A Mustard Seed

Today was our last day at The Anglican Church of the Blessed Virgin. This bright sunny day began with a small crew of dedicated painters ( Petrie & company) taking a cab to the church with Fr. Frederico to get a head start on spray painting the church pews - very similar to metal park benches. Everyone else took our charter bus - arriving at noon, with an afternoon of final touch up painting, scraping ¨drips from windows, washing all the windows. I put my dormant cleaning skills (learned from a part time student job) to use by mopping the church floor from one end to the other. The church is very simple, but very beautiful, and now is freshly painted inside and out - white with blue accents.

Our working day ended when the alter guild arrived to place alter hangings etc. followed by Bishop Delgado, who celebrated a specialEucharistt, in Spanish and English, for church members and St. Christopher´s visitors. The Bishop preached a brief and simple message of thanks about the mustard seed - the gospel reading - and said very simply that Scott and Hollie´s vacation visit last year planted a mustard seed - a seed that has born fruit now. St. Christopher´s kids presented the church with banners they had made back in Wisconsin and brought on the trip.

The church and its sister church threw a fiesta for us following Eucharistrist - with the church ladies serving tacos, tamales, tortillas, etc. Much of the entertainment was songs and games - Scott played the guitar and the St. Christopher´s kids and Mexican kids made friends quickly and easily dancing the Hokie Pokie and singing Old MacDonald!

By the time our bus came and it was time to go home to the Cuernavaca Diocesan Center, everyone was sad - Father Ivan (vicar of the Blessed Virgin) came to the bus and thanked us very graciously - and said a part of us would always remain at his church because of our work - and that he, and his church would pray for St. Christopher´s, and asked that we pray for them.

This week I´ve been touched over and over again by people, many of whom have very little and yet greet us with real and genuine hospitality and grace. There were lots of tears as the bus pulled away - with a lot of the church and neighborhood waving, smiling. Speaking for myself, this experience has changed my life.

Chris Goodale