January, 2007
Dear Friends and Family,
Left to right: Omar Andrés (7), Isabella Chloe (5), Edgar
Moros Ruano (69), Alexa Gabriella (11), Donna Laubach Moros
(67), Elena Lucía (5), David Abraham (13).
Happy New Year 2007! This is our New Year’s note to all
of you our brothers and sisters in Christ, as we reflect on the
varied ministries of the churches in Spain, Venezuela, and New
Jersey. We have experienced so many different changes this past
year. We ended our term in Spain, visited Venezuela briefly this
summer, and are now in Princeton, N.J., as we fulfill our interpretation
assignment. We have celebrated the joy and blessing of being reunited
with all of our children and grandchildren for the Christmas holidays,
something we had not done in many years. It was a wonderful reunion,
and we are glad to have been together, although the time spent
celebrating seems much too short now!
It has been surprising since our return to Princeton last September
that the place we both remember as it was during the spring of
1964 is as changed as the rest of the world, and we find ourselves
in a different country altogether. Our first weeks here were occupied
with many tasks and necessary chores such as getting New Jersey
driver’s licenses, getting a car, and the necessary insurance
for it, enrolling in Medicaid and setting up doctor’s services,
as well as adjusting to the slowed down pace and schedule now
that we are no longer working full-time.
What we have discovered in the churches we have visited is similar
to what is happening in so many communities in other parts of
the world. An example of this is that two of the churches where
we were engaged in Hispanic mission in the Sixties are now at
the center of the Hispanic population in New Jersey. The presence
of growing multicultural congregations, the continuing ministry
of retired volunteers, and the newer immigrants and the changing
scenes in the inner cities speaks to the change we welcome in
our societies and church communities. We hope that the increasingly
multicultural population of the tri-state area will add some variety
to what often seem like outdated and stagnant liturgies and social
vision.
Evangelism isn’t about transforming the church structures
in order to keep the money flowing in through new members. Evangelism
means active engagement in the real and raw world around the church.
God’s new vision is continuously growing out of the changing
moment. Luckily some of us have enough experience to know the
importance and value in learning new languages, as well as adapting
to and accepting other cultures. There are many Presbyterians
doing so in order to volunteer and tutor in the inner city, in
order to give their time and talents in helping others, and in
order to be present with the joy of God’s emerging world.
Pentecost revisited will be the future of our multicultural world.
We will either all live together, and we will all struggle to
save our world together from war, hunger, displacement, elders
living without healthcare, the urban poor without adequate housing,
or we will continue to live in our sheltered and closed-minded
worlds. The way to do this cannot be controlled by anyone, but
it can be built upon a consensus that we build together. The risk
we take is the risk to be engaged in these worlds of poverty.
Some of us do it even in the midst of our own poverty.
We give thanks to God for our Reformed sisters and brothers in
Spain, Venezuela, and New Jersey for holding on to small discipleship
communities who worship and love the world, holding on to each
other for dear life, and the dear life of the world itself. We
give thanks to God for the twelve, or two or three gathered together
in Christ’s name, proclaiming God’s faithful presence
with us, from generation to generation. May the presence of the
Resurrected Christ be felt in the love we experience in our communities
as we renew our vocation to serve Christ through all of our lifetime.
We ask for prayer for Donna’s continuing treatment as she
deals with a delicate medical condition requiring many tests and
medication, and for Edgar’s hope to return to his beloved
Venezuela in order to continue working in theological education
at a distance. Pray that we can make a connection with Princeton
Theological Seminary and the United Evangelical Theological Seminary
(SEUT) in Spain in order to open summer programs between the two
institutions. Edgar will be teaching next July in Spain as part
of a trial program our co-workers and SEUT are organizing. We
imagine that our interpretation assignment will lead us to meet
some of you in other churches in New Jersey as well as in other
communities, and we hope that our dialogues with you will help
us to capture your vision as to where we need to go, and how we
can form networks of solidarity to deal with our new world being
born before us. Let us all proclaim God’s purpose for a
world in peace and justice.
Joy to the world, the Lord has come!
Edgar and Donna
The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 183 |
