Day Five
Everything on day five led up to the house dedications, which began mid-afternoon. Lynda Spofford, representing the Chattachoochee Fuller Center Project (CFCP), gave a terrific devotion this morning, and maestro de obra Luis—the head of the Salvadoran masons—gave a moving talk as well. After the dedications, Mike Bonderer passed the trowel to Lynda, who is already planning events for the 4th Annual Millard and Linda Fuller Blitz Build, to be hosted by her covenant partner, CFCP, in Alabama next August.
It’s impossible to convey the emotion one feels on dedication day. The photo at right of Ana Gladys and Santos Flores at their house dedication became a visual mantra for the communications team as we put together features to help you relive the week in El Salvador and tell others about the power and joy of our experience there. Ana Gladys is the mother of four children, but during the blitz build she became a mother, sister, cousin and aunt to 100 or so English-speaking, cock-eyed optimists and inspired us as much as we inspired her.
Click here to go straight to the photo galleries of the house dedications.
But first, take a look and listen to a wonderful slide show with audio that will bring back those feelings of dedication day. Pass it on.
To read “A Future Not Our Own”, the prayer in honor of Fr. Oscar Romero, an incredible work which few of us would ever have heard had we not gone to El Salvador,
This prayer resonated with everyone who heard it at the blitz build. Whenever you feel that the problems of this world are overwhelming and the small part you’re doing barely makes a dent in things, reading this will put things in perspective.
The prayer was written by Bishop Ken Unterer of Saginaw, Michigan, in 1979 for a celebration memorializing departed priests. It is now associated with the Archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero, who was assassinated in 1980 while celebrating Mass in the chapel of the hospital where he lived. Although Romero never spoke these words, Unterer has reflected that they were mysteriously inspired by Romero’s life and work.
Romero is a martyr and hero in El Salvador, revered as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is in the U.S. He was the voice of the Salvadoran people during times of terrible civil strife, an organizer and representative of poor and common people, and the preacher of a prophetic gospel. This article from Sojourners magazine gives a glimpse of the man, the times he lived in and his impact. His home and the chapel where he was martyred are visited by pilgrims from El Salvador and around the world.
A Future Not Our Own (In memory of Oscar Romero (1917–1980)
It helps now and then to step back and take a long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of
saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession
brings perfection, no pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.
No set of goals and objectives include everything.
This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one
day will grow. We water the seeds already planted
knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects
far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of
liberation in realizing this.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning,
a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s
grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the
difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not
messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.
Click here to visit the photo gallery of Friday house dedications.
