Hand in Hand Global Mission Support Blog Digest

The Rev. David and Alicia Brondos are ELCA missionaries in Mexico. David is a professor at the Theological Community of Mexico, an ecumenical consortium of seminaries in Mexico City, which includes Augsburg Lutheran Seminary.  His work involves training pastors and leaders for churches throughout Mexico.  Alicia teaches English in Mexico City. To support the Brondos, or another of the ELCA’s nearly 250 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

The new liturgy includes new music.

In addition to my teaching activities at the Theological Community and Lutheran Seminary, since May I have been helping out at one of the Lutheran churches here in Mexico City, San Pedro, working with the congregation in the renewal of its worship services. One of our seminary students, Benjamín Quezada, is from San Pedro, and after taking a liturgy course with me at the seminary, Benjamín invited the liturgy class to do a special service at San Pedro in May. The congregation liked the service so well that they expressed interest in renewing their entire service, since they had been using the same liturgy for over 20 years.

Based on some of the liturgies I had helped develop at the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd here in Mexico City, we developed four new liturgies for San Pedro, and the congregation has been learning them over the past five months. This has included some new texts for Confession and Absolution and for the creeds, as well as liturgical music. I have also worked with them in teaching them new hymns.

In August, they also decided to train new liturgical assistants and asked me to give a short training course over a few Sundays. Fifteen members of the congregation attended the course — the problem now is how to give all 15 a chance to assist with the liturgy!

Fortunately, the congregation already had some good musicians and a good worship team. They have worked hard together with their pastor, the Rev. Esther León, and the changes have been very well-received.

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Kyle Larson is working in Mexico as an ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission. He writes in this excerpt from his blog about his assignment, which is not what he had expected. To support YAGM coordinators, or any of the ELCA’s nearly 250 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

Kyle Larson

In July, I got an email detailing what my job would be for the next year. As I read, I had overwhelming thoughts of whether I could actually step up to the plate and do this job. Instead of working in a school as I had planned, I was going to be working at an HIV and AIDS organization. Wow. I thought to myself, “What business do I have working with HIV/AIDS patients?”

After talking to some people at camp and my parents, I emailed  back and gave the go ahead.

The organization is called La Casa de La Sal. They are involved in all aspects of HIV and AIDS, ranging from prevention to terminal care. It’s worth checking out the website even though it’s all in Spanish. Hit up Google translate. You can at least get the just of what the organization is about.

My job is in the prevention area. I have a team of five other volunteers that I work with. We go to schools, usually in teams of two or three and do workshops — very frank and honest workshops —  about HIV and AIDS awareness and prevention.  Education like this isn’t prevalent in the school system, and without this workshop the kids would never be exposed the concepts we talk about.

I love what I’m doing and I really feel like it’s making an impact, however minimal it may be, in the community.

To read more from Kyle, go to his blog, “The Mexico Chronicle.”

The Rev. David and Alicia Brondos are ELCA missionaries in Mexico. David is a professor at the Theological Community of Mexico, an ecumenical consortium of seminaries in Mexico City, which includes Augsburg Lutheran Seminary.  His work involves training pastors and leaders for churches throughout Mexico.  Alicia teaches English in Mexico City. To support the Brondos, or another of the ELCA’s nearly 250 missionaries, go to www.elca.org/missionarysponsorship.

David Brondos and Angela Trejo

On August 20, at the meeting of the Board of Augsburg Lutheran Seminary where I serve as professor, the Rev. Angela Trejo was chosen to be the new coordinator for the seminary.  Angela succeeds her husband, the Rev. Dr. Moisés Pérez, who is now the dean (academic vice-rector) at the Theological Community of Mexico, the consortium of seminaries of which Augsburg Lutheran Seminary is a part. Angela is the first woman to lead  any of the seminaries that make up the Theological Community.

She was also one of the first three women ordained as pastors by the Mexican Lutheran Church in April of 2009. Following her ordination, she became co-pastor at Christ Lutheran Church in Mexico City with her husband.

Among the things Angela hopes to promote as seminary coordinator is a greater participation of women in the programs and activities of the seminary and Theological Community. For example, Angela has been very active in the Mexican Lutheran Church Women’s organization and recently helped start an online magazine for Lutheran women called “Xaris” (from the Greek charis, “Grace”).

Besides continuing to do research on women in the ministry and helping teach and develop the seminary’s new online course program, Angela hopes to help the seminary become more involved in ecological issues from a theological and pastoral perspective.

Please keep Angela in your prayers as she begins her new responsibilities. I thank God for the many gifts she brings to the position and the passion she has displayed for the work of the church, especially promoting ministry by and among women.

David Brondos

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The Rev. David and Alicia Brondos are ELCA missionaries in Mexico. David is a professor at the Theological Community of Mexico, an ecumenical consortium of seminaries in Mexico City, which includes Augsburg Lutheran Seminary.  His work involves training pastors and leaders for churches throughout Mexico.  Alicia teaches English in Mexico City.

Alicia and David Brondos

David writes:

This past January, at the request of the seminary, I was asked to develop the new online course program for the seminary and serve as its coordinator during its initial stages. This has been a tremendous challenge for me and a great learning experience, since I had never taken or even seen an online course previously. During the last four months, this has occupied a great deal of my time.

We will begin in June, offering two shorter free courses: “Introduction to the Bible” and “Martin Luther and the Reformation.” These free courses will hopefully draw a large number of students and enable people to become acquainted with the courses. For most people this is something totally new, since the area of online courses has not been developed nearly as much in Mexico as in the U.S.

Because the greatest need is for courses at the congregational level, in the initial stage of our program, our focus is on lay information. We will be recording videos for the classes, and that will be our biggest task during the month of May. One of our graduating students, Karina García, will be helping me quite a bit with the courses.

Please remember this new program in your prayers!

To learn more about David and his work, please visit his website.

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This message is taken from David Brondos’ most recent newsletter. He is a missionary serving as a faculty member at the El Seminario Luterano Augsburgo, or Augsburg Lutheran Seminary, the seminary of the Iglesia Luterana Mexicana (ILM) which is a member school of the Theological Community of Mexico.

The Theological Community of Mexico is a consortium of seminaries which will now be incorporating some new partners. One of these partners is AMEXTRA, the Mexican Association for Rural and Urban Transformation which works on projects in the areas of health and education programs, emergency relief, income generation, and care for the environment. AMEXTRA has historic ties with the Lutheran Church here in Mexico and has worked for many years with the ELCA. AMEXTRA seeks to develop partnerships with local churches in order to implement programs. According to Eugenio Araiza, the General Director of AMEXTRA, their vision is to have churches become involved in community activities aimed at holistic transformation.

AMEXTRA wanted to strengthen its biblical and theological base for its programs, while the Theological Community looks to relate Christian theology more with practical aspects of social transformation. Social issues such as poverty, injustice, violence, and discrimination must be challenged by religious communities. And the reality in which people live cannot be transformed without transforming the way they see themselves, other people, and the world around them.  From the perspective of the Theological Community, any leadership training that divorces theology from the work of transforming communities, society, and the world should be regarded as inadequate.

Through this new partnership AMEXTRA will be able to draw on the resources and network of relationships developed through the Theological Community to expand its mission of helping local church leaders acquire the vision and knowledge necessary to promote holistic transformation in their communities. At the same time, the Theological Community will gain from AMEXTRA’s resources, expertise, and network of relationships. Students at the Theological Community will have opportunities to learn more about holistic transformation and be involved in related programs. This new partnership will help the students and churches gain a new vision for integrating community service into their mission and ministry.

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Kaitlin Nelson, a new ELCA Young Adult in Global Mission serving in Mexico, writes of her recent transition from college graduation to ELCA missionary in the latest edition of Cafe, Women of the ELCA’s e-newsletter.  Below, find brief excerpt from her article.   After reading the excerpt, consider these two questions (and share any thoughts they spark as a comment).
1.  When have you faced the need to “let go” to go?
2.  After a major sort of stuff, what are you glad to have shed, grateful to have kept or sorry to have tossed?
–Sue Edison-Swift
Mountain of stuff
Since I can take very little with me, I am going to have to get rid of stuff.  Sorting through items from my apartment at college (that now line the walls of my parents’ basement), I realize that the objects are valuable because of the memories they bring. They are reminders of gifts received from family and friends, quirky purchases, and hand-me-downs.  The items that I have to donate will go into one bin, things that will be discarded will go into another, and those that I will save are going into a third container.  Even though I will not bring this collection of stuff along, it has been a part of me and discarding it is not easy.
 As I wrestle with questions about what it means to be transformed by the new realities I will face, I trust that my faith journey could not be whole without doing this.  –Kaitlin Nelson

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Thanks to the Rev. David Brandos, ELCA missionary in Mexico, for sharing this update.

During the past couple of weeks we here in Mexico have been living with the restrictions established by the Mexican government over the influenza outbreak. We were caught by surprise on Thursday night, April 23, when we learned that classes at all levels would be cancelled on the following day because of concerns about so-called “swine flu.”

We had big plans for Saturday, April 25, since the first three woman graduates of our Lutheran Seminary were going to be ordained together in a special service here at the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd as the first Lutheran woman pastors in Mexico. Because of the flu situation, there were questions as to whether to proceed or not, but we did. The attendance was much lower than we originally expected, since the government was heavily discouraging any type of large public gathering like a church service. You can see in the photo of the ordination how a number of people were wearing surgical masks.

After almost two weeks of no school, no religious services, no restaurant service, and no other activities involving large numbers of people, things are now returning to normal. However, what has been most difficult for the majority of people is not so much dealing with health issues but with the disastrous effects that all of this has had on the Mexican economy. Many people here have been without work. Foreigners are now afraid to come to Mexico or to have any contact at all with Mexicans, even when they are perfectly healthy. For a good article on these problems, see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8035802.stm

Please continue to remember all of us in your prayers, including especially those who have been hit hardest by this crisis.

–David Brondos, ELCA Missionary in Mexico

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