AN UPDATE FROM OUR
MISSIONARIES
April 12, 2010
dabrondos@gmail.com
Dear friends in Christ,
Christ is risen! We hope that your Easter celebration was a
blessed one and that these weeks during which we continue to
celebrate our Lord's resurrection may be a time of renewal and new
life for you all.
I'm sorry that it's been a little over three months since our
last newsletter. However, the reason is that I have been working
very hard on a website to share our news, photos, and lots of other
information about my work, and I wanted to finish that before
sending this newsletter. It's nothing fancy, just a Google site,
but I think you will find it very informative. The website is: http://sites.google.com/site/dbrondos
One of the things I wanted to include on the website is
something about my students, both past and present. I asked several
of them to write a short paragraph that I could share. Among the
former students of whom I asked this was Dalia Juárez. Dalia
graduated about 5 years ago from the Baptist Seminary, which is
part of the Theological Community. Dalia had come to us from a
rural area in Puebla, a state east of Mexico City, and is of
indigenous background (Náhuatl). A couple of years before Dalia
finished her studies, a family tragedy occurred: due to the effects
of diabetes, her father was told that they had to amputate his leg
from the knee down. Tragically, the doctor amputated the wrong leg.
In the U.S., of course, this would have been cause for a huge
malpractice suit, but things aren't like that in Mexico; the family
received only a very small sum. Fortunately, they were able to save
Dalia's father's other leg, so that it was no longer necessary to
amputate it.
This was tragic for Dalia not only because of the emotional pain
of seeing this happen to her father, but because her entire family
now expected her, as a good daughter, to quit her studies and go
back home to take care of her father. Part of this was cultural,
since many Mexicans (especially in rural areas) continue to insist
that "a woman's place is in the home." Dalia's dream, however, was
to be a pastor. This was a very difficult struggle for Dalia.
Fortunately, it was resolved in a way that made it possible for
Dalia to finish her studies and begin work in Chiapas.
I had asked Dalia for just a short paragraph and a few photos,
but she was so excited about sharing her work with me that she
ended up sending me a two-page letter. It was one of the most
wonderful letters I have received, and so I decided to translate
all of it and share it with you, even though I know it makes for a
very long newsletter! Sorry about that! But I will be putting it on
the website as well. At the end of the letter below are some photos
of Dalia.
We look forward to seeing many of you this summer on our
missionary home assignment. We won't be able to visit all of our
sponsoring congregations-we now have 25!!!-but it looks like we
will be able to visit all those that did not get a visit two years
ago. Thank you again for your prayers and support!
Yours in Christ,
David Brondos
ELCA Missionary in Mexico
April 9, 2010
Dear brother David:
I have been working for 4 years now with the Mayan Indians of
the Tsotsil and Tseltal language and during that time I have added
a few words and phrases to my vocabulary. One that I would like to
mention is in the Tsotsil language, "k'usi a wotan," "How is your
heart?" In the indigenous communities of Chiapas, that's the first
thing they ask you when they greet you, because they believe that
if you aren't experiencing strength, spirit, joy and peace in your
heart, it's not possible to go about your everyday tasks. In
response to such a greeting, I must say from the heart that I am
very happy because the Intercultural Mayan Seminary (a regional
center of the Baptist Seminary of Mexico in Chiapas) has invited me
to form part of its team since 2006.
The Mayan Intercultural Seminary (abbreviated SIM in Spanish) is
an ecumenical institution that offers indigenous Protestant
churches in Chiapas a Biblical formation that is in dialogue with
traditional ancestral indigenous wisdom as well as a formation in
Christian pastoral work that is incarnated in the reality of the
Mayan communities. This seminary seeks to look at the gospel from a
native indigenous viewpoint while at the same time helping to
develop the skills necessary to promote peace and development in
the communities.
Initially I was hired to be the Coordinator of the basic
educational programs that allow the students to attain the level
necessary to do their seminary studies (involving literacy,
primary, secondary and open high school programs). Several months
later I was given the task of coordinating the Diploma program in
Theology and Intercultural Pastoral Work of which I have now been
in charge for three and a half years. The responsibilities include
developing, supervising, and teaching in this theological program.
Due to the lack of personnel, I carry out a number of tasks such as
serving as administrator of the SIM, as counselor and
workshop-leader of the Mayan youth, and as a member of the
coordinating group of the Economic Solidarity program, which
supports the Mayan indigenous women in seeking networks of fair
trade for the hand-crafted products they make while also preparing
them in the areas of Bible, gender equality, and indigenous rights.
Finally, I am also the person in charge of the office.
The greatest impact that I have been able to have during these
years is due to the acceptance that people of the Mayan culture
have shown me, an indigenous Nahuatl woman, in recognizing me as a
pastor and professor of Bible and theology. It is not at all easy
to be an example to these women and men since the context is one in
which indigenous people are excluded and marginalized.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that my having achieved a
formation at the Licentiate [University] level as an indigenous
woman has inspired many young men and women here to study primary,
secondary, and high school and even at the university, and also to
study the Diploma program and the Licentiate program in Theological
and Intercultural Pastoral Work.
In February of this year, I was surprised by the leader of the
Economic Solidarity group when I overheard her say that I am the
example that she wants to follow and that she wants to attain the
same educational level that I have. That brought me great joy but
at the same time reinforced my commitment to my indigenous people.
I recognize that there are not a lot of opportunities given to
women in the different churches and that there are few who have
begun this process of preparation. As part of this seminary, we are
working hard to so that young men and women can develop the gifts
and talents that God has given them.
The most important mark that we have left on these Mayan lands
and the most important thing we have sown is that we are a seminary
that seeks to make palpable what Jesus said in John 10:10, "life in
abundance"-lekil kuxlejal. That is why we are working hard by means
of the theological and pastoral educational formation programs
mentioned above to promote pastoral work among the youth, economic
solidarity, water projects, and the creation of a culture of peace.
Of course, we would not have developed all of this if we had not
first carried out consultations with the people through workshops
and community analysis. The indigenous communities are increasingly
opening up to us their hearts and their minds because the projects
we carry out are developed from their own perspective and their own
way of speaking. Thanks to God, we are walking with a firm step,
because the "men and women of corn" [as the Mayan people
traditionally call themselves] have taught us to be committed,
dedicated persons who work in the community without pursuing
personal interests.
Brother David, I know that you told me that you just wanted me
to write a short paragraph (ha-ha!), but I got carried away, so
please take out what you would like. By the way, I can't speak only
about myself, since my way of thinking has once again become
collective. After having lived so long in the urban world [before
coming here], I had left behind that characteristic that is so
important for us indigenous peoples.
Before closing, I want to emphasize how we at the SIM have
recovered the Mayan cultural roots. When different churches come,
they usually destroy those roots, that is, the people's history,
traditions, myths, language, and even the collective way of
working. They prefer individualism, and that kills the culture. In
2007 we had our first youth camp and one of the main themes was a
comparison between the Popul Vuh (the sacred book of the Mayans)
and the Bible. Some of the youth know nothing of their own Mayan
history, and thus we began in that way to recover their culture.
And when I began to give workshops and promote human rights,
indigenous rights, and women's rights, it was like dropping a bomb,
since all those things were new to them. I have very fond memories
of those days because it was an enormous challenge to present those
subjects to the women and men. At first I was paralyzed by fear,
but in the end I was so grateful to all of the community for having
allowed me to present those workshops.
What strikes me most about this culture is that there is a
low-intensity war going on against the people, and the government
does nothing about it. On the contrary, the government keeps
militarizing this southern border. It causes me great pain to see
that many churches do not read the Bible from the context of this
reality. What hurts me the most is to see a state [Chiapas] that
generates running water and electricity for the rest of the
country, while the Mayan indigenous communities here still lack
these basic services. To watch children die from parasites, simply
because there is no way to take them from the communities to the
municipalities where there are health services, leaves a deep
impression on me and challenges me to proclaim a gospel that
promotes wholeness and that is incarnated in my indigenous Mayan
sisters and brothers.
I owe a great deal to you, my professors from the Theological
Community, since with your work you taught me to see things from a
critical perspective, but also because you taught me how to share
theological and biblical knowledge with others. So a thousand
thanks!
Lic. Dalia Eunice Juárez Fernández
Graduate of the Baptist Seminary of Mexico in Mexico City
An indigenous Nahuatl woman
(note: Pictures and captions to be added soon)