet potato, cooked, peeled and sliced
• 4 hard-cooked eggs, sliced
• 1/4 cup black olives, sliced
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
  Change Measurements: US | Metric

Directions:

Prep Time: 30 mins

Total Time: 1 1/2 hrs

1. Simmer the chicken breasts in the broth until just cooked through, about 20 minutes. Set aside chicken breasts to cool.
2. Strain broth and use it to prepare your rice according to package directions. Set aside any leftover broth.
3. In a food processor or blender, add the bread cubes, evaporated milk and 1/2 cup broth. Process until smooth. Add the Parmesan and walnuts and process again until the mixture is smooth.
4. In a pot, saute the chopped onion for about 3 minutes, then add the garlic and continue to saute until the onion is translucent, about 2 minutes more. While the onion and garlic are sauteing, shred the chicken into bite-sized pieces using your hands or 2 forks.
5. When the onion is translucent, add the turmeric, saffron, and cumin, stirring to toast the spices for a moment. Add the shredded chicken and the aji paste and stir the mixture to coat chicken with the spices.
6. Pour in the bread/milk mixture over the chicken and stir over medium heat until the sauce is bubbling and the chicken is heated through. If the sauce thickens too much, thin it out with some leftover broth. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Serve over rice with garnishes.

Step 8-ENJOY!!

Deepening partnerships

Greetings and blessings to all of you in this NEW YEAR, 2011!!

It indeed was a Merry Christmas, December 2010, celebrated with an alfojor Christmas tree cookie. Yes, this is a specialty cookie, delicious, too!!!

In the past, the reflections on my blog have been solely mine. In 2011 this will change! As with many other things that continue to change in our lives, in the realities of life in the church and in society, I wish to broaden the perspectives and deepen the level of sharing. So, I begin this first blog for the New Year, with some reflections of OTHERS who visited Peru recently.

This first reflection from the choir director of a Youth Mission Choir from Normandale Lutheran Church in Edina, Minnesota, here for two weeks. They travelled to several ILEP congregations offering music workshops on singing, piano and guitar with special emphasis on Christmas music. They did a great job! I helped to plan and coordinate their time here, guiding the learning process from this end. Their choir director wrote a wonderful reflection of their time here and of the continuing partnerships that we share. I would like to let her words resound within each of us for a while, giving time and oxygen to their experiences. May their words and their reflections strengthen all of us to a deeper faith and understanding of why mission trips/cross-cultural experiences are important and, dare I suggest, vital, to deepening partnerships.

From Sue Telander, choir director for youth mission trip to Peru:,
written on December 25th, 2010

Greetings from sunny Peru. At least Lima is sunny. Even on cloudy days, the sun puts up a good fight. And being trapped between the ocean and the mountains, it NEVER rains. However, we will put our rain gear to good use in two days when we head up the mountains into Cuzco. I am wrting this from Pastora Dana Nelson's house. Downstairs her two young children are putting on a concert for the girls in our group. Some of the girls are joining in. The boys are at Pastora Fran's house enjoying her hospitality. We just regrouped this afternoon after spending Christmas Eve with families from Cristo Rey. We sang at their worship service last night and then split up to go home with different families. Highlights from that service were the children's live nativity, a little boy who came down the aisle to "help" me direct, and the entire congregation holding candles and singing Silent Night to Dana's guitar on the sidewalk outside of the church. I haven't heard all the stories from the home stays yet, but I'm sure there will be many. Yesterday morning was spent in worship at Pastora Fran's church, San Juan. It is an open space with dirt floors, but now instead of plywood walls, they have some permanent cement walls put up. After the service, there were gift bags to hand out, mainly from Lutheran World Relief. The children had to wait until their names were called out to get a few meager things for their family. The church president said that there were fewer gifts this year and that she hoped they would share them. The yearning in the children's faces as they waited was difficult to watch, yet they still wanted to make sure they were getting gifts from somewhere. For those of you who wonder whether your gifts to the church make a difference, know that it most certainly does to families like these. I have tears in my eyes even as I write this. Those children have to struggle every day with the insecurity of poverty, while one of my biggest problems is where to put all my stuff. Tears come easily for me here. I will never be able to sing Silent Night again without the image in my heart of that dusty lot that is a Lutheran church. And our music is appreciated SO MUCH. The kids have done a marvelous job meeting the challenges of the music workshops and performing wherever they are asked, including a seafood restaurant! They are wonderful, thoughtful kids, who are taking their mission here seriously. I'm lucky to get to spend this time with them. I hope you are all having a wonderful time in the snow as we celebrate the incarnation of God in new ways down here.

Much love,


Sue Telander

With Normandale Lutheran church youth mission choir!

¡Construction Update!

Dearest family, friends, colleagues, and supporters!!

In this season in the church year known as  "Advent",  we usually focus on waiting and preparing for the birth of our Lord as we look to celebrate the baby Jesus lying in the manger. We also await Jesus' second coming, in all fullness, light and glory. We await the One who brings justice, peace, solidarity, unity, love and grace. Maybe at the same time as waiting for our Messiah, we can also look to other "advents" of our lives, for there are many. Our congregation of San Juan Camino de Esperanza, for example, just came through a year of tremendous change and transition as we waited (for six months!) for the coming of, the beginning of our construction project, Phase One, to get underway.


We spent the better part of 2009 with building and architectural plans. Architect, Tom Ososki, and spouse of ELCA (Lutheran Church in America) missionary, Pastora Dana, helped developing plans....

We have three phases to our project. Phase one were the main floor pastors office and meeting room. Both are meeting rooms right now actually!  Phase two is the sanctuary, mezzanine and 2nd floor classrooms. Phase three is the apartment, library, and meeting room....we're a long way to realizing that dream....

But 2010 saw I realize stage one, after all applying, paying for, and meeting codes, etc, for the municipality, work on our former structure began with demolition.
How the church looked before:

After demolition, the space is all ready for building!

Soon the men were hard at work, with Mainor (a San Juan member and master constructor) overseeing the entire project...

Almost all building is done with cement here. And because we are a public facility, building codes dictate
that we must use cinder blocks and heavier rebar, to withstand earthquakes. Churches are, thus, emergency shelters for the community.

And now....after six months of waiting, six months of Advent....the results:

The old outside church wall was replaced with a permanant one!

Our meeting room serves as a small chapel....

This will be the pastor's office one day...

This will be the new entrance...

Our little chapel, holds about 24 adults and 8 children, very intimate, indeed!

We are waiting and hoping once again, to put in our sistern and all of the bathroom fixtures for two bathrooms, boys and girls. These are some of our dreams for 2011 as it approaches.

We are so pleased to have two new classrooms, two bathrooms (not entirely ready though!), and the first partial wall of the sanctuary all in place.Our advent, our time of waiting, preparing anxiously, our time of wondering and watching if any of these plans would ever be realized, all came to fruition in June and construction was completed during my Home Leave in July. We are now using all of the space, everything that was once in storage is now in  one of the rooms, safely in place in the church once again.

We are grateful for the support of the Adolf Gustav foundation in Germany for their donations and support, as well as that of our companion congregations, both named GRACE, in Texas and in British Columbia...as well as all of those who hold us in thought & prayer. OH, and many thanks to whose who purchased crosses from me during Home Leave in Canada...it's all in the building fund for the sistern! Poco a poco (little by little) as we say here....

With gratitude for your support, love, care, and interest in our congregation...may this Advent remind us of other "advents" in our lives, the signs of God around, within, and near us!

Peace & blessings,
Pastora Fran

ASK PASTORA FRAN!

Yep, you heard it here first....this is YOUR section to ask questions, so ask away!

Want to know something about Peru, ELCIC's missions here...about ILEP (the Lutheran Church in Peru) or about Pastora Fran??

Ask me, and I promise to respond.....

Papa a la Huancaína

 THIS is a fantastic recipe from Peru:
Potatoes in a fresh cheese and chili pepper sauce!

Preparation: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Servings: 6-8

Ingredients:

1kg potatoes (preferably yellow if available)

6 fresh chili peppers OR 1 TBSP ground aji

250 g fresh white cheese (ricotta or cottage cheese are good choices)

1/2 red onion

1/2 c vegetable oil
4 saltine crackers

1 c evaporated milk, canned

1/2 TBSP fresh lime juice (or sour orange juice)

Salt and pepper to taste

Garnish:

4 hard-boiled eggs, halved

lettuce leaves

8 black olives, pitted

Preparation:

1. Boil and peel potatoes

2. Wash chili peppers to make them milder (Note: to make hot chilies mild, seed and devein peppers and wash in cold water. In  bowl, cover chilies with boiling water and soak for a few minutes; rinse and repeat three times changing hot water every time.)
3. Sauté onions and peppers until soft.

3.In a blender, mix together chilies, oil, cheese, milk, crackers, lime juice, onion, salt and pepper, until smooth and medium thick.

4. Cut potatoes in thick slices, place them over the lettuce leaves on a platter, top with cheese sauce and decorate with black olives and halved hard boiled eggs.

Serve cold and ENJOY!!!

The Rabbit Hole

Dear Friends, Family, Supporters, grace and peace to you!

"Alice in Wonderland" wasn't exactly my favorite childhood book, but the characters really came alive in Grade 8, when my elementary school staged a production of the musical. My best friend and I played Tweedledee and Tweedledum, not sure who played which part now! There were so many fun, colorful characters in this "other" world and alternate reality. Alice, changed by her experience down the rabbit hole, allows us to enter this strange place where her body grows and shrinks, where she is sometimes tricked by what she sees or think she sees, where she is amazed by the new creatures and by what she thinks is "real".

Perhaps I can relate to Alice in a better way now, having gone down a rabbit hole of sorts, too. My rabbit hole: serving as a missionary in a developing country and young, developing church, ILEP. Like Alice, I have witnessed many contrary realities and encountered a variety of characters, mixed cultural clues, and new situations. Living cross-culturally can do this; it changes us. If we are open, as I pray and hope I have been, we can deepen our understandings of ourselves, our faith, and our world-view. And while one can observe and ponder the exterior differences, those noticeble to the eye, it seems to me that the most subtle nuances of difference are only pronounced when one returns from the rabbit hole. That is to say, upon returning to Canada, others noticed many changes in me that I hadn't even considered. And to the contrary, I noticed many things about Canadian culture, customs and traditions, once normal, that now seem foreign. Back from the rabbit hole, I found myself questioning why things are done this way or that, why money is spent on this project or that, and why some are more apt to hear a changed perspective or not. The returning to Canada; a fascinating, stimulating and sometimes uncomfortable experience. I relate to Alice in a new way.

One of the more pronounced issues: money. Money or the lack of money is a constant in this country. With those whom I serve in Lima, where every centavo (cent) is thought of and used to its fullest, even leaving electrical devices plugged in all day (while no one is at home,) adds a significant cost to the energy bill. As with those whom I serve, I have become accustomed to unplugging everything when it is not in use. Not so in Canada! In a country that has money, or perceived money in the form of credit, there are many more new cars on the streets, anything that anyone could ever need or want can be easily found and easily purchased. Some things glitter brighter in Canada, like the street lights at night that seemed to shine brighter with a surge of more electricity or perhaps just cleaner bulbs? But between these two countries, there exists a blurred line between need and want, between what one has money for or not. Perhaps upon returning from the rabbit hole and this new world of colorful characters and new realities, some things about my own culture have become clearer. At one point, I could not turn my brain "off" from thinking about all of the contrasts and differences. A friend explained, it's reverse culture-shock. Whatever it's name, it sometimes made my head hurt!

My sister and I watched the new Tim Burton interprepation of Alice in Wonderland at the end of my home leave. Like Alice, when I was first in Peru I found myself asking what is real and what is being dreamed. Upon returning to Canada, I asked myself the opposite question, is this the home I left two years ago? Have things changed in the last two years, or is it just me? Hmmmm, turns out, it probaby is me! The world looks different now, not just Canada. But my whole self has changed because of living and serving in a new context and culture. Obviously, the world looks different from this strange new perspective, my new perspective. In this new reality, the marginalized, rejected, and poor have names. I know where they live, they are members of my church. I know their worries and fears, I know their realities, I know their struggles. They are mine now, too, as we seek to be faithful to the Gospel in this context. Like Alice, I am a part of the rabbit hole now. I am one of the characters in the story. And so, we work together, we search for solutions and answers, and we struggle theologically and politically together.

Perhaps this is yet another reason why missionaries are sent in the world: not only to accompany and walk alongside global companion churches and to preach the Gospel to all nations, but also to share our experiences of another reality back home. During my time in Canada, there were so many enriching, profound, and challenging conversations. Many are curious about Peru, and the ministry and mission here. Down the rabbit-hole and back again, maybe we missionaries come back to our home countries to offer a new perspective that differs from that of the comfortable, complacent, self-indulgent message the world would have us buy. We offer a disruption or interruption to the previously self-focused or ego-centric lifestyle, to help others open their eyes to the world around them, to see the neighbour down the street or those in our communities with other realities than our own. I would hope that we missionaries are not only valuable to the countries and churches we are sent to serve, but that we can bring the wealth of our experiences and challenges home back with us, back to Canada, back from the rabbit hole, so that we can call others to a wider vision, a deeper mission, to reach out to those whose lives have been destroyed by injustice, broken homes, additions, or violence. We, perhaps, can offer a wake-up call to a self-occupied society; to share God's love and grace in the world; to accompany others in their times of stress and difficulties; to live a life beyond ourselves, a life in service to others. My prayer is that in our (yours and my) accompaniment of others, we are moved to a more profound understanding of the Gospel and can challenge political and institutional structures that work to keep the humble exactly where they are, that we are moved to be prophets and truth-tellers not only in our churches or in our communities but to those who would be rulers and emperors (maybe like the Queen of Hearts), so that by God's grace, our world can be just and transformed.

Changed by her experiences, Alice not only finds her self-identity, her own strength and her own voice, but she really becomes an advocate for those in her strange, new reality, "Wonderland". Shocked by my own return from the rabbit-hole, I pray for the grace and strength to speak for justice, truth, and faithful living-out of the Gospel we proclaim, against the empires who would contol us, sell us more of what we do not need, and lead us away from the Gospel, the ture heart of our Christian faith and the mission to which we are called.

With love, grace, and hope,
Pastora Fran.