Pray for Chile on Sunday, February 10, 2013

Pray for Chile on Sunday, February 10, 2013

Pray for Chile on Sunday, Feb 10, 2013

Lectionary Selection: Luke 9:28- 36

Prayer:
God, at times it seems that humanity is destroying your creation on earth. We see polluted streams, gargantuan mounds of garbage, and barren lands. Sometimes we feel frozen in fear that we could never do enough to make a difference, even collectively.

The wounds are so large and our band-aids so small. Yet we are reminded to see hope all around: newly planted trees, recycling projects, children playing games. In gratitude we try, and there is a small shift, a healing and a harvest of peace beginning. Thank you God for giving us this challenge supported by your loving grace. Amen

 

Mission Stewardship Moment from Chile:
Shortly after posting this week’s blog about my experiences in the Barrio San Francisco and the stream at the Jack Norment Camp in Caacupé, Paraguay, Carolina, one of my former Sunday school students in the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ in Paraguay sent me a video about the program she has been coordinating.  Though she did not live in the Barrio San Francisco, Carolina as a camper at the Jack Norment camp, was particularly interested in my environmental education activities.  She, too, grieved over the polluted stream and at age thirteen, visited the children of the Barrio, playing games, presenting puppet shows, planting trees.  Even though I felt that my activities as a Global Ministries Volunteer at the Camp and in the Barrio were ineffective “band-aids” stuck onto the massive, festering environmental wounds, Carolina is evidence that something shifts, something heals when we concentrate on doing what we can do, no matter how insignificant it seems, rather than on the freezing fear that what we finally manage to do will never be enough.

As I share Carolina’s video with you, imagine a thread that stretches down through nearly 20 years, from those environmental experiences with my campers at the Jack Norment camp, to the present.  In many ways, nothing has changed.  You will see the garbage.  You will see the poverty. You will see the families and children living on a dump. And yet, there is music, there is hope, there is new life recycled from the garbage. I feel like the grandmother of this story: I planted  seeds of justice in the heart of Carolina when she was a teenager; as an adult, she is beginning to harvest peace.

 

 (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/chile-shalom-center.html

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.