December | 2022 | News from the Field

Saddle up the burro for Bethlehem!

At last we began the preparation for our Lord’s birth and the mystery of the Incarnation! On Sunday, November 27, we lit the first Luke 2:7 candle on our Advent wreath. The Gospel reading appointed for the first Sunday of Advent according to the historic lectionary is Matthew 21:1-9. This is Matthew’s version of Jesus’ last entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Why jump ahead in the narrative? The Palm Sunday story is a fulfillment of the prophecy that the King would come in humility, on a mission of peace and reconciliation (Zechariah 9:9). But the King was born into this world in humility and with the announcement of “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14).

A thorn in the flesh

Between the first and second Sundays of Advent, I was hospitaled for a heart attack. I thank God for Luz Maria and her family, doctors and nurses in Barinas and fellow pastors of the Lutheran Church of Venezuela. The episode evidently resulted from psychological stress, high blood pressure and poor circulation.

Eduardo Garrido.
I was unconscious for most of my night in the hospital, but Luz Maria tells me that while I was in emergency, Sra. Blanca Aponte, the widow who live next door to the mission was brought in, also having suffered a heart attack. As I left the hospital, Eduardo Garrido was brought in for an appendicitis operation. Eduardo was baptized in our mission, but has yet to take first communion.
Please pray for all who suffer infirmities here with minimal resources.

And now a word from our sponsor

Thanks be to God, the costs of my medical treatment are covered by the excellent group health insurance plan provided by Global Lutheran Outreach (GLO). In many parts of the world, there has been an increased emphasis on the theological education of national church workers to carry on in the event that missionaries sent from the United States have to leave.

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