February 2008

Friends,

For Protestants in Mexico, Christmas centers around worship.

It’s mid-afternoon, Thursday February 7. I have just returned from a lunch of chicken and rice in a tomato and chile soup. The men in the community have headed up the hill to fight a fire in an orange grove just beyond the schools. Most of the kids are watching the men cut swaths for fire breaks with their machetes and shovels. The women are supposed to be at a required monthly meeting for all those who receive help from “Oportunidades,” a government financial-aid program for women and their student children. I am fighting the urge to break away from my “to do” list to go watch the firefighting, but I must plug away on the computer.

I am feeling fine and doing well. I am enjoying life in Frijolillo—the kids, the tranquility, the birds, sunshine, and coffee-picking—and the ministry in the Presbytery of the Huastecas, with its fellowship with colleagues and challenges of ministry. I also enjoy the amount of time I am able to dedicate to reading and studying God’s word, both for my personal growth for my preparation for sharing that Word with others.

December flew by in a flurry of activity: two visits to the community of Tezapotla for special youth services and Christmas preparation, Christmas choir practices with the children here in Frijolillo, and participation in eight Christmas services throughout the Huastecas, sometimes preaching, sometimes directing worship, other times directing the children in song.

I was to preach in Chapulhuacanito on December 31 (actually, it was early on January 1), but fell ill with fever and diarrhea earlier in the day and was being visited by a doctor at the strike of midnight. What a way to ring in the New Year! It took me three days to recuperate, but I was in the good care of brothers and sisters there in Chapul who were not about to let me leave for Frijolillo in such a state of health. So I began this new year with bed rest and the delightful company of my friends and colleagues in Chapul. Really not a bad way to begin the New Year after all!

In addition to the regular schedule of worship, preaching opportunities, time with the kids, and visitation to churches in the presbytery, three events shaped the month of January for me: a presbytery meeting in Taxicho from January 17 to 20, a Presbyterian Border Ministry meeting the from January 28 to  February 1 in Agua Prieta, Sonora, and my seminary class work for which I took a midterm exam on the Gospels while in the United States en route to Agua Prieta.

February is filling out and up quickly. I returned to Frijolillo on the third with an assortment of “encargos” (things people had asked me to bring), and this week I have dedicated time to delivering those and preparing for events to come. I have three meetings in Chapulhuacanito this Saturday: Bible Institute, presbytery leadership, and with the leadership of the Presbytery youth organization.

Next week is “Youth Week,” and the following week my parents are coming for a visit. Next week I will also make a visit to the isolated community of Barco to make preparations for a visiting mission team this spring. The last week of the month will be dedicated to preparing for a spring mission team and to seminary studies, as I must complete the lessons for my Gospel course in order to work on final papers for both courses and a final exam in Gospels by mid March, when this joyous torture will be over. Yes, a joy because I am finding the classes to be so very fascinating. But torture because the work hangs over me like a lead weight in the midst of other duties and my fight to maintain a tranquil lifestyle. The greatest challenge for me is having to tell the children I can’t have them over to color or play games or see a movie when I have to study, or declining an offer to go out to the fields to pick coffee or chilies or firewood.

Youth Week

February 10-16 is Youth Week in the Presbytery of the Huastecas. Every congregation with an organized youth group celebrates this week with special worship services when messages are directed to the youth. I will be preaching about music, its impact, and the choices youth (and all of us!) must make about what to listen to. My sermon on Friday in Octlamecayo is called “Youth and their Enemies,” about the struggle between living spiritually and “in the flesh.” In Frijolillo on Saturday I will preach about “Youth and the Church,” in which I’ll challenge them to make a commitment to Christ and take up their roles in the body of Christ. Because the week includes “Love and Friendship Day,” most youth groups will also celebrate with a party and meal of some kind. Though the services are geared toward the youth, most of the church membership attends the nightly services and everyone is challenged by the messages.

Keep the youth of the Huastecas in your prayers this week—that their hearts would be open to hearing and receiving God’s Word to them this week. Most in attendance will be junior-high-school age kids who in just a year or two will likely leave home to continue their studies or work in the city. We have precious few years to prepare them for life and life in Christ. Pray that God’s word would be in our hearts, minds, and tongue and that what we have to offer be real spiritual food for things young souls.

Christmas and New Year in the Huastecas

Preparing zacahuiles for Christmas celebration.

For Protestants in the Huasteca, Christmas centers around worship. The Christmas service lasts between two and four hours and includes traditional Presbyterian liturgy, a message (generally given by an invited preacher), and a plethora of participations by children’s, youth, and adult choirs from the local church and churches from the area, special poems, and skits depicting the birth of Jesus. The churches of the Presbytery of the Huastecas each celebrate Christmas on a different day so they can participate in each others’ services, which occur between December 21 and 29. It’s also common for churches within communities not so schedule simultaneous worship services, so the Baptists, some Pentecostals (many of whom don’t not celebrate Christmas), and Presbyterians can attend each others’ services. After worship, the local church generally hands out little bags of candy and peanuts to everyone, and then the church provides a tamale dinner and coffee for all if its guests. (Some churches go all out and prepare chicken mole, zacahuil—a two- or three-foot tamal made with coarsely ground corn and chicken and chile—or family-sized tamales.) In the days before modern transportation, I am told that large groups from each congregation would travel by foot from one church to the next, spending the night after worship and then moving on to the next community each day, a practice that loosely mirrors the Mexican Catholic tradition of the “Posada.”  

For families, Christmas means family visits. Since most members of today’s Huastecan families live in the city, this is a time when they can come home for a visit (generally for a week or two, as this might be their only visit during the year). There is no gift-giving tradition in most communities, given the absence of the tradition of Santa Claus and the lack of resources for gift purchases. Time is spent just visiting over home-cooked meals.

Because everyone is home for the holidays, in addition to choir and play practices and worship services, church calendars are filled with weddings, anniversaries, and young women’s fifteenth-birthday celebrations. Even those who live in the city most of the year will postpone their special celebrations until they come home for the holidays. This makes Christmas a crazy time of year, especially for the four ordained pastors we have in our 17-church presbytery! (Just in case any of you thought your holidays were busy!)

Our New Year’s celebration again centers around worship. Each church will have a “last service of the year from 10:00 p.m. to midnight, a brief time to greet one another in the sanctuary at the strike of midnight (hand shakes and hugs are the standard greeting), and a “first service of the New Year” beginning around 12:15 a.m. Services include music, sermons, etc. but with additional time for testimonials (year-end service) and prayers (for the New Year). Each congregation will have some kind of fellowship meal as well, either between the services or after the New Year service. Most congregations will have piñatas to break as part of their celebration. People head home around 2:00 a.m. Another typical Mexican tradition is to shoot off guns at midnight. Obviously, Protestants do not do this, and most are glad to be safely indoors at midnight, as one of our greatest problems in Mexico is stray bullets coming down and hitting innocent people. As you can imagine, a lot of alcohol is consumed as well, and it is not uncommon to find drunken men passed out along roadside. This is a sign to every Mexican Christian of the great need their people have for the transforming love and power of Jesus Christ.

2008 plans

In my last update, I asked for prayers as the presbytery leadership and I considered my activities in 2008. Between a leadership meeting in December and the presbytery meeting in January, several opportunities became evident. In 2008 I will seek to visit each of the 13 churches of the presbytery for at least a week. But it is the duty of each congregation to determine how I might best serve them during that time. It is much easier for me and for them to simply allow me to teach, preach, or do whatever I believe appropriate with each congregation and for them to simply “receive” what the Lord has to offer through me. However, that does not challenge the leadership of each church to take the time to discern needs and take action upon them, keeping the leadership in the hands of the local church not in the visiting missionary! My heart (and I believe God’s call) is for the development of leadership throughout the presbytery, at both the local church and presbytery levels. The easiest route for me is to tell them what I think or am discerning and then allow them to allow me to take the bull by the horns and run with “my” plan. But this does not do much to develop local leadership. Please pray for me and for the leadership of each of our congregations—that my visits and contributions, however small, might be used of God to develop His people here in the Huastecas.

During 2008 I will also be participating as staff of the Bible Institute of the Huastecas. I will not be teaching courses, but will be leading a worship time before each exam period (we meet for four hours, the second Wednesday of every other month) during which I will offer a meditation on a topic related to our spiritual and ministerial development as leaders of the church of Jesus Christ. I am very excited to have this opportunity to share God’s word and some of the lessons I have learned in the classroom and in the field with ministry colleagues here. Again, your prayers are of utmost importance to me.

Prayer requests

• For youth and preachers during Youth Week, that the Lord’s message will lead our youth closer to Christ and His transforming power.
• For wisdom and discernment as I begin to participate more directly in the presbytery’s Bible Institute.
• That the Lord give me discernment in the use of my time as I balance completion of my seminary course work and tasks and relationships at hand here at home.

Blessings upon you all in this New Year!

In His grace,

Susie

P.S. Fire damage to Sister Eva’s orange grove (mentioned at the beginning of this letter) was relatively minor. Praise the Lord!

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 256