You say you haven’t yet registered for camp.  Get your registration forms or adult volunteer forms now and send them in.

Stated Clerk  Gradye Parsons has also posted his monthly letter, “Ordinary Encounters, Extraordinary Power.”

Advent 2010

Dear friends,

Many have asked how we celebrate Christmas in Colombia. Let me share with you some of the ways:

Immaculate Conception, the beginning of the Christmas season

The first thing to realize about Christmas here is that it begins December 7. This is not Christmas, technically, but it formally opens the Christmas season. It is the celebration of the Immaculate Conception, the conception of the Virgin Mary held by the Catholic Church to be without sin, thus “immaculate.” In colder climates such as Bogotá (8,600 feet above sea level) candles are put in the windows of people’s homes, but here in Barranquilla (a few inches above sea level and warmly tropical) you put the velitas (“little candles”) on the walk in front of your house and they are covered with colorful windbreakers like Japanese lanterns. Windbreakers are a necessity because December is the start of the famous brisas (breezes, often very strong breezes) that come in off the Caribbean Sea and continue till March. On the night of the velitas people visit their neighbors, sitting around the front door with something cold to drink and then going on to the next house. It is a pleasant custom, and the velitas are so pretty that Protestant children have a hard time understanding why their families don’t have velitas like all their friends.

Decorations: The creche

By this time every house is decorated for the season (often starting in early November). The most important and traditional decoration is the pesebre or creche. You can buy a pesebre or build your own. Many families hand down the figures of the manger scene from generation to generation and prize them as families in the States prize the special ornaments they hang on the Christmas tree.

Decorations: The tree

Many homes here do have a Christmas tree or arbolito (“little tree”). Nowadays it is common to see artificial trees, some green, some another color. Barranquilla has a tropical climate so we have no evergreen trees. The artificial trees are a fairly recent development, however. When I came to Colombia, over 30 years ago, the arbolito was a tree branch without leaves, gathered out in the country. It was decorated with Christmas cards and colored lights like the ones you have on your tree at home. But Colombia is having a recession like the one in the States, so hardly anybody sends Christmas cards any more — if they do, it’s probably one of those electronic cards on the Internet, not easy to hang on an arbolito. So the arbolito is decorated mainly with lights. People who have lived in the States may have a few ornaments as well, but these are not common.

Decorations: Outdoor lighting

But lights are not found only on the tree. After all, relatively few people will see the tree. But all across the city colored lights decorate the outside of homes and businesses. Some are like outdoor decorations in the States, but for many people the idea is to have as many lights as possible. They outline the roof with lights, often with lights dangling down at regular intervals. They outline palm trees or the trunks of regular trees. You can buy figures of reindeer, Santa, snowmen (!) or just a big star outlined in lights. These outdoor lights are not usually colored; they are white or red or green (very occasionally blue).

Santa Claus, Papa Noel, the God Child

I’m not sure that all Colombians know that the little figure of a four-legged animal is a reindeer; it could be a pony or a big dog, judging by looks alone. Santa Claus is not part of the Christmas tradition in Colombia. He has been brought in quite recently by the stores here, but here he is known as Papa Noel. Much of the Santa Claus publicity (as is the case also with Halloween and the “Day of Love and Friendship” — Colombia’s version of Valentine’s Day) was first brought in by international chain stores and then adopted by more local enterprises. Do kids here know Santa travels by sleigh? Do they know what a reindeer is or what it has to do with Christmas? I doubt it.

Anyway, Papa Noel doesn’t bring any presents. The publicity usually shows him with a big bulky bag over his shoulder, but every kid here knows it is el Niño Dios (the God Child) who brings you presents. You write him a letter and tell him what you want and Christmas morning you hope to find it under your pillow or at the foot of your bed. This is the Catholic and secular concept. Protestant children know it isn’t the God Child; God was only a child for a few years, and baby Jesus was not a bringer of gifts — he was God’s gift to us. Who brings the presents then? Your family, especially Mamá and Papá, and maybe some friends. That’s if you are well off. Poor kids may get nothing more than an orange or a piece of hard candy, unless a radio or TV station, a charity or a church brings gifts for the family. All Presbyterian congregations here make up anchetas or gift baskets for needy families in the congregation and the surrounding neighborhood.

Seasonal activities

Lots of other things happen in December besides Christmas, many of which are more common in May or June in the States. The school year ends in November, and summer vacation for most Colombian children is December and January. December, then, is the time for graduation ceremonies in high schools and colleges — and graduation parties. (The university where I teach had its graduation ceremony last night and many of those who graduated had fiestas at home or in a restaurant afterwards.) Weddings often take place in December as well.

This is the time for “collective vacations.” Schools, many public institutions and even the courts shut down around December 15 and open up again a month later, so all employees take their vacation at the same time. Also traditional in Colombia is the prima or bonus paid every six months. Thus, if you work here you will probably be on vacation (unless you work in a store selling Christmas gifts right up to the last minute), you will have extra money in your pocket, and you will be able to travel. People come from all over to spend the holidays with their families, including those who live far away.

The novena

Another special activity in the days leading up to Christmas is the novena. This was originally a Catholic tradition: home worship services focusing on the meaning of Christmas for the nine days from December 16 to 24. For years Colombian Protestants wouldn’t do this because it was considered “too Catholic.” But now many Protestant churches, including Presbyterians, hold novenas. In our churches this is the time for Vacation Bible School, which ends with a program presented by the children for their families and friends on Christmas Eve, often a pageant about the Christmas story. One unforgettable Christmas in the country the kids used a real donkey for the flight to Egypt, going up the center aisle. But Herod got a little carried away and jumped off the platform and started beating all the kids sitting in the front pews!

In the apartment building where I used to live, the novena was hosted each evening by a different family. We would read and discuss a passage of Scripture and sing villancicos (Christmas carols) and then have light refreshments. Sometimes a whole block in a residential neighborhood will share in the novena. Different places have their novenas at different times, usually in the evening — even shopping centers and malls hold novenas (so you can attend and then continue your Christmas shopping). Kids learn the schedules and sometimes go from one novena to another to get in on all the refreshments.

December 24

Finally it is Christmas. You would call it Christmas Eve, but to Colombians the holiday is December 24. The 25th is a day to sleep in after all the activity of the previous evening, just like January 1. There used to be a tradition that you went to church at midnight because it was believed that Christ was born at that hour. I think Catholics still go to the midnight mass on Christmas Eve. I don’t know the origin of this tradition; there is nothing to that effect in the Bible. Our churches have the Christmas Eve service early so people can go home and spend the evening with the family. Remember, this is vacation time for adults and children, so it is usually the occasion of a big family reunion. You wear your best clothes, new if at all possible. The celebration starts with a big dinner at around 9:30 or 10:00 p.m. A traditional food here on the Caribbean coast is the pastel (chicken or turkey or pork surrounded by specially flavored rice or cornbread and wrapped in a big banana leaf). The presents are opened at midnight. Why? Many Protestants were raised Catholic as children, and midnight is still a special hour on Christmas Eve. Some might even say it’s because that’s when Christ was born. They never checked out this particular tradition after joining a Protestant church. Even if they know it’s not in the Bible, it is an old tradition, hard to break — and He could have been born at midnight, couldn’t He?

And after Christmas…

The holidays are only half over. Next, of course, we have New Year’s Eve. This time we do use the word “Eve.” Christmas is a quiet religious holiday for most folks, but New Year’s is wilder. Churches know that traffic is dangerous as the New Year comes in and is celebrated by many people with alcohol. Very little public transportation is available, so if our churches have a service on New Year’s Eve it is early, probably before dark, so people can get home before the streets become too problematic. Some churches have their New Year’s service on the 30th to avoid any problems.

There are some interesting New Year’s traditions: At Christmas you wore new clothes, but for New Year’s you wear new underwear too, and it really ought to be yellow. You eat 12 grapes at midnight (you should see the displays of grapes in the supermarkets!). If you hope to travel in the new year, you take a suitcase and run around the block. There used to be big displays of pólvora (fireworks) starting before Christmas and culminating on New Year’s. It sounded like a war zone. There are more controls now, but you do still get some backyard fireworks at New Year’s, especially right at midnight. Also bells, sirens, buzzers, etc.

And we’re not done…

We have one more holiday, the visit of the three kings. In many Latin American countries this is the time to exchange gifts, but not in Colombia. But this is a Monday holiday, so you get a long weekend. In fact, this is a holiday to rest or, if you’ve been visiting relatives, to head home so you can go back to work. With four holidays in five weeks, you can see why December is a good time for a vacation! And while the holidays are over (all but the bills), in Barranquilla we have Carnival coming up. (Tell you about that another time!)

Blessings on you…

Alice Winters

The 2010 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 293

November 15 – 22, 2010.

The task group has already identified four persons to travel and wants to invite 5-6 additional people within the Presbytery who would be interested in traveling to Medellin which is located in Urabá Presbytery.

Although we would very much like to bring several folks to Winnebago Presbytery, the difficulty in obtaining visas makes this nearly impossible.  Therefore, Winnebago will send a delegation to meet with church leaders from the Presbyterian Church in Colombia for worship and study.

The funds to subsidize this gathering—including travel, housing and lodging for both delegations—come from the Presbytery Operating Budget, the Presbytery International Partnership Fund and a generous grant from the John N. Bergstrom Fund of First Presbyterian Church, Neenah.

The cost for individual participants is $500.   If you are interested in this trip, contact the Presbytery Office – nancy at winnebago presbytery.org – by Wednesday, September 15, for more information.

Lives Transformed

Sophie Corporan

Paramus, NJ (May 20, 2010) – When Sophie Corporan completed her early registration for the 2010 Stewardship Kaleidoscope Conference, she had no idea what life had in store for her.

On February 24, less than a month before the conference was to convene in Indianapolis, Corporan’s husband, Marcelino, died of complications from an aortic aneurysm. His sudden, unexpected death at the age of 59 found Corporan and her family not only in deep grief, but also making arrangements for Marcelino’s burial in his native Dominican Republic.

Upon returning to New Jersey just one short week before the conference’s March 15 opening session, Corporan prayerfully decided to follow through with her original commitment, traveling to Indiana the very next Sunday.

“The conference helped me to come out from where I was,” she explained. “I felt like God brought me there and I was open to that.”

The three-day conference, entitled “Funding Mission Today and Tomorrow,” was hosted by several presbyteries, synods and agencies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). In addition to keynote and workshop presentations on the biblical, theological and spiritual foundations of stewardship, the conference also encouraged its participants to embrace new ideas for campaigns and to learn ways to infuse stewardship with joy and reverence. Corporan, who is currently the moderator of the Presbytery of the Palisades and was recently elected as one of its two elder commissioners to the 219th General Assembly (2010), found herself uplifted by the vibrant speakers and the concepts they enlightened.

“I fervently believe in being a steward and that stewardship should be a year-round movement,” she said. “Churches should be better trained in stewardship in order to have their members realize that when they’re helping their church financially, they’re helping themselves.”

Corporan, an elder at the First Presbyterian Church of Hackensack, N.J., has already shared her learnings with the church’s session, encouraging them to continue to reach and to educate the congregation. As one of three members of the presbytery’s Stewardship Committee who attended the Stewardship Kaleidoscope Conference, she is also in the process of preparing a presentation for the benefit of the whole presbytery.

“When you have a good thing, you have to share it with everyone,” she said, “especially with those who weren’t there.”

The 2011 Stewardship Kaleidoscope Conference will be held in Phoenix, Ariz., February 28 – March 2, 2011. Learn more – Files marked with this icon can be downloaded in printable Adobe Acrobat format. This file requires the free Acrobat Reader. For best results, right-click the link (or click and hold for Macintosh), select ” save target as” and save the document to your desktop for viewing and printing. ]]> http://www.winnebagopresbytery.org/2010/05/20/stewardship-changes-lives/feed/ Array http://www.winnebagopresbytery.org/2010/04/16/a-resurrection-story/ http://www.winnebagopresbytery.org/2010/04/16/a-resurrection-story/#comments Fri, 16 Apr 2010 14:06:43 +0000 admin http://www.winnebagopresbytery.org/?p=1433 The Presbyterian Church in Cuba

A monthly column for the PC(USA) by the General Assembly stated clerk

by the Rev. Gradye Parsons
General Assembly stated clerk

LOUISVILLE — Yes, Virginia, there is a vital Presbyterian Church in Cuba.  Read more.

I was invited to travel to the island last month with the presbytery and synod staffs of the Synod of the Sun. We spent time at the Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary talking about the mission of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba. We also toured churches in each of the three presbyteries.

We heard remarkable testimonies of faithfulness and hope in these Cuban congregations. Church members told us about the long time in their history immediately following the revolution when only one or two people would attend Sunday worship. Today, the sanctuaries of those same congregations are full for worship. We also met a group of young adults who were preparing for a mission trip to Canada.

Particularly striking to me was the story told by Dora Arce Valentin, a pastor in Havana. Dora is the daughter of a minister who led his church during the difficult time right after the revolution.

Dora’s grandmother lived with them, and it was her job to get Dora to Sunday school each week. Not only was Dora frequently the only child in the class, which her grandmother taught, but she was often the only young girl in the congregation. So, like preacher’s kids everywhere, Dora protested this solitary assignment.

Dora remembers what her grandmother told her every Sunday. “Dora, you have to go to Sunday school. It is important that people see you there. God will bring the other people.”

Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 13 that now we see in a mirror dimly. Now we wonder where the church is going and what will it look like when we get there. Now we question how our little faith and hope will keep our congregations vital and alive.

Cuba holds a lesson for us: God is ever more faithful that we can imagine. So, Presbyterians, go to church. It is important that people see you there. God will bring the other people.

One answer to the question, “Where do our dollars go?” is:

The Emergency Shelter of  the Fox Valley

The mission of the Emergency Shelter of the Fox Valley, Inc., is to provide temporary shelter to homeless individuals and families in a safe environment, while providing guidance to those both homeless and at-risk that promotes independence.

The Emergency Shelter of the Fox Valley was established in 1981 as a non-profit organization to provide homeless men, women, and children safe shelter. Our current facility currently can house adult men, adult women and families not to exceed 75 total residents.

The Emergency Shelter of the Fox Valley serves any homeless individuals regardless of their city, county or state of origin providing they adhere to our admission criteria. All residents fall below the federal poverty guidelines for income.

The Emergency Shelter of the Fox Valley celebrates its 30th Anniversary this year. We invite all interested community members to attend our Annual Report to the Community meeting on Tuesday, March 23, 2010. More details and registration information are available at under “Upcoming Events” on our website: www.emergencyshelterfoxvalley.org. You may also contact Jill Mitchler, the Emergency Shelter’s Fund Development and Volunteer Coordinator, at 734-9603 or jillmitchler@esfv.org. “It is in the shelter of each other that people live.” Irish proverb.

Please consider bringing supplies to the Presbytery meeting so that even more kits can be assembled.

Collect items locally and bring them to the February 13th Presbytery Meeting in DePere.  Let’s see how much we can gather.

ACCEPTING ONLY THESE ITEMS:

·        Hand towels (approximately 16″ x 28″)
·        Washcloths
·        Wide-tooth combs
·        Nail clippers (NO files or emery boards)
·        Bath size bars of soap (in wrapper)
·        Toothbrushes (in original packaging)
·        Band Aid strips or other adhesive strips
·        Monetary donations are always welcome

When the earthquake struck Haiti, a 40-foot container was immediately prepared with hygiene and baby kits and sent to the Dominican Republic for transport into Haiti.  Kits have already been distributed.

When very large quantities of kits are sent, few to no kits are available for the next disaster. We understand that the shipment to Haiti completely depleted both warehouses of hygiene kits and baby kits. Therefore, the kits that are being prepared now will allow kits to be available for immediate shipment to other disasters and/or available for additional shipments to Haiti.

A recent report from Church World Service indicates delivery of the following number of kits for response to the Haiti earthquake:

When the land was sold in this past spring, the Mission Committee and Session of First Presbyterian Church came forward offering  space on their church property so the project could continue another year.

Early in May members of Casa Esther, Fr. Joe Mattern, Garden Manager Mike Stadler,  and Pastor Ed Slusser planted the garden.   The harvestwas large enough that extra produce was  offered to church members in gratitude for the use of their land.

Dear Friends:

As I write, the rain is coming down hard on my roof, nothing unusual for the extended rainy season here in Costa Rica (May-December). The worst is yet to come in October. Fortunately, unlike so many, I have a safe and warm place to be.

These past few months have been about the search for new faculty for the university. Between last year and this, four faculty members are leaving the School of Biblical Studies. It is a challenge to keep up with all the course work both in Costa Rica and in our associated centers throughout Latin America. For me it has been an especially challenging time as I have been struggling with unexplained chronic anxiety. I appreciate your prayers as it makes every task a challenge.

Our largest group of students these months is from Perú and Bolivia. It has been interesting to share with them concerning the many things going on in their countries— especially Bolivia. Our Honduran students have been very concerned with what is happening in their country, of course, due to recent events.

I must say that our students amaze me sometimes. Most of them come from situations of great need and have struggled to fulfil their dream to study. Victor Hugo is one of those students. I met him for the first time when I taught a course in Lima, Perú. He was front and center, inquisitive, a critical thinker, interpreting our study of Ezra through the lens of the many injustices in his country. Last year Victor Hugo finished his undergraduate degree with us and is now on his way to Costa Rica to begin the master’s program shortly. I say “on his way” because, due to economic constraints, he is travelling by land, a week-long trip. We trust he arrives safely. You see, Victor Hugo earns his living as a taxi driver, or rather, driving a taxi that belongs to someone else. They say Lima, Perú, has the best educated taxi drivers in the world! (During my time there an economist drove me to and from classes.)

I don’t know what Victor Hugo’s perspectives are for the future. At the Latin American Biblical Institute (UBL), we do our best to prepare our students for pastoral and academic ministries. Will his dreams come true? Jobs are few and far between, no matter how great the need for theological education. The economy has other priorities. But Victor Hugo is moving forward with his dream, overcoming obstacles we can only imagine, both internal and external. We look forward to having him here again.

Dreams are what keep us moving forward. We have dreams at UBL—to open new master’s programs in the area of gender and theology, AIDS ministries, Bible translation, and others. Our faculty is going through a time of turnover, with several retiring in the next couple of years. We dream of a team of diverse, energized, visionary professors to move us forward into this century.

Some of the challenges we face are the varied educational backgrounds of our students. The educational level varies considerably from one country to another, and while some students come to UBL and excel, others struggle because of a lack of basic skills. Finding ways to meet these needs and provide quality theological education is one of our goals. The diversity of the student body is enriching and many times an eye-opener for some of the students. For people of all different cultural, racial, and religious backgrounds, learning to live together in the dorm is an education in itself. Many inner conflicts come to the fore under stressful situations, which is why we have a staff psychologist ready to work with the students and accompany them during their time here.

One of our big dreams is to renew the deteriorated married student housing that is just off campus. It means tearing down the seven apartments that are there and building something new, both for students and to rent for scholarship income. It’s a huge project, a huge dream that requires financing, and we’re going at it little by little. When the time comes to build, we hope work groups from the United States will volunteer with us in helping make this dream come true.

My own personal dream of working on my Ph.D. is on hold for now. But I trust not for long.

May your dreams, hopes and prayers come true as we dream forth life in troubling times.

Don’t forget to support the mission worker of your choice and thus become a part of the dreams of many as we partner with churches, hospitals, and seminaries around the world.

Sincerely,

Elisabeth

The 2009 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 283