Day One

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DAY ONE - Blessed are those who risk, for they
shall be offered safety

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine. (Isaiah 43.1)
Suddenly an angel touched Elijah and said to him, ‘Get up and eat.’ He
looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of
water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. (1 Kings 19.5b-6)

How can we build a safer world? Where might we get the strength to even
dream this might be possible?
This beautiful verse from Isaiah assures us that God calls each of us by
name. It is an intimate and knowing call, offering redemption and a safe
future. Named by God we have value and receive love. Called by God we
can each respond to the vocation to profoundly transform a world in which
so many women and girls experience violence, discrimination and
exclusion in the private and public spheres.
The prophet Elijah had lain down in depressed despair hoping to die. Many
of us will know moments like that at some point in our lives, how can we
find the motivation to wake from our sleep and set out on the road ahead?
An angel touches and wakes Elijah from his sleep of despair and offers the
most basic of sustenance - warm bread, fresh water. In his sleep the
prophet is fed with real food. Perhaps now his subconscious will begin to
dream that a future is possible.
Bread and water are images of prison rations, of the barest minimum to
maintain human life. They speak to us of the violence of poverty and
hunger. In how many places around the world do women only get access to
leftover food once the men have finished eating?
But God says to each of us "I have called you by your name …"
As we seek to build a safer world we need to feel the angel waking us from
our sleep, calling us to mental and physical well being, inviting us to reengage
with the world. To build a safer world the emotional and physical
needs of the poorest need to be taken seriously. We all need to have
access to drinking water; food needs to be shared justly.

And as we look to create a world that is safe, we need to avoid confusing
safety with security. The high fences and “security” walls of our times are
symbols of fear. To transform the world, to make it safer for the most
vulnerable on our small green planet, we are called to let the angel wake us
from our sleep. Let us not despair, God supports us and calls us to dare to
make the world a safer place.

Questions for personal reflection
Are you asleep? Is something in the society you live in asleep? What do
you, what do we, need to be woken from? (Self-satisfaction, despair,
indifference, lack of self worth…)
Angels are messengers. Sometime we receive messengers, sometimes we
ourselves are the messengers. What is our message of consolation and
challenge to those we wake today? What is the message of consolation
and challenge we ourselves have received?
In what ways can we show in our programmes that we are called by name -
as individuals and communally - to create a world that is safe?

Prayer

God you call us by name,
You raise us up from our despair and offer us the food of life
You call us to risk building a world which overcomes violence;
Give us the strength and courage to listen to your call
And to follow the path of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.
Amen.

LAM Highlight:History of the Latin America Mission
W. Dayton Roberts and Paul E. Pretiz (Prepared in 1970, updated in 1985, 1994, 1995 and in 2000 by Kenneth D. MacHarg)

The beginning of the Latin America Mission (LAM) and the story of the Strachan-Beamish family are inseparable. One could almost say that the LAM sprang from the moors of Aberdeen and from the meadows of County Cork, the native soils of Harry Strachan and Susan Beamish. Harry, though born in Canada during his family's brief residence there, was raised and converted in Presbyterian Scotland. Susan, his wife and LAM co-founder, was from Ireland.

By God's providence, Harry and Susan met in London where both prepared to serve overseas. Married in Argentina, they labored almost two decades in Tandil under the Regions Beyond Missionary Society, which merged with other missions to form the evangelical Union of South America.

It was Harry Strachan's call to engage in full-time evangelism that led them to step out in faith in 1921 and to establish the "Latin America Evangelization Campaign," with headquarters in San José, Costa Rica. In addition to the continental campaign outreach led by Harry Strachan, local institutions were born largely under the leadership of Susan Strachan, and in 1938 the name of the organization was changed to "Latin America Mission."

Harry and Susan continued as directors until Harry's death in 1945. Susan and their son Kenneth were co-directors from 1945-1950. After his mother's death, Kenneth was general director from 1952-1965. Horace L. ("Dit") Fenton, Jr. served as general director after Kenneth's death, from 1965-1971, at which time all of the Mission's ministries were made autonomous. Fenton continued leading the LAM (USA) until it was again restructured and in 1976 Clayton L. ("Mike") Berg, Jr. became president. J. Paul Landrey assumed the presidency in 1990 and on November 1, 1995 moved sideways to become president of an LAM project partner, Christ for the City, while former missionary and trustee David M. Howard became LAM's president. He served until February 1, 1999 when Dr. David R. Befus assumed the presidency. After nearly eight years serving as LAM's president, Dr. Befus felt called to return to field ministry and relocated to Colombia with his wife in September of 2007. LAM is now lead by Rev. Steven Johnson who spent five years as a team leader in Argentina and more recently was involved in planting and leading several US churches on the west coast.

Latin Americans receive control of LAM's ministries
The LAM relinquished administrative control of all its major ministries in 1971, giving them their autonomy. LAM (USA) became one of the entities on equal footing within the Community of Latin American Evangelical Ministries (CLAME). The Mission was largely a support organization, providing personnel and project funding for its sister ministries, now administered by local Christian leaders in their respective countries. The dramatic increase in Latin leadership, the bases of financial support, improved missionary-national relations and an increased outreach all testify to God's blessing on this step.