Greetings from Chiapas!

November 13, 2016

Dear Friends and Family:

On my first morning in the bunk room at the Institute for Intercultural Study and Research (INESIN),  the organization  I will be working with in the city San Cristobal de las Casas, state of Chiapas, México, a familiar buzzing sound greets me on my way to the bathroom.  I veer off course, hunting through the flowers, my eyes flicking back and forth as I know I will only catch a glimpse of the sound-maker.  It is there and then in an instant, gone.  The sound disappears.  A hummingbird has welcomed me to the city and to this new life.

As I seek to get my bearings in a maze of narrow streets with sidewalks so thin that they disappear at intervals where the lamp posts sprout, I wonder and wander: new sounds of Mayan people chattering in tseltal or tzotzil, comforting childhood smells of "tortillerías" (shops where corn tortillas are made),  sights of tiled roofs superimposed on memories of similar roofs in rural Paraguay or Chile.  One moment I feel right at home; the next I speculate that I must have arrived on a different planet.

On Sunday I attend a tiny church on the edges of another tourist town, Chiapa de Corzo, which was founded in 1400 before Christ.  It was a center of commerce for the Olmec and Mayan people, two of the oldest known pre-Hispanic civilizations.  Today the town is best known for a January festival with both pre-Hispanic and Colonial roots where male dancers wear white masks and fuzzy yellow mushroom like hats, and there is music, food, and crafts.  The women wear dresses made from black netting and elaborate embroidery.   In the midst of the flood of new information as I walk through the town, I am again comforted by the familiar.   I know every song in the worship service by heart; we sing to the tune of a guitar as we would in a small semi-rural church in Chile. 

Monday morning, the administrator at INESIN, takes me to visit a house he has scouted out for me to consider as I hunt for living quarters.  I don´t like the house.  It is dark and has empty lots on three sides.  "Patience," says Brother Natanael. "We have plenty of time and many options to look at."  On our way back to the office, we spot a "for rent" sign on a house only a block away.  We call the number and early Tuesday morning we go look at the house.  Over the wall, in the neighbor's flowering bushes, I hear the familiar sound:  Hummingbirds welcoming me home!  This house has plenty of light,  the kitchen, living room and dining room  are all in one big downstairs space with a bathroom off to one side,  and two rooms upstairs with another bathroom.  And the cherry on the cake is wifi and telephone already installed!  Natanael has already warned me that it could take up to three months to get telephone and wifi service.    My house hunting ends after one day and after looking at only one other house.  I know that this is God's  answer to the prayers of many!  The last few days I have been tracking down furniture and appliances, washing windows, cleaning, and trying to make this rental house into my home.  

Everyone here is talking about the US elections.  Most people have been understanding and gentle in discussing the results while at the same time remembering the saying that goes, "when the US sneezes, Mexico catches pneumonia."  I have already been warned never to visit an indigenous community without a guide.  US, Canadian and European mining companies are known to be scouting out the region looking for new mineral deposits.  In Mexico, according to an old Spanish law, people own what is on the surface of the land, but if a company buys the rights,  it can legally extract the minerals even if it means ousting legal land owners or communities.  Native communities are resisting the mining companies as best they know how.  Many people in Chiapas have either traveled to seek work in the US or have family members who have immigrated.   Yesterday my  cab driver stated sadly while solemnly shaking his head, "if new policies cause more Mexicans to be mistreated in the US,  I don´t know if we will be able to keep people from mistreating US citizens living in Mexico."  

I want to thank each of you for your prayers on my behalf in this new ministry.  After one week in San Cristobal de las Casas, I know I have a lot to learn.  I am grateful for my new colleagues at INESIN for all the ways that they have made me feel welcome (fresh bouquet of flowers in my room when I arrived, a set of keys to the grounds and main rooms, and my own office space with a computer!)  Please continue to pray for me as I settle in, build relationships,  and find my way around. 

As I finish this letter, I can hear the hummingbirds even though I can´t see them on the other side of the wall.   The Guaraní people of Paraguay believe that hummingbirds indicate the place and instant where heaven caresses  the earth.   I am reminded of Psalm 85:10-13 "Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.  Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.  The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest.  Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps."  I pray  that my new home, with hummingbirds as neighbors, might be just such a place. 

Shalom,

Elena

Japanese St. Francis

As the sculptor devotes himself to wood and stone, I would devote myself to my soul.

Toyohiko Kagawa

Adios

Adios"

It is a good word, rolling off the tongue;
no matter what language you were born with
use it. Learn where it begins,
the small alphabet of departure,
how long it takes to think of it,
then say it, then be heard.
Marry it. More than any golden ring,
it shines, it shines.
Wear it on every finger
till your hands dance,
touching everything easily,
letting everything, easily, go.
Strap it to your back like wings.
Or a kite-tail. The stream of air behind a jet.
If you are known for anything,
let it be the way you rise out of sight
when your work is finished.
Think of things that linger: leaves,
cartons and napkins, the damp smell of mold.
Think of things that disappear.
Think of what you love best,
what brings tears into your eyes.
Something that said adios to you
before you knew what it meant
or how long it was for.
Explain little, the word explains itself.
Later perhaps. Lessons following lessons,
like silence following sound.

--Naomi Shihab Nye

Seek

If you wish to fly, seek wings.
If you wish to arrive, seek the path.
If you wish to rest, seek a chair.
If you wish to grow, seek God.
Because to seek is to live.

..

Imagine

Imagine a world where
every flower
every boy and girl
every word
has its place.

EH Sept. 2016

Wrecking the church

A few months ago, while visiting churches in Indiana, I visited a congregation outside Indianapolis and heard their story.

This is the story of a church that has decided to hire a wrecking company.  What for? To tear down their beautiful, historic building.

This congregation has a church building that is an icon in a town on the corner of Church Street and an important alternate route into the city.  The building, completed before the 1850s,  has priceless stain glass windows, an imposing bell tower, and organ that was completely refurbished just a few years ago.  The church has a large parsonage on the same property.  Like so many other churches around the country, the congregation was getting older and smaller in size, so they began to talk about what they should do.  After many long and painful discussions, they decided that they did not want to continue spending all of their money on maintaining and fixing the building, which had asbestos in it, and began studying areas of town where there were new families and opportunities for growth.  They purchased 5 acres of land near several new subdivisions, built a general purpose hall with all the latest energy efficient conveniences, and set up a community garden program.  

Eventually they decided to no longer heat or cool the old building and began holding all services and activities at the new site.  Families that had not been related to the church signed up to share space in the garden and the community began to identify the building as a place where different social and service organizations could meet.  The old building was boarded up and the congregation decided to sell the property along with the parsonage and use the money to continue developing the new site.  The congregation agreed that they would keep the windows, the bell and the organ to be placed in their new church when it was built.

A major pharmacy chain made on offer of 5 million dollars for the property.  The night before the deal was to be signed, the city council had an emergency meeting.  They proclaimed the church as a historical site and stopped the sale.  The pharmacy would not be able to tear down the church and the deal fell apart.   A member of the church who was a retired lawyer worked very hard and managed to have the historical site designation revoked, and the congregation once again began to work on a deal to sell the boarded up church that they were no longer using.

Now they were able to work out the sale to another company but only for 1 million dollars.  Again the city moved to stop the sale.  The company backed out, and as time has gone by, no other business wants to get involved in a deal where they will be marked at the "bad guys" who tore down the town´s iconic church.

The congregation has decided to sell the windows, the bell, the organ and whatever else they can to hire a wrecking company.  They want to be responsible to the people of the town, those who are church goers and those who are not,  for tearing down their own building.  They want to be able to say, as Avery and Marsh wrote in their song, We are the church,  "The church is not a building, the church is not a steeple, the church is not a resting place, the church is the people."

Elena Huegel

September 2016

Draw a line

Draw a line

in the sand.

Mark your side, your land

separate from mine.

Boundaries are curious things:

protection from hurt,

the power to say "no",

or "yes" when hope

is hidden from home.

Sept. 2016