Another Monumental Event, Another Downpour

Three years ago during CMSCR's last in-person graduation service, it poured. 

Last September, the school/seminary opening service shifted inside to keep everyone dry (I was on home service and missed all the fun). 

And Friday night, the skies opened up mere minutes before the scheduled 5:00 pm start time of the commencement service for 12 deaconess students and 3 pastoral formation students. Oh yeah, the power flickered off, too, but never fear: Rev. Ted Krey, yelling to make himself heard with no mic, helped lead the antsy crowd in an impromptu hymn sing until the rain abated enough for a "processional." 

A dozen new DRLM deaconesses (less a few who arrived fashionably late and missed formal pictures), together with the CMSCR faculty members who poured blood, sweat, and tears into their formation, writing the curriculum a course at a time as these ladies - and 93 others elsewhere in the region - advanced through their studies. 

Residential pastoral formation graduates Rafael (left) and Jeancarlos (right) - the first two to complete all four years of the CMSCR curriculum. 

Gotta brag on Jeancarlos a little bit: the power went out during the Symposium while he was sermon prepping in the library. Undeterred, he pulled out his phone and continued reading a commentary by flashlight!

Ely and Martha, the two deaconess graduates a) from my church, Iglesia Luterana Cordero de Dios; and b) NOT pictured above ;)

The Cordero de Dios crew with Rafael, who faithfully served one year of his fieldwork there. 

So what's next for these newest workers to be sent out into the harvest field? 

• Each of the DRLM congregations will hold a consecration/installation service for its new deaconesses in the coming weeks and months. 
• Rafael and his wife Jamielynn will relocate to Chile...sometime. They are currently awaiting their immigration lawyer's go-ahead to submit their visa applications. Processing can take anywhere from 1-6 months. Upon arrival, the Chilean church (IELCHI) has asked Rafael to serve a yearlong vicarage in Talca in order to learn his new context prior to ordination.  
• Jeancarlos, his wife Caitlin, and their two children will spend the summer months in the US on home service. They'll join the rest of LAC at our annual conference in Punta Cana, DR, the first week in August before flying on to Lima. Jeancarlos's ordination - and Caitlin's installation as a Deaconess in La Misión Luterana del Perú - is set for Sunday, October 23. 

As we sat under the dripping tent waiting for the rain to stop and the service to start, someone in front of me made an offhand comment about how the Lord was raining down "showers of blessing," (Ezekiel 34:26). What a blessing indeed to live and work alongside and amidst an international seminary community and to literally watch the Word go forth as each cohort of students - who rapidly become my friends - graces us in Santiago for a short time but soon disperses across two continents! 

Until next time, blessings!

P.S. Prayer request! In the days following the Symposium, COVID reared its head as a slew of attendees tested positive. Pray for a speedy recovery for those infected, that God's holy angels would shield all those exposed, and that a rain date (no pun intended) for Panama's deaconess graduation, cancelled for this weekend, might be agreed upon soon.