In our companion relationship, we do a lot of transferring. We send prayers, advice, crafts, love, money, experiences, and traditions back and forth over the Caribbean. I for one frequently occupy the transnational communication lines that miraculously link me to people far, far way. I often imagine myself as an air traffic controller, navigating dozens of exchanges and movements. It’s not an exaggeration to say that much of our relationship is about transferring.
In the last week, we celebrated two important and unique transfers: the final leg of Betty Luken’s felt people’s long trip to their congregational homes in Costa Rica and the transfer of a capital fund from St. Mark’s, Huntersville, to the women of Esperanza de Vida at La Asención in San Jose.
The first of these events began two or so years ago at Diocesan Convention in North Carolina, when delegates painstakingly cut out the thousands of felt figures that comprise Betty Luken’s Biblical story set. This labor of love was a response to an observed and remarked upon need in Costa Rica: Sunday school materials. Our seventeen churches in Costa Rica, to varying degrees, were operating programs for children without the colorful, engaging materials that bring Biblical stories to life and foster lasting learning. Like Flat Stanley, Felt Jesus, Mary, John the Baptist, sheep, and pyramids were cut and stuffed into boxes for transit. Like many projects, though, our felt friends had a difficult journey and suffered setbacks in closets and transit that delayed their arrival. Noting the value and potential of the material, Bishop Monterroso halted the final dispersal of the felt people until he could hold a Christian Education workshop.
At last, on Saturday, representatives from over half our congregations gathered in Diocesan House to learn how to use the felt friends. They were awed by the complexity, versatility, and beauty of the sets. I could see eyes and hearts lighting up as people imagined their children experiencing the Bible through stories and tactile images. Bishop Monterroso and I shared the story of the felt people’s journey and of the love of all those who helped to bring them from North Carolina to Costa Rica. Rest assured, friends, your felt families are now happily living in humidity-proof plastic boxes all across Costa Rica and emerging on Sundays to share stories of God’s love.
Participants exmaine the felt people
The felt families are distributed!
The following day, Sunday, another glorious transfer occurred: a check was passed from Padre Eduardo Chinchilla (on behalf of St. Mark’s, Huntersville) to the women of Esperanza de Vida. With this gesture, a capital seed was sewn for this group, whose name means “Hope of Life”. The women of Esperanza de Vida have HIV. They come together four days a week to advocate for their rights, to fight the stigma associated with HIV, to create goods for sale, and to receive pastoral care from and fellowship with Padre Eduardo. There is not another group in Costa Rica comprised only of HIV + women fighting for their rights. The capital seed donated by St. Mark’s is funding the production of a line of beautiful bags that will be sold visitors and, we hope, at locations in Costa Rica. The profits will be reinvested to expand their production and a small portion will go to the women to help support their families.
The transfer from St. Mark’s to the Diocese to La Ascención to Esperanza de Vida was successful because the women, after expressing immense gratitude, have claimed the funds as their own. They call the fund “Fundo San Marcos” in commemoration of the loving hearts from which it came, but it’s housed in their own bank account. They have taken the seed and literally sewn it into bags that show themselves, their families, and their communities that someone with HIV is still a productive and valuable person in society.
Blessing the capital seed at La Ascención
Rosibel accepts the check
In both of these events, I was reminded the Body of Christ is dynamic. We give, we receive, we give, and we receive. No gift is a one-way street – the transfer always touches both parties. In the companion relationship, we are blessed with an unending opportunity to exchange and thus grow as one Body of Christ, learning, serving, and loving together.
