Greetings from Chile!  It is usually rather difficult for me to keep up with cyberspace during the summer since we don´t have electricity, much less internet access, at the Shalom Center where I spend most of my days.  This past week, I was at the CONPAZ camp with the youth from the Curicó Church and a delegation from the Indiana-Kentucky Conference of the UCC.  Many of the campers from Curicó where my former Sunday School students or participants in the elementary age environmental programs.  These young adults were 3 and 4 years old when I arrived in Chile 18 years ago!

Christmas with Family

 My parents with Aaron.

 Christmas lights.

 Jonathan and Isaac.

Huegel Christmas passtime.

Family time in Texas

 Aaron and Isaac after the Christmas Concert of the middle school orquestra.  Isaac was the first chair violín.

 Butterflies!

 Orchids!

Evan's 20th birthday!

Dignity

As I think about the life of Nelson Manderla and celebrate the legacy that he has left us, I share with you some thoughts on Dignity by Donna Hicks which are part of the Roots in the ruins trauma healing course.

 Ten Essential Elements of Dignity

 Acceptance of Identity: First thing you need to do when you want to honor peoples’ dignity is to accept that they are neither inferior nor superior to you. By virtue of being a human being, we all have the same inherent worth and value and the same human vulnerability. Everyone should feel free to express their authentic self without fear of being judged negatively. When you have an interaction with others, start with the orientation that no matter who they are, or what their race, religion, gender, class, or sexual orientation, it is your obligation to humanity to accept them as your spiritual equals and to do them no harm.

 Acknowledgment: People like to feel that they matter. Acknowledgment can be as simple as smiling at others when they walk by to formally recognizing them for something they have done for which they deserve credit. It is especially important to acknowledge the impact of your actions on others when you violate their dignity, instead of trying to save face by diminishing or ignoring the harm you have caused.

 Responsiveness: We all want to be seen and heard. Treating people as if they were invisible or ignoring them by not responding to their concerns is a violation of their dignity.

 Inclusion: No one likes to feel left out or that they don’t belong. When we are included, we feel good about who we are. When we are excluded from things that matter to us, we feel an instant reaction of self-doubt. What is it about me that I wasn’t included? This is an affront to our dignity at all levels of human interaction, from the political, when minority groups feel left out of the political process by the majority, to the interpersonal, when we’re not included in the decision-making that directly affects us.

Safety: There are two kinds of safety that are important to dignity: physical and psychological. Physical threats need no explanation but psychological threats are more complicated. Honoring others’ psychological safety means not shaming, humiliating, diminishing, or hurtfully criticizing them, especially, but not limited to, violations that are public.

Fairness: We all have a particularly strong knee-jerk reaction to being treated unfairly. If we want to honor the dignity of others, we need to ensure that we are honoring agreed upon laws and rules of fairness—both implicit and explicit—when we interact with them.

 Freedom: A major dignity violation occurs when we restrict people and try to control their lives. Honoring this element of dignity requires that people feel free from domination and that they are able to experience hope and a future that is filled with a sense of possibility.

Understanding: There is nothing more frustrating than to feel misunderstood, especially when you are in conflict with others. Extending dignity means that you give others the chance to explain themselves, actively listening to them for the sole purpose of understanding their perspective.

 Benefit of the Doubt: Treating people as though they were trustworthy—giving them the benefit of the doubt that they are acting with good intention—is honoring their dignity. This is, paradoxically, especially important when people are in conflict with one another where the cycle of mistrust is difficult to break. Treating others as though they were trustworthy, as difficult as it is, often interrupts the negative expectations, creating opportunities for a change in the relationship.

 Righting the Wrong: When we violate someone’s dignity, it is important to take responsibility and apologize for the hurt we have caused. It is a way for us to regain our own dignity as well as acknowledging the wrongdoing to the person you violated.

 Donna Hicks Weatherhead Center for Intern

"Mensajera"

In the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ of Los Retes the TUNAZCAS music group sang Andean music.  It reminded me of all those I love in Chile!

The children learned Josua 1:9 by heart!

¡Greetings from San Luis Potosí!

Dear Ones:  Hello from the city of San Luis Potosí in central Mexico.  Here is a picture of my new friend.  His name is Simri.  The man that is standing between us is a statue of the Cup Man - a character from the turn of the century who used to wander the streets telling people their fortunes.

I also made new friends in Nogales, Zacatecas, a tiny village where my father first started his ministry as a Pastor many years ago.  I had a good time with Enoc (in the cowboy hat) and his older brother Emanuel.  Thank you Karen for many wonderful experiences!

Please remember to pray tomorrow for the presidential elections in Chile!

What is in a name?

It happened twice after the same worship service, one right after the other.  If it had happened just once, I might have doubted it was a message from God, but twice?  God was reminding me the importance of learning and remembering someone’s name.

Manuel approached me right after the benediction, a well dressed lawyer who recently passed the bar exam in Chile, carrying his young daughter tenderly in his arms.  He wanted me to meet her.  Then he said, “I have been meaning to tell you something for a long time.  I remember the first time we met, seventeen years ago.  It was during an open air evangelism campaign.  I was a young teenager full of doubts about my faith and about continuing in church.  You asked me my name.  I told you ‘Manuel’, and you never forgot.  Every single time we met after that, you called me by my name even though there were dozens of other young people in the church.  If I was important enough to you for you to remember my name, I thought maybe I was important to God, too.  We haven’t seen each other very much over the years, but thanks for always remembering my name.  It has meant so much to me.” 

I am not particularly good at remembering names.  Some people will tell you they have had to introduce themselves to me three or four times before I remember who they are.   Even though I know it is very important it for each of us to be called by name and that I should strive to remember the names of the people I meet, I also know my mind is feeble.  I have to recognize that it usually the Holy Spirit that brings a name into my mind, but sometimes I am just too busy to pay attention. 

Another young man, poorly dressed and with the air of the mountain country side of Chile about him, stood off to one side patiently waiting as I finished talking to Manual.  When I turned to greet him, he took a step back and then asked me, do you remember who I am?   I started flipping through my mental card files and came up with a blank. “ I am from the little church called Palmera de Cordillería (Mountain Palms). “  No bells rang.  Then, after a pause, a quiet, earthshaking voice like the whisper to Elijah on the mountainside, spoke a memory into my mind.  “Wait!” I exclaimed.  “Don´t tell me!  I know you! You are DAVID!”   His face lit up like a thousand suns and his eyes filled with tears!    “¡Si!” he answered. “¡Soy yo!”  I took both his hands into mine and asked him how he was doing.  “There is so much to tell you,” he answered.  “But God is with me and I am doing well.”

Others began pressing into to greet me, just as happened back when David was a child.  I had visited Palmera de Cordillería with Bishop Ulises Muñoz of the Pentecostal Church of Chile fifteen or sixteen years ago when I was helping to set up the Sunday School program at the Curicó Church. (By the way, I have never had the opportunity to return there.)  The Bishop had told me that the Guide of this daughter church was opposed to any new ideas or programs. (There are 65 daughter churches belonging to the Curicó church under the leadership of different brothers or sisters appointed by the Bishop.  The Bishop is the pastor of these village churches.)  The Bishop preached and I shared the children`s sermon.  The children had stood in the greeting line along with the adults, and one boy, about ten years old, informed me when he shook my hand, “my name is David.”  “Just like David in the Bible,” I answered. “Do you remember who David was?” I asked, but before he could answer the adults pushed him on so others could greet me. David slipped back in the line, and when it was his turn again, he said, “Wasn´t David one of Jesus’ disciples?”  I smiled and said, “Wait here beside me a minute.  When I finish saying good-bye to everyone we will talk.”  I sat down next to David and told him the story of David and Goliath, about David and Jonathan, and how David had been King of Israel.  He listened open mouthed and eyes wide.  When there was no one left in the sanctuary but the Bishop and the Guide, I called them over and asked them to listen.  “David” I asked, “Have you ever been to Sunday School?”  “What is Sunday School?” he replied.  “Would you like for your church to have Sunday School,” I asked after explaining what it would be like and what he would learn.  “Oh yes!” he exclaimed.  The Bishop turned to the Guide and said, “We will be starting Sunday School in this church!”   

Since that brief introduction so long ago, I have only seen David one other time.  He was fifteen or sixteen, and that time he greeted me with “I know all about King David now!”  Ten more years passed.  Even if I could remember what he looked like as a child or a teen, he is a grown man now.  “I wanted so much to see you and say thank-you,” I kept holding his hands as he looked into my eyes.  “Thank you for remembering me. My heart bursting with joy!”  He hugged me, and with the next person waiting to greet me, I said to David, “please look for me again at the next church gathering when we are both in Curicó.  I want to hear your story.”  He smiled broadly and nodded, turned away and disappeared into the crowd.

What is in a name?  Recognition, relationship, hope, transformation.  With two very different young men, one right after the other, the Holy Spirit reminded me of just how much is in a name.