And So It Begins...

Today was our last day on the work site, but certainly not the last day of work at Mision Santa Cruz. We finished transforming the trench into a foundation, and did perhaps as much work in one morning as we had all day yesterday. Overnight the weather changed: the temperature dropped, it rained, and this morning was cool--well, cooler than it had been--and "soft," with mist and occasional light rain. I found it nearly perfect weather to work in. And apparently I wasn't alone, because, as I said, we got a lot done in a relatively short time. By the time we had finished lunch, there really wasn't much work left to do--just one job that required only about five people to work in close quarters. So five volunteers stepped forward, and the rest of us came back to the hotel.

But not to laze about! It was time to purchase the coffee. Every year our mission trippers bring back from San Rafael farms a load of coffee beans to sell at the church at spaghetti suppers and other occasions. The coffee sales help support the mission trip, and they also support a wonderful farm that is reclaiming once-wasted land for organic, shade-grown coffee. We've been told that the coffee plot, with its banana shade trees, has attracted birds and butterflies that haven't been seen in that area for a long time, and that surface streams are running across ground that had been eroded and unable to retain water before. This is not just a cash crop, but a wonderful example of land reclamation. It makes me proud to be bringing back forty pounds for the church. And a fair amount for home use, too. And it tastes really, really good. Did I mention that?

So we arranged for the coffee, and unloaded big bags full of smaller bags when it was delivered to the hotel, and divvied up the smaller bags for packing in the mission tripper's luggage. Lee and I got our share in our big suitcases; now our room smells delicious. It almost makes me wish we didn't have any clothes to bring back .. We could pack that much more coffee.

Another thing San Rafael farm is doing these days is making cheese. One member of the owning family, Carlos, studied food science both in Honduras and in the States, and he learned cheesemaking on a farm in Indiana, and now he's come home to practice the art with the milk from the eighteen Brown Swiss cows at San Rafael. He is very good at his art. A group of us sampled six of his cheeses--including a wasabe fromage blanc and a smoked baby gouda that were my personal favorites--with Chilean wines as a before-dinner treat. And it was quite a treat! The cheese platter definitely goes on the list of things to do when we come back.

But I get ahead of myself... After the coffee and before the cheese, we went back to the work site to collect the five volunteers, and to celebrate the Holy Eucharist with the people of Santa Cruz, and another congregation that had been invited for the occasion. We'd been planning on celebrating in the shell of the church, but the rain and the mud kind of changed that plan. Instead, we gathered for worship on the patio of the house where we've been eating our lunches. Concepcion was there; Padre Mejia, the one priest for this whole area, was there; members of the local Christian mariachi band were there; and the people were there. The Epistle lesson was from Romans, and even though I understood only a few words of the Spanish at a time, I recognized that it was the passage where Paul speaks of the Church being many members yet all one body in Christ--and standing at the altar, celebrating communion with Episcopalians of the Diocese of Honduras and the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia, I knew the truth of Paul's words in a new way. There is something here that is bigger than all of us.

And that's why I title this blog entry with reference to beginnings. Our work here is done for another year. But this ending turns around and is transformed into a beginning of a new stage in the life of the congregation of Santa Cruz. At the service we presented them with a cross made from Virginia walnut wood, as a sign of our continuing relationship. Someday they'll put that cross on their wall, after the roof is finished and the interior is plastered and the altar is built. Someday we'll return and see that cross in place. And that, in it's turn, will be a new beginning for this part of the body of Christ. That is the gift of the God who always creates and always promises to make all things new.

May the Peace of Christ be with you,
Paul+