Editors Note: The following Story and photographs were submitted by Bill Emerson, one of the missionaries on the recent trip to Guatemala.
Between 18 and 26 June 2010 four members of the SE Synod visited Iglesia Luterana Agustina de Guatemala (ILAG). These were Bill Emerson, Dennis Fry, and Christina Daniel, all from Messiah Lutheran Church, Madison, AL, and Glenna Mason, from Christ Lutheran Church, Prattville, AL.
The ILAG is headquartered in Guatemala City and the Lutheran Center consists of three buildings, two of which have been built in the last three years, and are used by visitors and for classes and church services. One of the new buildings has four dormitory style rooms on the first floor, with each room having space for six people. Above these rooms are the new chapel and a storage area. The second new building has a kitchen and dining area and above that a large class room. This was the center for the SE Synod representatives while they were in Guatemala City.
On Saturday morning, June 19, the SE Synod visitors painted a wall at the ILAG center, then in the afternoon several native/indigenous women and their children visited ILAG. Glenna Mason helped teach sewing to the women while the others taught the children crafts and Bible stories, and supervised them at play.
Sunday morning we all attended a church, La Resurrección (The Resurrection), which ILAG has supported for several years. While it is in a poor neighborhood the building itself has greatly improved over the last four years and now has a nice floor, a roof, good pews, and is painted. When Bill Emerson first visited the church in 2007 it had a dirt floor and the cinderblock walls were unpainted. Missionary Amanda Olson de Castillo helped conduct the church service. After returning to the Lutheran Center we attended the chapel service at the center. In the afternoon we painted a large railing on the roof of the newest building.
On Monday, 21 June the group left Guatemala City and traveled north over the mountains and through the highlands in preparation for visiting two villages, which we reached the afternoon of Tuesday, 22 June. Each village contained about 12 families. Esther de Castillo and the younger Padre Horacio Castillo were the trip leaders. The last part of the trip included a 2-1/2 + hour ride over rough roads and a ½ hour hike through some muddy trails and crossing a few streams. We reached Bella Vista about noon and attended a two-hour church service, then met with village leaders and had a late lunch.
We then took a boat ride to another village, Porvenir de los Martires, where we helped dedicate a brand new church building and participated in the initial service in the building. We spent the night at this village. We left Porvenir de los Martires on Wednesday, June 23, and took a boat upstream for several miles where we met our van and driver so we could return to Guatemala City, where we arrived about 10:15 pm.
Bishop Horacio Castillo had been hospitalized with a hand injury and he was at the ILAG center when we returned and is recovering well. The SE Synod group, with Amanda, toured Guatemala City and then we visited a school sponsored by ILAG. We taught crafts related to Bible stories to the children at the school.
After a visit to Antigua on Friday, we left on Saturday, 26 June for a return to Atlanta!
The PBS “Religion and Ethics” news show recently aired an eight-minute feature about Stephen Ministry. You can watch online on the PBS web site: www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/tag/stephen-ministry...just click on the April 9, 2010 “Stephen Ministry” feature.
"Christ Caring for People through People"
What is Stephen Ministry?
Our congregation's Stephen Ministry equips lay people to provide confidential, one-to-one Christian care to individuals in our congregation who are experiencing difficulties in their lives. Stephen Ministry is a confidential ministry: The identity of those receiving care and what takes place in each caring relationship remains private.
Who can benefit from having a Stephen Minister?
Anyone who has experienced a change in life that has resulted in stress or loss may benefit by meeting with a Stephen Minister. Throughout life, there are times when each of us needs the care and Christian friendship that a Stephen Minister can provide.
This week members of Messiah Lutheran Church along with other Huntsville area Lutheran Churches helped dedicate a new home for the Cowan family. In just three months an empty field was transformed into a home. This home was constructed in conjunction with Habitat For Humanity and Thrivent Builds. Many thanks to all of the Messiah members who donated their time and talent to help build this wonderful house. In early 2011 we will begin a new home and hope that more members of Messiah will have and opportunity to participate in this great project.
This week, 41 children from Messiah Lutheran Church participated in an original musical production entitled "Lord, Use Me" during the Church's annual Music Camp. Music Camp is a week long event in which the youth practice during the week and then perform during both Sunday worship services. "Lord, Use Me" teaches that God can and does use us to be his messengers in this world.
In addition to practicing for the musical production, the children also enjoyed music, drama, arts and crafts, recreation, snacks and afternoon activities. If you watch the video above, you will easily be able to tell that the kids had a great time based on all of the smiles on their faces.
We give special thanks to the small army of adult and teen volunteers who helped make Music Camp a success this year.
The Music and Lyrics for "Lord, Use Me" were written by Pastor Scott Peterson and our Music Director, Lois Graff.
On Sunday, May 30th, Messiah Lutheran Church celebrated its 20th anniversary. The event was filled with special music, displays, food, and best of all visits by old friends and family including many of the founding members of the church. There is no telling what the next 20 years will bring to Messiah Lutheran Church, but you can be sure that it will be filled with same love and energy that marked the first 20 years. If you would like be a part of Messiah Lutheran Church during our second 20 years, please contact the Church office at (256) 721-0041 for more information.
This week Messiah Lutheran Church conducted a rummage sale and bake sale in order to raise funds to support Habitat For Humanity. Messiah Lutheran Church along with eight other Lutheran Churches from the Huntsville Area are sponsoring the construction of a habitat house. Habitat for Humanity builds "simple, decent, and affordable" housing. The Homes are built using volunteer labor and are sold at no profit.
Thanks to the many generous donations of goods and strong support from the community, we were able to raise over $1,800 to support this worthy cause.
Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity is a homebuilding and advocacy alliance between Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and Habitat for Humanity. This alliance seeks to increase Habitat's capacity to build more homes and promote donations, volunteerism, and worldwide homebuilding trips by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans' members.
Each spring, Messiah Lutheran Church along with the other Lutheran Churches in the Huntsville area sponsor a house as part of the Thrivent Builds Ministry.
You don’t need any special skills to participate. Just a willingness to help. If you would like to learn more about how you can help support Habitat For Humanity, please visit our Habitat web page, or contact the Church office at
Seven new warriors for Christ were confirmed at Messiah Lutheran Church this week. These seven were confirmed into adult membership of the Lord's Church by affirming the faith they entered in Baptism:
The confirmands are:
Luke Myers
Adam Neely
Gina Saladino
Michael Spence
William Strand
Alejandro Velazquez
Rachael Wier
At Messiah, we sponsor a two-year confirmation program for eighth and ninth grade students. Confirmation at Messiah is about faith formation, not simply faith information. We focus upon being the church not teaching about the church. Our program includes learning events, fellowship events, service events, worship events. If you are interested in Confirmation classes for yourself or your child, please talk to Pastor Peterson or call the Church Office at 721-0041.
World Vision's 30 Hour Famine is a worldwide movement of students who are serious about serving God and fighting hunger - all on an empty stomach. For 30 hours, participants get a taste of hunger by not eating - something more than a billion people around the world experience every day. And by doing fundraising activities, community service projects, and learning more about the facts of world hunger, students are changed in amazing ways as they help others and save lives.
During the event, for 30 hours, participants must abstain from eating food, and instead they typically drink water, fruit juices, or other liquids. Games, fund raisers, and other events may also take place to help teach and educate the participants and others about world hunger all over the world. It is also a time for education and awareness of world hunger, and an understanding of how people go without food for long periods of time. Our youth conducted a fund raising car wash to raise funds.
The youth led the Sunday Worship Service during the second day of their famine. They gave a temple talk, provided the music and delivered the sermon.
After starving all night, praying, leading worship service, raising money to feed the hungry, and washing cars, it was finally time to break their fast.
The youth all left with a greater understanding of the plight of the hungry. They all left with a belief and an understanding that we can all make a difference and have the responsibility to help our fellow man.
The 30 Hour Famine is a World Vision event in 21 countries. It started in 1971 when 14 Calgary, Alberta teenagers staged an event in a church basement to raise money for World Vision.
Thousands of teens across the U.S.,Canada, and several other countries participate to raise money and then fast for 30 hours. However, individuals can raise money and fast by themselves. In 2006, over $11.6 million dollars were raised in the United States.
This week Bill and Marcie Emerson from Messiah Lutheran Church presented a check for almost $3000 and additional school supplies to Gia Mitchell and Zefross Moss, directors of the Milestone Children's Corner. Messiah Lutheran Church has adopted the Milestone Children's Corner as one of our local outreach ministry projects.
Milestone Children’s Corner, a division of Milestone Development Inc., was founded in 2008. They are a Christian based nonprofit organization governed by a board of directors. They began as a small after school program on Drake Avenue serving only 25 children. They have expanded to a new facility, and are now licensed to provide service for 140 children. Milestone is unique because it offers a sliding fee scale based on income, for qualifying parents, who work are attend school. With help from grants and donations, they provide scholarships for tuition. Enrollment consists of full paying clients, human service clients, homeless children, and children under protective services.
Milestone Children’s Corner, a Division of Milestone Development Inc., is a Christian based, nonprofit 501 (c) (3) Childcare development center serving the community of Huntsville, Alabama. Their ultimate goal is to bridge the gap in early childcare education in socially disadvantaged communities. They desire to teach Christian values, respect for others, and self confidence. Their focus is to help low to moderate income families with the challenges of quality childcare, afterschool care, and community resources. With the help of their dedicated staff, volunteers, grants, and donations, they provide a safe, loving, educational environment where children can “Learn, Grow, and Explore.”
Philosophy: Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
The 112 acres of the Huntsville Botanical Gardens includes a seasonal butterfly house, and aquatic, annual, daylily, fern, herb, perennial, rose, and wildflower gardens, as well as a nature path and collection of flowering dogwood trees. Tremendous Treehouses offers fun, interactive hand-crafted tree houses for kids of all ages.
And many aren’t just your regular, run-of-the-mill backyard tree houses. Some were designed and built by local architects, builders and even a local high school! The tweens had a great time visiting the gardens and climbing in the tree houses.
The Tweens are one of the youth groups at Messiah Lutheran Church. They are made up of children in the 3d, 4th, and 5th grade. They usually conduct an activity each month. In October they visited a corn maze. If you would like to learn more about the Tweens, please contact the Messiah Lutheran Church Office at (256) 721-0041.
For several years now, Messiah Lutheran Church has been a sponsor of an important ministry called Lunches For Learning. Throughout the year, Messiah Lutheran conducts fund raising events to raise the funds to support the program. And in November we celebrated our schools first group of 6th grade graduates. This March, Claire Strand and Lois Graff made the first mission trip to visit our school in person.
The goal of the Lunches for learning program is simple. It offers the children a nutritious meal each day in school to encourage the children not to drop out in order to search for food. The program provides the raw ingredients for the meals and the parents of the school volunteer and take turns preparing the food in their homes and take it to the school.
While visiting, Lois and Claire had the opportunity to meet with the students, parents and teachers. They even got to try a little cooking Honduras style.
While visiting the school, the children of the school performed a song for the visitors. The song was led by Alex who instructs the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Grades.
Did you know that:
60%–70% of the people in Honduras live in poverty.
20%–30% of elementary school children drop out of school each year so they can search for food.
Most of the children complete little if any education, but if they can make it through just the 6th grade, they will have a much greater chance at a productive life.
Jesus is alive in the ministry of the Lunches for Learning program. As John said, "He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him". Jesus is here and he wants to be seen. If you would like to learn more about the Lunches For Learning Program, please contact the Messiah Lutheran Church office at (256) 721-0041 or visit our webpage.
All of the members of the Messiah Lutheran Church Family participated in the celebration. The music ministries of Messiah Lutheran Church pulled out all of the stops to make sure that the celebration was a memorable one. The musical groups included the Choir directed by Randall Fields.
And the Notabella Bell Choir directed by Rhonda Gaede. There are Bell Choirs for all experience levels.
The instrumental ensemble is conducted by Lois Graff our musical director. The ensemble consists of talented musicians of all ages.
There was even a special Easter sermon for children of the Church.
Messiah Lutheran Church is a dynamic and growing Church Family. On Easter Sunday we had over 450 members and visitors joining together in celebration. If you would like to learn more about Messiah Lutheran Church, please visit our website or contact the Church Office at (256) 721-0041. We would love for you to become part of our family.
The Easter Bunny Visited Messiah Lutheran Church the Saturday before Easter for the annual Easter Egg Hunt.
With their buckets in their hands (or on their heads) the children managed to find a ton of Easter Eggs.
Approximately 25 children attended this year's event and they all had a great time.
The Junior Youth also conducted a hot dog lunch fundraiser to raise funds for the youth ministries.
In addition to hunting for Easter Eggs and eating hot dogs, the children also painted and colored Easter egg pictures and decorated sugar cookies.
The Egg Hunt was coordinated by the Junior Youth Group of Messiah Lutheran Church. The Junior Youth consists of students in the 6th through 8th grades.
If you would like to learn more about the Junior Youth Group at Messiah Lutheran Church, please contact Diane Davis, the Junior Youth Adult Leader or the church office at (256) 721-0041.
On Easter Sunday, the senior youth of Messiah Lutheran Church hosted a fundraiser breakfast to raise funds for the youth ministries.
The Senior Youth and many other volunteers prepared and donated all of the food and drinks, set up and decorated the dining room and served the food during the breakfast.
On the morning of the breakfast, the volunteers busily flipped pancakes, cut up fruit, prepared trays of muffins, filled drink cups and manned the serving lines.
Several hundred congregation members were served Easter Morning.
Dan Casey the Senior Youth Adult Leader stated that the event was very successful. The Youth were able to raise over $1000 for Senior Youth activities. He thanked all of the volunteers and the entire congregation for their generous support of the Youth Ministries.
The Senior Youth consist of students in the 9th through 12th grades. They meet each Sunday at 6:30 PM at Messiah Lutheran Church. They typically conduct an outing once each month.
If you would like to learn more about the senior youth as a volunteer or a participant, please contact Dan Casey or the Church Office at (256) 721-0041.
Photo Caption: This is a “tool” they designed to lift a cement block up and slide it over the rebar, since all the rebar sticks about 8 feet up from the ground footers, and works really slick without needing a ladder. As I was “explaining” to Antonio (turquoise shirt, Habitat lead mason) one day, that it was pretty ingenious of them to design that tool to lift block after block up over the rebar and how it speeded up the building process. I told him it looked like a cross to me, and it was like using the “cross” as the main important tool to build the house! After patiently listening to me ramble about all that, he looked at me, smiled big, and said, “no comprenda”! I forgot that they sometimes (mostly!) didn’t understand what I was saying, although I think a few understood more than they let on!
...when I was in the store the other night, I kept hearing "Hola, Hola"! ...for a minute it took me back to Villa Esperanza and all the friendly little children calling hello as you walk through the village...but reality hit, and it was just a friendly little boy with a BIG toothless smile in a shopping cart down the aisle here in Huntsville, Alabama...he brightened my day as I got a “warm fuzzy” from good memories of my recent return trip to Santa Ana, El Salvador!
…several people have asked where “my story” was, and if my second visit was as profound as the first! I find myself grasping for words to describe what one experiences…because, really, there are no words to adequately tell the story… and yes, the second visit is even better than the first…in a different way! Some of you know my “cap connection” story but in case you don’t, I’ll need to write that first so you know why there wasn’t any doubt that I had to return!
I knew when I left El Salvador on the Thrivent Builds/Habitat for Humanity trip in September 2009 that I would have to return. I thought at the time that it would be a miracle if I ever actually got to; little did I know all the right connections would just fall into place in the next few weeks and leave no doubt...and it all started with the “cap connection”!
When we were building in Villa Esperanza outside of Santa Ana, the Habitat for Humanity architect for the Thrivent-sponsored village, Cristina, kept wearing this blue cap with Basin Electric on it. Being originally from North Dakota some 27 years ago, I knew it rang a bell, so when asking her about it, she said there were two teams from North Dakota there in May and brought it for her, but she couldn’t remember where they were from.
Well, the week after I got back from there in September, I went to ND to help my mom pack as she was moving to another retirement community. She asked me to share my experience in El Salvador with her devotion group at the Waterford; so I did. In conversation, I stated that the architect had a connection to North Dakota through the Basic Electric cap she was wearing...small world, I said. …little did I know! The lady sitting next to me, who had only recently started coming to devotions, stated her daughter, Dawn, was in El Salvador in May but she couldn’t remember which village. I gave her my e-mail address and asked if she would have Dawn contact me so we could compare stories about our experience! She immediately e-mailed, and come to find out, Dawn and the Bismarck team from Good Shepherd Lutheran Church were also in Santa Ana helping build Villa Esperanza, the same as us, and SHE (Dawn) was the one that brought Cristina the blue cap from Basin Electric where she works! Dawn said a bunch of them were going back in February, and if I was interested in going, she would give my name to their Thrivent team lead, Rita Keegan! All coincidences? ...I don’t think so! …how could I NOT go now! …the rest is history…I connected with Dawn and the other nine Bismarck, ND team members, none of whom I had previously met, in Houston on February 18 for the journey to Santa Ana, El Salvador! It didn’t come without incident…we were diverted to Mexico for over 7 hours as a lady who was going to her son’s funeral back in El Salvador was having a heart attack. They asked if there was a doctor or nurse on board, and we just happened to have a doctor and three nurses on our team so they stepped up to take care of things. …another small world, but later we found out that the lady was our interpreter Aleks’ step-mother’s sister, and that she, unfortunately, passed away that evening. In the mean time, they had used up all the oxygen supply so we had to wait until someone drove some in from Cancún, which was at least 4 hours away. We eventually got to Hotel Sahara that evening, a 2-hour drive from the airport, and all was well! We were all anxious to get to Villa Esperanza, a 20-minute drive into the country, on Saturday morning! Of the 11 of us, 9 were “returnies” so we were filled with excitement to see the local Habitat workers and interpreters that we had formed close bonds with our last visits, hoping that they would still all be there and remember us, and to see want kind of progress they had made building the village! It was fun to walk down the street where we had previously started the single house and duplex way at the end and now see the street mostly filled in with houses, especially on the same side of the street; across the street is mostly vacant yet, with someone tending to three cows. It was great to see families now living in all three units, and there was a small boy about 2 playing out front! Even the “great wall” we started building that ran the entire length of the street between backyards is now complete! There will be
75 houses total in this villa, and I’m guessing more than half are now built.
This time they had at least six houses going in various stages, from digging trenches in the earth for footers, digging 8-ft-deep holes for the septic system, building walls, painting the inside and outside of houses, laying floor tile, to pouring sidewalks. The first day I transported a lot of dirt/gravel/sifted sand with my wheelbarrow…I’m WELL experienced with that from last trip! Even my zebra stripe bruises returned all across my legs from pushing wheelbarrows with “semi-rollable wheels” through gravel! I was helping make the sidewalk and back patio area, where all the “activity” of the house takes place…cooking, washing dishes/clothes/bathing kyds in the large three-compartment, multi-use sink! The rest of the week I worked with Antonio’s team building walls of a duplex, including hauling block, wiring rebar, mixing chespa (concrete) and mescala (mortar) and filling it in the cement blocks, setting up scaffolding, and backfilling dirt around the foundation. Each part of the duplex is no more than 400 sq. ft., two bedrooms about 9 x 9 feet each, and a bathroom that is also outside, off the patio as well, but has a flush toilet and shower…life is good!
The right side of this duplex was Ingrid and Juan’s (she could speak English also so would interpret for Juan)! I was extremely happy to have the opportunity to work beside them all week as they put in their sweat equity. They had been married 6 months, both had good jobs at Pizza Hut which qualified them for repayment to Habitat, and their love for each other and excitement about building their own house radiated to all of us! You could truly experience the feeling of not just building a house here, but HOPE, the established theme for building the whole “Village of Hope,” or Villa Esperanza! It was an especially touching moment for me as I took off my HOPE necklace I wore all week and placed it on Ingrid’s neck and told her that she and Juan were the finest examples of the future HOPE of the village…they were both so sweet and SO grateful that people come to help build not just their house, but the whole village. …does it get any better than that?
Wednesday is Culture Exchange afternoon in the villa…we had the great fútbol game (soccer), made pupusas, tried a bunch of their foods; and we made them s’mores, which they liked a lot!, had a piñata for the children, and a mariachi. Friday afternoon is the party no one likes…the Farewell celebration! It is heartwarming as they get up and tell you what it means to them to have us give up our lives for 10 days and come help them make a difference…they have such a strong faith. Faith is believing what you can’t see…somehow I think they see more than I do! They present us with certificates, little pails to remember all the chespa we put in the walls, and hugs! The party part is fun in that a different mariachi came so there is dancing, cake, etc. …and then the inevitable, goodbye hugs to everyone…I don’t think they like it any more than we do! I am always amazed at how close you get to these people when you can’t even speak Spanish…perhaps “words” are over rated…like the song says, …you say it best, when you say nothing at all…
The week is not just filled with work…they want you to experience the whole culture thing of El Salvador in general. Sunday we went to Cristo Rey Lutheran Church and then to Lake Coatepeque, an inverted volcano, for lunch, overlooking the lake, with a mariachi, took the boats across the lake to a swimming area. An unexpected added bonus came Sunday night when we were up on the hotel rooftop terrace. A big brilliant orange/red streak came across the sky, close to us, and then we heard a BIG boom! We all thought it was a meteorite, and it must have hit Honduras! Until the next day, when we found out it was actually the Space Shuttle coming home! How cool was that! Tuesday we went to a thermal springs/water park area after work, which felt wonderful after working in the HOT sun!, Thursday afternoon we took the Santa Ana walking tour, visiting Catedral de Santa Ana, a huge beautiful old cathedral; Teatro de Santa Ana, the theatre, both built in the early 1900s, and visited street vendors. Friday we went to the destination we voted on, Hotel Pacific Paradise, a resort on the Pacific Ocean…a beautiful area with GREAT sunsets! Saturday most of us went on a separate snorkeling adventure in Los Cobanos, a couple hours away, and saw more of the countryside and the hot surfing area; and early Sunday morning it was back to the States. …wait…didn’t we JUST get here!
...guess we never know what simple thing can speak volumes and be our next “connection” in God’s greater plan! I’m doubting if it will ever be revealed as simple as the cap connection, although I’m waiting for my next sign, because I would like nothing better than to return one more time! I know I always say, I initially went there to “pass on the blessings” because I’ve been blest in many ways over the years, but how do you even begin to compare with the blessing you get by spending just that short time at Villa Esperanza with those people...there are no words...
My previous “theme” was “Compassion without action is empty.” On the way back I found my new theme in the airline magazine: “The smallest good deed is greater than the grandest intention.” ...even though it seems like such a small thing to do to go there and work, everyone’s “small good deed” is adding up to build the ENTIRE village...and that is pretty awesome to be a part of...
