Pray for Chile on Sunday, December 30, 2012

Lectionary Selection: Luke 2: 41-52

Prayers for Chile:

Lectionary Text and Prayers for Chile: Psalm 148

Today we, too, “Praise the Lord from the heavens…Praise the Lord from the earth!” As the people of Paraguay praise the Lord for “arapy”* or “all that is in the sky above us, and all that is below our feet,” so we from Chile add our song of praise. Praise the Lord from the Pentecostal Church of Chile with banjoes, trumpets, violins, guitars, and drums! Praise the from the Shalom Center as the Lircay river cascades from the Andes Mountains and washes over the roots of the coigue trees and purple-pink fucsia flowers! Praise the Lord as children learn to care for the environment, as youth cooperate to build communities of justice, truth, mercy and peace, and as adults hone their leadership skills with the tools of trauma healing and conflict transformation! Praise the Lord with dancing along with girls and women who will come together to experience the thrill of music and movement in worship! As the staff and participants from Chile, Paraguay, and the United States gather during January, February and March at the summer camps and retreats of Shalom Center of the Pentecostal Church of Chile, we will praise the Lord for each opportunity to marvel at the wonders of creation, to celebrate the joys of our diverse expressions of faith, and to reach out to each other with healing and new understanding.

*The best description I can manage of the pronunciation is “ahrahpuh” with final “u” sound as in “rug” and the accent on the last syllable.

Mission Stewardship Moment from Chile:

What do you get when you mix six eggs and thirty curious youth? An egg dropping contest! The youth gathered in Vichuquén where in 1585 when the Spanish arrived, there was already a Mapuche settlement. Many of the tile-roofed and adobe-walled buildings in the village were destroyed in the 2010 earthquake including the sanctuary of the Pentecostal Church of Chile. The youth had selected the theme “Rise up on Eagle´s wings,” and I invited them into small groups to decorate, name and make up a personality for an egg while thinking about how we have each been formed by the loving hand of God. Then they were to create a safety pod out of a wide array of materials I had collected, everything from Styrofoam peanuts to clothespins, to protect their eggs from breaking when dropped from the height of eight feet. During each step of the process, the youth compared their faith in God to their growing relationship with their eggs. Where is God when we are learning to fly? Where is God when we fall and get hurt? How do we heal and dare to test our wings again even after a fall? Not one single egg cracked in the dropping contest; the pods had been well designed and crafted! As a missionary with Global Ministries, I work with other pod-makers creating faith-growing and resilience development opportunities to empower fragile people. When people fall, we are there to bind up the wounds and accompany the healing process. (By the way, please don´t tell the youth that the eggs were hard-boiled!)

(Prayer and Mission Moment by Elena Huegel)

Mission Partners in Chile:

Video Resources about Chile:

http://globalministries.org/resources/multimedia-resources/videos/video-mission-moments/elena-chile.html

Video: Consume more or live more? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQyMc5q41CU

More information on Chile:
http://globalministries.org/lac/countries/chile/

Global Ministries Missionary in Chile:
Elena Huegel, a member of Iglesia Cristiana Ebenezer, Los Fresnos, Texas, serves the Pentecostal Church of Chile (IPC). She is an environmental and Christian education specialist.