July 5, 2005
Dear Family and Friends in Jesus Christ:
Greetings to you beloved sisters and brothers. We write to you
as always in the name of the great One who has sent us to Equatorial
Guinea, Africa, in order for His name to be known by those who
are still out of his grace. Receive this letter please, on behalf
of Him.
It is six o’clock in the morning on Saturday June 25. I
am sitting on the porch of the “mission house” where
usually I find a chair braided from vines to sit and write in.
My working spot is a special blessing today because a beautiful
red and purple poppy has bloomed in our front yard. It is an amazing
beauty, which shows a little bit of the beauty of God’s
companionship in the context of this mission in which we are surrounded
by piles of garbage, the smell of feces everywhere, and human
beings—mostly women and children—working on the
streets for the price of a piece of bread. My poppy is still a
baby, but it “decided” to surprise me with this beautiful
gift, perhaps to let us recall that the prettiest lilies grow
on the ugliest swamps.
Sometimes we face discouragement and frustration in our daily
work because we feel like we are fighting Goliath as we try to
be a light among our brothers and sisters here, a little spark
of consciousness for the transformation of the circumstances of
their lives. Living in stinking places amidst garbage and human
waste and mosquitoes that carry malaria, and drinking water from
wells contaminated by parasites—this is not the will of
God, and therefore, with the help from God, the situation has
to be transformed.
Watching my poppy this morning made us to relate this story with
the deacons, women and elders of our local parish of Bata when
we arrived here a year ago. We attended then the first Sunday
service and were depressed when we saw how the field around the
church building and the Presbyterian school was being swallowed
by a forest of weed and tons of trash. Gloria and I begun asking
the local pastor if it were possible to find some way to clean
their “own house.” At that point, our words were like
cry to the wind. Then early one Saturday morning Andy took a shovel
and a pitchfork to the garbage dump and began to work. Some people
mocked him, others were surprised, and members of the church commented
“this missionary guy must be mad.” And so it is surprising
that on the last three Saturdays, groups of women and men took
their machetes, shovels, and hoes to that field and the garbage
dump is being transformed into a playground where the kids of
the school and the church can enjoy their games during recess.
Moreover, the new church building, whose construction was abandoned
and its remaining structure in ruins, is now almost ready, thanks
to some encouragement and mission-minded challenges. So, First
Presbyterian Church of Bata looks like my blooming poppy—colorful
and getting ready by itself for the harvest very soon.
Join us in prayers
- For the renewing and transforming ministry in the Presbyterian
Church of Equatorial Guinea, led by pastors committed to mission.
- For “Harvest 2007,” a nationwide evangelization
program for reaching out to forgotten congregations in villages
and people who have not been touched by the love of Jesus Christ.
- For the construction of the Presbyterian High School building
here in Bata. The Presbyterian Church of Equatorial Guinea is
working toward the construction of 32 classrooms and an administration
building where 2,000 students, male and female, will have a
facility in which to be taught in grace and wisdom, according
to God and scientific knowledge.
- Pray for us and our health, that God may grant us his strength
and wisdom to perform efficiently our daily work. Pray also
for our daughter Varinia who graduated in May from college and
now is starting a new stage of independent life. She is living
in Roanoke, Virginia.
We do not want to finish this letter without expressing our most
profound gratitude for your faithful support to the PC(USA)’s
mission endeavor, which enables us to communication with you and
let you know how we are doing by the grace of the Unique One.
May his love be upon you.
Yours in Christ.
Andres and Gloria
The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
320 |
