Stephen A. Whitney
www.whitneyhq.com
Ministry
Fellowship – 2001 Project Report
The Fund for Theological Education
September 1, 2001
My project began in mid-June with a month of language and cultural immersion in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. I lived with a Mexican family and spent most of my free time in their home, eating, studying, or conversing. In my experience with Mexican families, time to share the days events, concerns, experiences, or simply opinions is much more important than in most U.S. families. Everyone comes together to eat breakfast, the main 2 p.m. meal, and the light evening meal at about 8 p.m., and those meals aren’t an eat-and-run affair. The evening meal routinely ran for two hours, offering plenty of time to practice Spanish conversation and learn about Mexican culture. I spent five hours each day in Spanish class at the Cemanahuac Educational Community (www.cemanahuac.com) and was also able to attend lectures, workshops, and field trips. Since those experiences were similar to those of my trip last year, I won’t focus on them here, but my summer project report from 2000 as well as pictures and stories from Mexico are available on the Web at www.whitneyhq.com/Mexico.
This mostly went according to plan except that initially my wife Eleanor and I had planned to spend that month there together, but due to a scheduling conflict, she was only able to join me for the second half of the trip. That had a profound impact on my experience there, teaching me perhaps more than I wanted to know about myself.
The second part of the trip was intended to be a one-month immersion in Iglesia Presbiteriana de la Misión / Mission Presbyterian Church a bilingual Presbyterian congregation in San Francisco’s largely Latino Mission District. Unfortunately, Mauricio Chacón, the pastor who was to be my guide there was appointed to a council by the Presbyterian Church (USA) and had to leave for Geneva, Switzerland. That and his planned vacation completely overlapped the time I had available to spend at his church. Thankfully, Teresa Sauceda, the head of Manos Unidas, the non-profit arm of the church, was available for most of the planned time so I was able to work there after all. Most of the work I did for them was computer related, including setting up two basic web sites, a bilingual one for the church (www.missionchurchsf.org, also available from www.iglesiadelamision.org) and one for Manos Unidas (www.manosunidassf.org). While I was using my technical skills to serve them, I got to learn about the church and its community. Beyond experiencing the day-to-day life of the church, I had the opportunity to attend two worship services there as well as the tail-end of the summer children’s program.
Much of what I learned about myself this summer was the direct result of the things that went “wrong” with my project. For example, I learned how hard it is to be alone in a country where I don’t know anyone – nor the language and customs – even though I had money and there was an organization setting up the experience for me. I learned how comparatively easy my life in the United States is and how much I’d have to toughen up to make it as an immigrant – especially a poor, undocumented immigrant. I only had to experience that pain for two weeks. I find it difficult to imagine what it’s like for people who have uprooted their lives to make a home in a strange country or for workers who come to the US to send money home to their families. I believe that that experience will allow me to empathize better with immigrants to the United States.
During that time “alone,” I was able to exercise a strength of mine – reaching out to others. I was able to have long conversations with the señora of the house, Señora Amparo, whose daughter Rosy is one of the teachers at the school. Since I was forced to use the language to express myself (without the luxury of asking my wife to talk to someone) I was able to have conversations with taxi drivers, people at the school, and people on the street. Some of those conversations were very valuable. I learned that I could communicate with people in Spanish!
A similar thing occurred at Iglesia de la Misión. Since I wasn’t with the pastor as I had been the last time I visited the church, I had to do my own communicating. When the visitors introduced themselves during worship, instead of being introduced by the pastor, I introduced myself in Spanish, which allowed others to approach me later.
The change in my church immersion plans also addressed a weakness of mine – the tendency to overbook myself. Because the rules had been changed by Mauricio’s absence, I felt released from the whirlwind schedule I had drawn up for myself which allowed little time for rest between my trip to Mexico, the immersion, and my formal church internship, which begins on September fourth. With Teresa’s concurrence, I redesigned my time with Manos Unidas to allow for a few days of vacation with my wife on our anniversary, and it felt great to have a week of rest. It will be important for me to remember that as I enter professional ministry, since there’s never a good time for a vacation and there’s always more that could be done.
A related weakness is my tendency to plan something and then get stuck in that plan. It can be hard for me to get past the “problems” to see the potential advantages of something so different from what I had expected to do. But the need to control my time can make it harder for God to work in my life. It’s clear that God does not feel bound by my plans. This project worked very well as it happened, probably better than I had planned it.
In Mexico, I saw change in the Roman Catholic Church. When we visited the cathedral in Cuernavaca last year, the entire congregation bowed to the bishop as he entered amid a cloud of smoke. This year the much younger celebrant (who may or may not have been a new bishop) entered with others and received no such attention. He then preached on scripture. Last year, the bishop preached on the political situation in Mexico without mentioning the day’s readings. This man preached a scripture-based homily that was related to an important issue in the news – kidnappings. He addressed the physical kidnappings taking place but also spoke of the things in life such as the desire for wealth and possessions that can kidnap us. Then there was a message of grace as he described Jesus Christ, the liberator of captives, who can set us free. Instead of a traditional passing of the peace, we greeted each other with “In Christ you are free.” The new informality even extended to inviting all those with birthdays that month up to the altar while the celebrant consecrated the elements for the Eucharist. This was very different. The church seems to have decided to address the needs of those who have been leaving to join non-denominational and Pentecostal churches.
As a result of what I have learned in my two projects with the FTE, I have seen more of the power of showing concern for others not just as individuals but as members of groups and parts of systems. Learning Spanish shows a large number of individuals that I care enough for the group of Spanish speakers in the United States to learn their language and to worship with them in their language and that I therefore am capable of caring for them as individuals. Without taking such steps toward people without power, they can’t even be sure that I will see them as human beings. Once I spoke to members of Iglesia de la Misión in Spanish, they began to open up and share their stories with me. When I told him that preparing to be a pastor was difficult, one man told me to rely on the same Holy Spirit who had healed a friend of his with cancer when he and his village prayed for him. Another man offered to help me with my Spanish if I would help him with his English. That’s the ideal I’m working toward. They both realized that they had something to offer me and that I might have something to offer them.
I believe that a church community can do what I did as an individual, and I hope that during my internship I can help the members of Ygnacio Valley Presbyterian Church in Concord, California to reach out and experience the joy of bridge building by making it easy to learn a few words and phrases of Spanish and a bit about Latin American history. Then they will be able see what I have seen.
Though this isn’t an area I’ve explored in the past, I believe that working with children is a great way to work toward long-term change. I was deeply moved by seeing and hearing the children of immigrants in the Manos Unidas summer program singing, “Esta tierra es tuya, esta tierra es mía” (“This land is your land, this land is my land”). I could see that they meant it on their faces. Those children were much more welcoming than most middle-class white children I’ve encountered. They were completely willing to share what they had and to work side by side with me. Also, they are completely bilingual. They speak English and Spanish equally well and can switch back and forth between them. Watching them play was like being at Pentecost. One child would speak in English and another would answer back in Spanish without missing a beat.
My experiences this summer have also shown me that an essential part of excellence in ministry, especially on the West Coast, will be learning about groups of people as well as knowing them as individuals as a way of showing concern and respect for them. Simply reaching out can be perceived as false, but making an effort to know the history, culture, and/or language that people hold dear demonstrates an investment and communicates sincerity. My own journey from fear to openness has mostly been one of small steps, and I hope to be able to walk alongside the congregations I work with in the future for a few steps of their own journies as well.
At this point I would like to express my appreciation to the Fund for Theological Education in general and Melissa Wiginton and James Waits in particular for their hard work to make this project possible. My capacity for Excellence in Ministry has been forever expanded by these summer projects and the other experiences and connections provided by the Ministry Fellowship Program. May God continue to bless you and bless others through you!
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