The Rev. Carol S. Wedell
October 7, 2007

There is something about a campfire that is mesmerizing.   I can sit for ages just staring as the flames leap and dance.  I even like watching as a fire gradually dies out, as the bright flames give way to quiet embers.  However, what I like best is watching as the embers are stirred up and new fuel is added so the once quiet embers come back to life.  You can literally see and feel the energy and new life.

This past weekend, our family had a similar experience.  Good friends of ours moved to California seven years ago.  Between the time difference and hectic lives on both ends, we really had not stayed in close communication.  The "fire" of the relationship wasn't dead - but the embers were fairly quiet.  Then last week, they visited Ohio.  Sunday evening, a group of us who had spent much time together at Church of the Covenant years ago gathered at our home.  It was glorious.  We ate and laughed and talked and told stories - and then did all of that all over again.  We were convinced that seven years couldn't have possibly passed - until we looked at our children (or realized that more than half the children were now away at college or out on their own!).  The once quiet embers had been rekindled.  The gift of friendship had new life and energy; the relationship is burning brightly again - simply by remembering and reconnecting.

Our epistle reading this morning is a very personal exchange, likely between Paul and Timothy inviting us to a similar kind of remembering and reconnecting.  Paul is writing to encourage Timothy not to let the embers of faith die - but to stir up the coals by remembering those who have passed on the faith to him - in particular, his mother Eunice and his grandmother, Lois.  Timothy is reminded that he has received a precious gift - the gift of faith.  That gift should be "rekindled" - which in Greek suggests a continually burning flame.

The reminder is timely for us, I think.  For it is so easy to believe that we can make it on our own - the so-called "self-made" person.   Yet, the idea of doing everything on our own is not a Biblical concept.   We are all born into a family. The Bantus of South Africa say, Umuntu, ngamuntu, ngabantu -- a person is a person because of other persons. We are born into relationship, we grow and live in relationship and we die in relationship. (Lamin Sanneh, The Christian Century, 1989, Religion Online). Without question, we come to the Christian faith because of the words and actions of others. 

As Timothy was urged to remember his ancestors in the faith - in order that his own faith might be renewed and grow, we are encouraged to do the same.  Think for a minute about who your faith ancestors are.  Who taught you or teaches you still - about what it means to follow Christ?  Whose words and actions inspire you to serve faithfully?  Who has encouraged you, accepted you and challenged you to be all you could be as God's beloved son or daughter?  Spiritual ancestors aren't perfect people.  They are, rather, those who simply pass on the heritage they have received, who generously share their own faith story.

For many of you, it will be your parents.  For some it may be other relatives - grandparents, aunts, uncles or siblings.  Our spiritual ancestors may not be related to us - they may be Sunday School teachers, or youth pastors or other adults who modeled a vibrant and contagious faith.  Sometimes a spiritual ancestor may be someone our age or younger - a friend, a co-worker, a child.

Remembering them and what they have taught us is an important way to "stir up the embers" and rekindle the gift we have received.  It's important to remember that our spiritual ancestors include many people we have never met.  Certainly they include the host of Biblical witnesses - beginning with Abraham, as we were reminded in Bible Study this week.  They also include faithful men and women throughout history.

On this World Communion Sunday, it is important to remember that our ancestors come from many places in the world. What are some of the places from which your ancestors come?  The wonderful thing about being a part of the Christian family, is that our "ancestors" literally come from all times and places.  Whether or not we've ever met them, if we let them, their faith stories can stir up the fire of our faith, as well.

Today I want to share stories with you of two people, whose deep faith has rekindled the gift in many.  Gil Cintra, who worships with us regularly, tells of a good friend and mentor in Cuba:

Digna Delgado is in her early seventies now. She has been my friend since childhood. Digna is a true woman of God who has devoted her whole life to the Church, doing with generosity and loyalty any work that God has called her to do.

From an early age, Digna showed her missionary spirit. As soon as she had learned to read and write, she volunteered to participate in the literacy program of the Church, teaching the less fortunate children of the town. Today, Digna continues this work, tirelessly.

Her ministry grew.  She taught Sunday school to children and the youth. She led Bible-study groups. And, just as important, she became one of the Church evangelists who would go from home to home reading the Bible and praying with any family who would welcome her.

Digna has been fearless in her work for Christ's Church: She was a leader of the youth group..  She organized meetings and special events, and was especially active in the spiritual formation of its members; she sang in the choir and was an active member of the Presbyterian women. As she matured in the knowledge of God and His Church, Digna served as a deacon and an elder of the Church.

After the triumph of Fidel Castro's revolution in 1959, and before he became affiliated with Soviet communism, the Board of National Missions of the United Presbyterian Church, approved a grant of $100,000 to help the Cuban Church bring assistance to those most affected by the war. Digna was one of the missionaries who volunteered to travel more that 500 miles away from home to the eastern province of Cuba to build a camp, bring relief to the destitute, and teach the Word of God.

When the Cuban government became communist and broke relations with the USA in the early 1960's, the Cuban constitution stipulated that Cuba was officially an atheist country. The American Church was unable to continue its assistance and the Cuban Church became autonomous.

The official policy of the Cuban government was that anyone could be a member of a church, but, as a penalty, they would be denied promotions or other advancement at their places of employment. Since all jobs were controlled by the government, most people left the church. This was the time when the big emigration of Cubans began.

Digna, her husband and a handful of others, decide to stay with the Church, and at great sacrifice, continued their work. At its lowest point, there were only about ten or twelve members. Worship services consisted of a meeting of these people on Sunday to sing a few hymns, read the Bible and pray. Since there were not enough people to make repairs of the buildings, they started to deteriorate. After about 30 years of this neglect, the buildings became too dangerous to use. In the year 2000, Digna came to the USA to seek help to rebuild the Church. By this time the Cuban constitution had been amended to read that Cuba was ‘secular country' instead of an ‘atheist country'. This made a world of difference from the church's point of view, and a major rebuilding program was started.

I am happy to say that I was one of those whom Digna called to seek assistance. Since then, I and a group of members from the Lyndhurst Community Presbyterian Church have been assisting them to rebuild their church and ministries.

Today the Church has about 180 members and many ministries to children, men and women. They started a ministry to the elderly poor serving daily breakfast and providing clothes, medicines, and other necessities to them. They continue their literacy programs as well as other social services to the community.

Through it all, Digna has been a steady, strong leader, never complaining, and always certain that God was directing her efforts. Although growing weaker and failing mentally, she is passing on the torch to future leaders. When you meet Digna you may be amazed to experience an unassuming, low profile, soft-spoken servant of God with an indomitable Christian spirit.

Friends, is Digna not our ancestor in the faith?

Bonnie Lindberg, an elder at Fairmount Presbyterian Church, tells another story of a man she met on several mission trips to the Dominican Republic:

Jean-Luc Phanord was a Haitian minister and an activist of social justice during the horrible reign of Papa Doc Duvalier, president of Haiti from 1957-1971. Jean-Luc witnessed the exodus of 60,000- 80,000 Haitians to the Dominican Republic who sought political asylum and  the promise of larger incomes and a better life cutting sugarcane.......promises that were never realized. Still in Haiti himself, Jean-Luc was arrested and tortured in the 1970's.  One day as  Jean-Luc and I were working together at the hospital, he told a group of us about his imprisonment and ordeal.  He told us about being stripped of clothing and kept in a pen in the prison when he wasn't being beaten or interrogated.  He talked about making promises to God if got out of prison alive.  He promised to help the Haitian refugees in the Dominican who had left a hard life in Haiti for an even worse life in the Dominican.  With the intervention of the Baptist Convention of Haiti, Jean-Luc was released from prison with the proviso that he never enter the country again.  He was sent to Florida to work with a consortium of Baptist churches whose ministry focused on refugees from Haiti and the DR.  Jean-Luc welcomed his freedom and the opportunity to minister to his countrymen, but could not forget his promise to help the Haitians in the DR.

Against the advice of many, he went to the Dominican Republic to begin a ministry for the Haitians, most of whom were underpaid and denied health care.  Jean-Luc taught the workers not only the word of God, but how to read and count.  His one simple church grew to 21 more churches that touched the lives of most of the Haitians living on the bateys.  A batey is basically a slum surrounded by sugarcane fields.  These "villages" were built by the sugar companies and as one of my friends described the workers and the bateys, they were "sharecroppers" without the shares.

Though his ministry was nourishing the souls of the Haitians, Jean-Luc realized that what they continued to lack was adequate health care.  He was able to acquire a tract of land that was literally a garbage dump and landfill from the Central Romana Sugar Company in l984 and with the help of churches in the US, volunteers cleared the land and began construction on the Good Samaritan Hospital in La Romana in 1989.Today it is in full operation complete with emergency room, surgical suites, dialysis center and pediatric unit.  Work continues on the third floor for more inpatient space.

Churches from all over the US sent teams of workers to help build the hospital as well teams of doctors to travel to the bateys to run medical clinics.  I was always amazed at how much Jean-Luc knew about the people in the bateys.  There must be well over a hundred of them within a two hour radius of LaRomana.  He had an incredible network of deacons and was able to provide for their physical needs as well as their spiritual needs.  Every Sunday the majority of the bateys had a church service run by an Elder or Deacon as well as bussing (on rickety old school buses) many batey groups into La Romana to the original Haitian Baptist Missionary Church. 

I could go on and on about the church services.  Looking at the Haitians swaying to the music and raising their arms to the Lord as they prayed never failed to move me.....for their faces were etched with fatigue and their bodies were worn out from the grueling work in the fields and the hardships of raising large families  without running water or electricity.  Yet at the end of each service as we gathered for fellowship, I never heard a complaint, only expressions of thanksgiving for life, for salvation

Jean-Luc's vision of providing a better quality of life and adequate medical care is being realized.  There is still a long way to go.  But I marvel at how much has been done with a promise to God and a vision!!  

Jean-Luc died tragically in the crash of the American Airline's plane in Queens in October of 2001.  I was fortunate to be able to attend his funeral and listen to many as they gave testament to his vision and his work.  I am so thankful that I have had opportunity to work along side him and many Haitians and Dominicans at the Good Samaritan Hospital and the bateys.  Participating in his vision is powerful work.

On this World Communion Sunday, it is good to remember that faithful people witness to Christ's love in more ways than we can count around the world.  Some are examples to thousands.  Others to just a few.   Yet as Timothy was encouraged to rekindle the gift which had been given to him, so are we - by claiming the enormously rich heritage which is ours.

The embers of faith among us are simply waiting to be fanned into a flame that will not go out.  As we remember and claim the stories of all of our ancestors in faith, let's allow those stories to touch and change us.  Remember that the Christian church is always only one generation away from extinction.  How can you and I make sure that the gift we have received is passed on through our lives?