Reverenda Heidi

Lord, people who go flying around the race track in Ferrari’s don’t drive like ordinary people.  Thank God for them.

People who love torque and horsepower and race car engineering don’t think like ordinary people.  Thank God for them.

People who work here at Lime Rock Park and those who volunteer their time and talent to help out on race days definitely don’t work like ordinary people.  Thank God for them.

People who drive here from all parts of the Northeast to watch these exciting cars and races clearly don’t live like ordinary people. Thank God especially for them.

Thanks be to God for all of us out-of-the-ordinary people whom God loves.

Please, Lord God, watch over all of us;   those who race, those on crews, the Lime Rock Park workers and volunteers, and the fans.  Keep us all safe today, so we may give you the glory, the One from whom all ordinary and extraordinary things come.  AMEN

Holy Week and Easter were wonderful experiences for all of us.  From the music to the variety of worship to the many participants who put in so much time and effort to make it all come together.

The reviews are in for Holy Week and Easter 2011:

“I loved that you honored the kids at the 10:30am service with the same verve and spirit as you honored the Lord’s victory over darkness and death at the Easter Vigil service…wonderful music, great sermon and enthusiastic (when passing the Peace) and welcoming congregation” John

“The Easter service was perfect.” Alice

“I particularly liked the Good Friday Taizé music; the whole service was reflective instead of the usual breastbeating! Also the idea of having lay as well as clergy speakers.” Alexis

“You have extraordinary music for such a small church.” Anon.

It is good to know that our Holy Week and Easter services were well liked as well as being well attended.  Last year for Holy Week and Easter we had a total of 266 attendees and this year it was 269.  We had fewer people this year for the Good Friday services, but more people for the Easter Vigil and the early Easter morning service.  We had about the same number for the 10:30 Easter service.

However, we are not primarily concerned with numbers and reviews.  God’s work for us is more about how we reach each person who comes through our doors.  Is Christ manifested through us in our church?   If last week’s services helped one person who was looking for God, and if we spiritually fed our members with the services we offered,  then we succeeded in our mission.

Alleluia!  Christ is risen.  The Lord is risen indeed!

Christ, be our light in the darkness!

At the vestry retreat some of us wandered around with bags over our heads.  You can imagine how we looked.  For the onlookers it was quite funny.  We could hear their stifled giggles (they were told to make no noise).     We felt foolish and incapable of completing our task of communicating with others without sight or speech.  But soon it was over, we removed the bags, and we were suddenly not blind.  We could see how badly we did with our job of communicating.

Our Gospel reading for this Sunday is about Jesus curing the blind man who has wandered around without being able to see since birth.  He is a very good communicator, it turns out.  The Pharisees look at each other and say, “But we aren’t blind, are we?”  They seem to be the ones with a figurative bag over their heads.

A major theme of this Lenten season is blindness and sight, or darkness and light.  Now that we’re back to daylight savings time, we are coming out of the dark.  It stays light so much later, and seems as though the whole world is coming alive in the (slightly) warmer days and the longer amount of light.

The spiritual darkness that Jesus wants the Pharisees to look at is their inability to see the dark places in their lives that need the benefit of some light.  Dark corners are where dust and dirt gather.  In the dark corners of our selves resentments and animosities gather.

Even if you feel that you are too busy to pray or sit in silence, step out into the light this Lent.  Spend a little time by a bright window or sitting outside in the sun and soak up the sights and sounds of early Spring.  Ask God to help you find the places that are dark in your life and bring light to them.

So many great things today: We saw the Mayan ruins at Copan. Every time I see them I learn new things. Then Marian got her ATM card back. The machine had eaten her card the night before. We drove to SanPedroSula and are staying in a hotel we’ve never been in before. Lastly, we went to dinner with Bishop Lloyd Allen and learned of his plans for the Diocese of Honduras. Quite the day!

Far too soon we have come to the last day of working in the village of Coralitos. We have carried a Tom of concrete blocks and sand. We have been covered with dust and sweat and mortar mix. We have used shovels and trowels and hand saws. And we all are incredibly happy, fulfilled and exhausted. The people with whom and for whom we have worked are so grateful. We have improved the lives of over 100 people this week.
Tomorrow we will be tourists at the famous Mayan ruins of Copan.
We are sad to leave our Honduran friends, new and old. Nosotros somos en juntos en Cristo.

Marian here, writing instead of Heidi, enjoying a beautiful evening in the garden of our charming hotel. Today we built pilas (water cisterns), letrinas (outhouses) and a piso (floor). It was a wonderful experience working with the local people and helping them make their lives easier. Tonight we went to a lively church service in a nearby town led by Concepcion, the lay pastoral leader of the Episcopal community of Santa Rita. We are having a great time and miss everyone at Trinity.

On the first day that we worked in the little village of Coralitos the children of the village were very curious about Slava with his blond hair, but today they were ready to play. All of our teenagers joined in a fun (?) game of throwing rocks at a wasp nest. We built 5 more stoves today so that brings our total to 9 in two days. We saw the stoves from yesterday already in use today and sampled coffee and tortillas hot off the new grill. Maravilloso!

Today we went to the small town of Coralitos and helped to construct stoves in people’s houses. These stoves are made of basic materials but of a design that is very efficient and uses much less wood than ordinary stoves. They also burn more cleanly and have well built chimneys so that the women who cook do not breathe so much smoke. Marian taught children to count in english and Slava learned to make mortar mix. We are tired, but it’s a good tired!

This morning I awoke to see a sparkling, clear sky, birds singing and the perfum of flowers in the air. We drove up the mountain to Barbara’s church. There were 190 people in that little church! I preached in Spanish about the challenges of living in community.
After lunch our merry band of 16 travellers drove to the other side of the country to Copan. Tomorrow we will start work in the little town of Coralitos. Marian and Slava are making friends and tomorrow we will divide into teams to begin building “estufas”. More on that tomorrow.

It’s 8 PM on Friday, February 18th. I’m packed and ready to go. At 4 AM tomorrow I’ll be up-an-at-em and on my way to Newark. Honduras, here we come! Espero que estas listo para nosotros!