Recently, St. Paul sent a short-term mission team to aid our Lutheran brothers and sisters in Puerto Rico. The group, led by Pastor Davis, included Cari Davis, Daniel Hadad, Nicole Hadad, Greg Sheppard, Zabdiel Antu. Below is a note from Pastor Davis about the mission trip:
Our six team members travelled to San Juan, Puerto Rico as part of our Short-term Team to assist LCMS missionaries on the island. There are three LCMS congregations in Puerto Rico – Principe de Paz in Mayaguez, Fuente de Vida in Ponce and Cordero de Dios in Bayamon (San Juan). Our specific task was to assist at Cordero de Dios as the congregation just moved from a very small rented space into a larger rented space. We stripped/chipped black paint off the walls and primed them with several coats of primer to make them ready to paint. We constructed an altar wall and chancel. We were joined in this effort by Pastor James Neundorf and several members of the congregation. We were able to make enough progress so that they could have their first Divine Service on October 20th. We were able to join them for a Vespers service one night but then we travelled to Ponce for Divine Service at Fuente de Vida on the 20th. We stayed for Pr Adam Lehman’s Bible study and then had time to see the downtown square in Ponce.
We had a “free” day on the 21st and we were able to go to a beach in San Juan, and then we all went to Fort Buchanan where Greg Shepherd attended elementary school when his dad was in the Navy and stationed in San Juan. We also took a quick trip to a botanical garden. Our last day there we had time to go to Old San Juan, do some walking around, and see Castillo San Felipe del Morro, which is a 16th century Spanish fort that was built to protect San Juan harbor.
I’m speaking for the rest of our team, but I think we were all humbled and blessed to be able to serve Cordero de Dios and get their “sanctuary” ready. Several members also commented about how special it was to participate in the services/offices even though everything was in Spanish. It was a great experience to sing some of the same LSB hymns in another language, to say the Creed in Spanish, etc. It’s good to know that our Lutheran brothers and sisters throughout the world share the same worship practices and experiences as us.
