July 28, 2013
The 10th Sunday after Pentecost
As I read today’s Gospel about teaching the disciples to pray, I realized it was a pilgrim prompt from Jesus. According to Luke, this is the basic structure for what we know as The Lord’s Prayer:
honor God and participate in bringing God’s realm on earth;
be grateful for each day and food to sustain life;
practice forgiveness and ask not to be tested too severely.
Those are the basics. Honoring God means that we remember we are one small part of a larger story of creation and redemption, of giving and receiving God’s love here and now, on this earth, in this place. Being in Guatemala would remind us that we, in the U.S., are not at the center of creation, and, as individuals, we could discover ourselves freshly as parts of this diverse body of pilgrims.
July 28, 2013
The 10th Sunday after Pentecost
Five of us have just returned from the work-pilgrimage to Guatemala sponsored by Seekers. This year we were helping the 28 families in the village of La Loma construct a building for their community library. It was just down the hill from the school that we helped get started in 2009.
For me, this annual trip is a chance to pare down my belongings to one suitcase and leave the complexity of future plans and projects behind. The pilgrimage helps me focus on the present, on real NEEDS rather than WANTS. It takes me back to the basics of human life on this planet and human love as a force for good. I’m especially grateful that you continue to support this spiritual adventure which has included so many of us over the past 12 years, and want to share a few highlights of this trip with you today.
Pilgrim Prompts
To prepare the 23 pilgrims who were with us, Peter and I sent out a series of emails which we call “pilgrim prompts.” The pilgrim prompts are brief, informative and reassuring (we hope). They begin the process of inviting community among the disparate group of individuals who have signed up for the trip, often at the urging of a friend who has gone before. We never know how carefully people have read them or applied them before we arrive in country, so we pray a lot in the process.
As I read today’s Gospel about teaching the disciples to pray, I realized it was a pilgrim prompt from Jesus. According to Luke, this is the basic structure for what we know as The Lord’s Prayer:
honor God and participate in bringing God’s realm on earth;
be grateful for each day and food to sustain life;
practice forgiveness and ask not to be tested too severely.
Those are the basics. Honoring God means that we remember we are one small part of a larger story of creation and redemption, of giving and receiving God’s love here and now, on this earth, in this place. Being in Guatemala would remind us that we, in the U.S., are not at the center of creation, and, as individuals, we could discover ourselves freshly as parts of this diverse body of pilgrims.
The second point in Jesus’ prompt is to give thanks for each day and our daily bread. That takes us back to the Exodus story, when there was manna, just enough food for each day. In Guatemala, I held the wrinkled hand of an old woman who brushed against my arm, silently asking for alms in a smoky church. I gave her all the coins I had – enough perhaps for one day’s food. She seemed surprised by my touch, looked into my eyes, whispered “Gracias” as she squeezed my hand. It was a moment of grace!
The third point in Jesus’ prompt got plenty of exercise on this trip: Practice forgiveness and ask not to be tested too severely. That would be a daily practice on the trip, starting with a roommate who snores or uses all the hot water. Guatemala would confront all of us with our careless use of resources and expectations of privacy and convenience. You can imagine the other occasions. I don’t need to tell those stories.
When Peter and I talked about the two Sunday communion services that we would have with our group of pilgrims, we decided to include the Lord’s Prayer using traditional language, because we knew that there were people from different Catholic and Protestant traditions on the trip and it seemed important that we could share some liturgical tradition as we passed the elements, Seekers style. The Lord’s Prayer was an anchor, a touchstone, and a pilgrim prompt for how to BE in Guatemala together as one body.
Step Into the Flow
Each year, we are discovering more diversity among the pilgrims. This year, for the first time, we didn’t have enough people who knew the doxology to sing it before lunch unless all of the Seekers were present. What became our theme song instead what this little chant:
I step into the flow, and then I let it go,
I open my mind, my heart and my soul. (repeat)
Oh, I re-member. I surrender. I open my mind, my heart and my soul.
With that song in mind, I’ve asked Ivan and Glen to share some highlights of the pilgrimage. Peter and Deborah were also on the trip, but they are downstairs with the children this morning, planning for the intergenerational service next week. Using the question that we often used for our evening reflection, I’ve asked them to speak about “What touched you the most?”
Ivan Kisense: What touched me most about our trip to Guatemala was the day that Mason Lopez and I unloaded 500 cement blocks directly from the truck to the worksite. The truck was parked on a steep one-way road and the worksite was above us, held in place by sand-bags that would eventually be replaced with stones. I was straddling a ditch, standing on a wobbly board between the hillside and the truck. As the driver handed me each cement block, I had to turn and hand it to Mason, who was standing on the hillside end of the board to keep it steady. He would swing the block up to one of the villagers, who then passed it, hand to hand, in a line to where they could be stacked for use in the walls of the library. I still can’t believe that we did it!
The other thing that touched me happened at the end of our trip. Four of us had roomed together, worked together, teased and talked about lots of stuff. DJ found an artist in Panahachel who had a chunk of amber that he was willing to cut for DJ to have a cross made, but when we heard about it, we all wanted one – so he made four matching crosses for us, as a reminder of our trip together. It means a lot to me that I found these “brothers” on the trip.
Glen Yakushiji: I was touched by the camaraderie of the pilgrims. Most of us were strangers at the beginning of the trip but over the days of traveling and working together we came to share a common identity. We each had an odd way or habit, or even disability, that was accepted as part of our group identity. I was often late or last in line because I was taking notes, or taking a picture, and that became another shared experience that helped us become a group. We all felt close by the end of the pilgrimage, and knew that we had shared a significant time together.
I think several of the pilgrims joined this journey because they had suffered a loss or hurtful change in their lives. I think they came on this voyage to gain some perspective on their lives; to step outside of their normal routines. One young pilgrim even wanted to move outside of her comfort zone. I was touched by their courage and energy.
I was touched by the simplicity, heart, and work ethic of the village people. The adults are building this library so the children would have a better education than their parents. They patiently worked through each step of the construction process while we helped a bit on the side.
I think they might be skeptical of what a bunch of rich North Americans, and we are rich, might be able to do with shovels and hoes, and I think we might have surprised them with our heart and work ethic. We celebrated the small victories we achieved—like moving a huge pile of dirt, or digging a new culvert, or shifting a truckload of cinderblocks.
I was touched by the beauty and richness of the land. The dirt we moved by the wheelbarrow-full was crumbly black fertile topsoil of the highest quality. The very steep hills were covered with rows of corn and beans, or stands of pine or other trees; and over all was the vague threat of volcanoes and earthquakes.
I haven’t finished processing my thoughts about the trip, or sorting the photographs, and will probably have some more insights over time, but this is what I’ve come to at the moment.
***
Something which touched me deeply actually started four years ago, when we were in La Loma to build the school there. There were three children who really stood out in their attentiveness, their questions and their persistence. The two girls, Vanessa and Marta, were inseparable. The little boy, Oliver, already wanted to be a teacher. When the week was over and the PAVA Board asked for names of children that we thought might benefit from scholarship help to go farther than the sixth grade, we gave them those names. And so, when we went back to La Loma, some of us began looking for those children, who would now be about 15 – practically adults in their culture.
On the third day of our visit, we stopped at the current library to see two library promoters working with pre-school children — and there they were: Vanessa and Oliver, each working patiently with a small group of five-year-olds, helping them learn colors and shapes in Kakchikel and Spanish. They are both receiving a small stipend from PAVA to continue learning and teaching in that village, although we learned that Marta has gone to work in a tortilla factory in Guatemala City because of her family’s economic needs.
On the last day, there was a traditional Mayan ceremony to thank us for coming. Dressed in his finest ceremonial clothes, Oliver came down the aisle, swinging his shaman’s censor. Then he invited all of us and all of the villagers to a large open space where we could really see the ceremony, which involved a corn meal pattern, flower petals and candles lighted with chunks of resin. We’ve seen simple versions of this before, but never with the understanding and precision that Oliver brought to it. And judging by the cell-phone pictures taken by the other villagers, they were not used to seeing this ceremony either.
For me, it was a hope made flesh. We had seen that Oliver and Vanessa are working to help the children of this village succeed in school, where they are learning Spanish and the ways of the modern world. And, as young leaders in the village, they are both involved in preserving the ancient Mayan rituals that reverence the earth as our Mother.
When one of the village leaders said to us, “We have no gift for you except this simple ceremony,” I wept. It was the best gift they could have given.
Two years ago on this date, July 28, Kate Cudlipp died as the result of a freak bike accident. She was a beloved member of our Servant Leadership Team. Kate had often said she and Carole were planning to come with us to Guatemala “when the time was right,” but now we will never share that experience with her.
I thought of Kate when our group visited Paxixil to see the library that we worked on last year. Today the library stands like a colorful weaving amid the bright green cornstalks that sweep the hill around the school that we worked on in 2010. Lola, the woman who loaned Annie Smith-Estrada her best clothes after some of our group got covered with mud while digging the foundation of the school, is now the chief librarian. She presides with dignity and clear purpose. As the pilgrims who worked on that building lined up for a picture, she prayed a blessing on all of us, ending with these words: “When you leave this place, we will not know whether you live or die, but we know here and now that you have changed our lives.
Thank you, Kate, for this reminder that we must live for today.
Gracias a Dios, Lola, for your leadership in Paxixil.
And to Seekers, who continue to make this pilgrimage possible, I’m eternally grateful.
Amen.
