July 2006

We sat by the rivers of Babylon and wept
How can we sing The Lord’s song in a strange land?
Psalms 137

“There is a lot of work for us in the United States; however, one suffers alot.”
Carmelino Lopez

My family and I arrived in Loma Bonita, Chiapas, on the same day as Carmelino. Carmelino returned as a prodigal father and a prodigal husband—he had gone to the United States with the intention of providing for his family and yet got welcomed into a life of hard work, solitude, and then eventually wild living.

Just five hours after Carmelino arrived we were invited to join the feast of welcome that his family was giving him. As we sat on the front porch, a woman came by carrying a load of wood on her head and she shouted up to Victoria, Carmelino’s wife, “Your heart is now complete, mine is still not.” Victoria smiled and hugged Carmelino tight.

Tia Minga, Miriam’s aunt and Victoria’s mother had killed and dressed two roosters to make a delicious stew for the celebration. While eating, Carmelino told us that he had lived in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Florida, working picking tobacco, for Wal-Mart, and in roofing respectively.

Sitting at the table across from Carmelino, I felt as if I were a priest hearing his confession. “Each place I arrived I searched for a Presbyterian Church and I didn’t find one—at least one that would accept me or one that spoke Spanish. I have returned as a hypocrite. I left as a leader in Presbyterian mission in this area and I failed there (in the United States)—I tried—but in the end I ended up in the vices of the world.” I assured him that just as his family was receiving him with joy, that God was celebrating his return—physical and spiritual—as well.

In each the four small communities we visited, the absence of young adult males was as striking as the new houses that “the absent ones” had constructed for their families while in the United States. We also participated in the worship life of the local churches. At “Christ Rock of Ages” Presbyterian Church, we led a workshop on “The Christian Family.” It was heart-breaking to hear the pain of mothers, fathers and wives as they struggled to be family when the family was separated by such a great distance. Neamias brought his wife to me in tears afterwards and told me of her brother who had moved to Georgia and begun abusing alcohol. “Pastor Mark, is there anything you can do for him?”

After worship at the “Rivers of Life” Presbyterian Church, Brother Fausto, the lone male member left in the church, asked me to contact his son in Los Angeles from whom he had not heard in months. “Brother Marcos, he was a good boy, very active in church. Please find him and encourage him to continue in the ways of the Lord.”

Pastor Jesus Gallegos, my colleague for seven years here on the border before accepting the call of Foothills Presbytery to begin a new church in South Carolina, says that it is sad that often times the church doesn’t open its doors to the strangers in their midst; but the bars always open their doors to them. But just as Foothills Presbytery is hearing the call to provide for the spiritual care of the Spanish speakers in their midst; there are churches who are doing amazing things to welcome the stranger.

When I was ordained in 1998, the session of the Clover Presbyterian Church invited Pastor Jesus to preach and the children’s choir of the Uno en el Espiritu (One in the Spirit) Presbyterian Church of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, to lead music in a special bi-lingual worship service. The session and pastor actively invited the newly arrived Spanish speaking population to attend the worship service. After worship, Elias with his hair in a ponytail wearing dark sunglasses to hide the effects of the tequila from the night before, was surrounded by members of the congregation welcoming him. He said: “All of my friends shared with me that I shouldn’t come because I would just be run off. But so many people invited throughout last week that I had to come.”

Along with ten other men, Elias continued coming back. Elias began communicating with his family in Nayarit again, stopped spending his money on alcohol, and began sending money back to his family. The church discovered his musical abilities and soon he began participating in the choir. Later he helped the Clover Presbyterian Church in their desire to provide pastoral support to the migrant community.

Elias left Mexico as a prodigal, but encountered a welcome of the church that did not even speak his language and he returned home even though he was thousands of miles from his family. Carmelino left Mexico as a responsible father and husband wanting to provide for his family; he did not encounter welcome of the church and he became lost.

Pray for all those families who find themselves with the challenges of being far from one another and pray for the courage of the church to follow God’s command to welcome the stranger and to love the aliens in their midst and to help them sing the Lord’s song in a strange land.

Mark

The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 66