Welcome and farewell

One month ago I said that by Rogate Sunday (the fifth Sunday after Easter, which was May 6 this year) we either would be continuing to pray for rain or giving thanks for having received spring rains to recharge our well. ]ndeed, praise be to God that it was the second possibility that came true.

Better yet, on that Sunday we baptized Emmanuel David Sanchez and received into communicant membership Genesis Marquina. Emmanuel David is the son of Eleno Sanchez and Luz Maria’s daughter, Sarai, making him her twelfth grandchild. His baptismal verse was Colosenses 2:12. *Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.” Baptism is the visible means by which the Lord works regeneration in our hearts. Buried with Christ and dead to sin, we now, through the effective working of the word in Baptism, become partakers also of Christ’s resurrection: We are raised with Him by the same divine power by which God raised up Jesus from the dead. The casual comparison between circumcision and Baptism in this entire passage (Colossians 2:6-15) affords a very strong argument in favor of infant baptism; for the rite of circumcision, as practiced by the Jews, had to take place on the eighth day, and baptism is spoken of as being parallel to circumcision.

In fact, Genesis as one of the first to be baptized at our mission on June 29, 2008. Through baptism Genesis was adopted into God’s family, the church, by water and the Word, through a promise made good by the blood of Christ. Now she has entered fully into the communion of Christ’s body and blood in the sacrament of the altar for the strengthening of the faith created in her at baptism. This is the continuing work of the Holy Spirit as I noted in the sermon. Her confirmation verse: John 10:27-28. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” The Lord here gives us a guarantee against ourselves, against our own weakness and doubt. There are so many factors which tend to stifle faith in our hearts, to make us doubt the sincerity of God’s promises toward us, but this word of Christ must overcome all doubt most effectively.

So Rogate Sunday was a joyous day. But it also was a sad one, as we prayed that the Lord might protect them from material and spiritual danger, Luz Maria’s daughter, Yepci Anahis Santana, and her children, Aaron, Oriana and Elias, in their travel to Peru. Like many Venezuelans, they will seek a brighter future in another country, Luz Maria’s daughter, Wuendy Santana, has liived in Canada since 2010. Another daughter, Charli Rocio Santana Henrriquez, has lived in Ecuador for a little more than two years, as has Luz Maria’s brother, Robert Henriquez Rivero. A niece, Romina Castillo, just left for Ecuador with her family, and another niece, Gabriela, now lives in Spain. So we prayed for them and the millions of other Venezuelans who have fled their homeland.

We ask that you, too, remember us and all Venezuelans in your prayers.