April 2003

Greetings from Yucatán

Dear Friends,

We have been in seriously hot weather for nearly two months now. Usually we can expect to enjoy mild temperatures (under 90) until late April, but not this year. Our typical day averages around 95, with very high humidity. This is why most adult work teams choose to come in between January and March. This year we have received mission work teams from Kansas, Indiana, North Carolina, and Florida. In addition, two Benedictine sisters from Madison, Wisconsin, (one Presbyterian and one Roman Catholic) were able to share a week of their lives with us. Each mission group brought many of God’s blessings with them. They all stayed at the Gethsemane retreat center and learned something about the community of Benedictine women being formed there. The idea of a Presbyterian monastic community takes a bit of getting used to, but only because we do not know enough of church history or what has been happening in the last 75 years in the Lutheran-Reformed Church in Europe. A Benedictine community might be thought of as a small church that does not disperse after Sunday worship. Their fundamental purpose is the same as for all Presbyterians, “to worship God and enjoy Him forever.” At present there are four women novices and three in a postulate program. In addition we have begun to pray for a young man, Isaias Beh, who will graduate from San Pablo seminary in June. He has been given permission by his presbytery to continue his studies in a Lutheran Benedictine monastery near Detroit, if we can get a visa for him to enter the United States.

Since January I have made a couple of trips to different presbyteries for continuing education workshops. One of these was to a place called Buenos Aires, Chiapas. There we had 34 pastors and elders from the Tzeltal tribe participate in a liturgy workshop. The high point of the week for me was to give all the pastors stoles with which to celebrate the liturgy in their churches. This is very new for Presbyterians in Mexico. Generally the Presbyterians here are unsure about the use symbols or rituals in worship (few churches have a cross, for example) and they have very nearly lost Calvin’s and our confessional teachings about the sacraments. (In this they are the same as the Presbyterians in the States.) In several presbyteries I am trying to encourage pastors to see that the use of intentional symbols is a means to helping people to add to their literal reading of the Bible and enter into deeper experiences of what is given by the Spirit. Missionaries many generations ago wanted to protect Presbyterians from Roman Catholic worship of images and use of symbols as talismans. This is still a serious concern but I think it is time to begin to trust the members to be able to distinguish between a symbol and an idol because to not do so leaves the believers in a world without poetic metaphor.

Our children are all looking forward to Easter break. We will have to wait another couple of weeks to see if surgery will be necessary or not for Martha’s knee. Kenya, our beagle, had five puppies of very mixed pedigree. David passed his entrance test to go the middle school we wanted for him and Valerie and Kristen are suffering with their respective math classes. Let me leave you a thought to reflect on: Don’t try to separate your work from your prayer.

Please write if you have a moment. We are at donald@finred.com.mx

In His love,

Don and Martha Wehmeyer

The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, page 251