A letter from Elisabeth Cook in Costa Rica
February 5 2009
Dear Friends:
As I reflected this morning on what to share with you, I realized that the last few weeks for me have been all about stories. Stories shared, stories untold, stories that give strength and life and others that are discarded and forgotten.
In December, Eli taught a one-week course to a group of Hispanic pastors of the United Methodist Church in the United States.
I returned two weeks ago from a time of teaching and research in the United States. The Latin American Biblical University where I serve has the privilege of working together with the United Methodist Church in the United States for the theological training of their Latino pastors. During the first week of December I was with a group of 28 pastors, men and women, teaching an intensive course in methods of biblical study. As we gathered, the stories spouted forth. Stories of migration, of leaving home, of making a new home, of longing for return. Stories of the migrants in their churches, the struggles, the loss of identity, the hope, the search for community and survival in a strange land. These stories became the backdrop for our study of Old Testament texts. These pastors continue their studies and will come to Costa Rica for periods of study as well, creating new stories to share with their congregations.
My pilgrimage continued in the San Francisco area where I spent a few weeks doing research at the library of the Graduate Theological Seminary in Berkeley. Stories were different here. Job security threatened, diminished retirement funds, reduced spending, insecurity at every turn. But at the same time: expectation, friendship, a struggle to discern God’s mission in these troubling times, outrage at wars and injustice around the world, sharing in community in times of need.
Stories from Costa Rica. The earthquake. January 8. The ground shook. The mountain fell. Some 3,000 were left homeless, their livelihood wiped out: dairy farms, coffee farms, agricultural areas, hotels. Stories started coming in. Digging out the dead, searching for survivors. Uncovering the roads. Sheltering the homeless. Weeks later, personal stories are shared on the news. In the midst of the disaster, a dairy farmer works with what he has, a few cows that survived, intent on doing what he can: “whether I get help or not, here I am, I’m alive, I’ll make it.” A strawberry farmer, lacking a source of water, brings it in by small bucketfuls from the river: “I’ll get what I can out of this crop. You have to go on.” The seed of life springs forth in the midst of what seems life a hopeless situation.
Returning to Costa Rica meant retuning to these stories, to the stories of the many volunteers and incredible donations to the earthquake survivors. It meant returning to work as well. My first class session a student touched on the subject of stories. “The Old Testament is just a book of stories. It really has nothing to do with us.” This was the comment that got me thinking about stories. Those stories in the Old Testament are what gave Israel its identity as a people, where they came from, who they were. In times of dispersion and exile, those stories were fundamental to the inner strength of the people.
As Christians those stories have become our stories and have become a part of our identity. We look into those stories as into a mirror, reflecting not only models to be followed, but behavior and attitudes to be avoided as well. We find in the Old Testament a testimony of God’s permanent presence with a people with whom God has committed God’s self in alliance, as God has with us through Jesus Christ.
But not only do we have the stories of the Old Testament, we have more recent stories of God’s presence among us. Stories of God’s working in our family, friends, church community, mission workers, extended church community around the world and so many others. We often miss out on these stories, on actually taking note of the fact that these are the continuation of God’s actions and presence in the Old and New Testament. Of God’s loud and more often quiet voice in the midst of us.
Stories of things we expect to happen at the University this year have to do in particular with changes in faculty. Several faculty members are retiring at the end of the year. Challenges await as we work to respond theologically, biblically and programmatically to the transformations that the worldwide situation brings to Latin America, to our university and to the many centers for theological education that we work with in the region.
We expect our students to arrive at the end of next week, anxious for their stories as they come from all over Latin America, from different churches and denominations, from war, poverty, and hunger-torn contexts, eager to continue their studies with the University. We begin a new year writing stories together with them as we study and learn with them.
May God bless you as you write your own stories on the tablets of your lives and share them with those around you, near and far.
Elisabeth
The 2009 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 283
