Uriel Trujillo
Mission Vera Cruz: Tasting a Mission
Jesse Brandow, a full-time missionary working in Guatemala and Southern Mexico, inspired me to go on this mission trip to Vera Cruz, Mexico. Jesse let me know that although I could not go on an extended mission trip, perhaps I could go on a shorter stay through the Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC). After reviewing the OCMC website, the trip to Vera Cruz, Mexico suited my schedule best.
My initial plan was to take my family with me. This included my wife Sarath and daughters Sofia, 16 and Eva, 8. My hope was that this could be a great bonding experience for us as a family, an opportunity to experience the Orthodox faith in a different cultural context, and to introduce my teenage daughter to an experience outside the U.S. Well, after learning more details about this particular trip we decided that it may not be a good idea to take my 8 year old, Eva. My teenage daughter Sofia, 16, dug in her heels and said, “I’m not going.” About two weeks before the trip, my wife began to experience health concerns making it too risky for her to go. What started as a family mission turned into a solo trip. I asked myself what had happened. “Should I go, alone?” Going alone was not part of my plan.
I boarded my flight in Philadelphia, a non-stop run directly to Mexico City, Mexico. I was anxious, not knowing what to expect, and concerned about my separation from my family over so many miles. Landing in Mexico City, I walked out of customs into the central area of the airport and saw two Orthodox priests who were looking around in search of visitors. I introduced myself and met Padre Antonio Perdomo and Hieromonk Serafín Mendoza . Father Antonio is a Priest who pastors an Orthodox church in Pharr, Texas called St. George the Great Martyr. St. George’s is only 7 miles from the Mexican border, Padre Antonio administers to the Spanish speaking community in both the U.S. and Mexico with his direct involvement in Orthodox mission work. I met the rest of our team Connie, Diana, and Lynn. I was surprised to learn that two out of our team members were also from Pennsylvania like me.
From the airport, we walked to the Cathedral de Ascencion. At our orientation meeting at the Cathedral de Ascencion, his eminence Archbishop Alejo asked us, “why are you on this mission?” What is your vocation? “Great question! I thought. “Dear Lord, why am I here?”
On the flight, I had been reading Jim Forest’s book, On the Road to Emmaus, which I hoped, would inform my journey to Mexico. Each chapter of his book penetrates another aspect of what it means to be a pilgrim on a journey with Christ whether one is physically traveling or simply living life. Let me give up my thinking and any anxiety over to God and accept this journey as a pilgrim. A pilgrim who has no place in this world, as “we are not of this world.” Never did this feel clearer to me than being so far away from home, my family, my natural habitat. But, I was there to accept what the road itself had to provide for me. What God himself had prepared for me. At the time, Archbishop Alejo asked us for a reason for participating in this mission trip, I thought that I would approach my mission as a pilgrim and allow God to determine what the message was, if any, that I should receive. According to Jim Forrest, “pilgrimage is a conscious act of seeking a more vital awareness of God’s living presence (within our own presence)”. By this definition, I was certainly seeking “…a more vital awareness of God’s living presence…” So, if I held a question with me during my mission experience it was what is God revealing to me about who He is and who I am?
The day after our arrival and orientation was Sunday. We participated in Liturgy at Catedral de Ascencion and we were blessed by Archbishop Alejo. We were also gifted prayer ropes to take with us. We departed that afternoon for Pisaflores. I didn’t know what to expect and the excitement among us was palpable. Christ be with us.
Winding for hours through the rocky roads, verdant pastures, and stony cliffs to Pisaflores, and onto San Esteban, our journey was a long one certainly, yet traveling by bus and car was easy compared to priests and missionaries who long ago traveled these pathways by horse and boat.
Padre Serafin is a Jesuit trained Monk-Priest with degrees in Theology and Philosophy. Soft spoken and prayerful, Padre Serafin has committed himself to serving 10 villages surrounding Pisaflores, the town where he pastors his own church and maintains his central office. Father Antonio was our team leader, resource, liaison with the community leadership.
Arriving in Pisaflores, Padre Serafin rang the bells that called the people to the church and let the community know that we had arrived. Soon, women, children, and young men carrying instruments began to arrive at the church. Then, the band began playing. A woman named Marcella started dancing, other women joined her, and one by one, mission team members too were on the floor dancing. We danced and we ate, celebrating Christ’s mission and our communion with our Orthodox brothers and sisters in Pisaflores. It was a blessed evening in Pisaflores.
I could not help feeling at this time, here I am so far from home, in the hills of Mexico dancing and connecting with people from Aztec tribes. There are two main tribes in this region, the Tepehuan and the Otomies. There are ten surrounding villages in the area where Father Serafin visits and administers to the spiritual needs of these communities. We were to visit three of these ten villages; Pisaflores, San Esteban, and Zapote Bravo. In addition to the Orthodox Christian traditions, the ancient Aztec traditions also co-exist especially in the religious and medical healing contexts. Father Serafim explained some of the practices, pointed out Aztec religious symbols, as well as, Aztec healing practices.
We were here to help with teaching, to pray, to share, but also as Archbishop Alejo reminded us to walk as icons of Christ.
What does this path show me, what does Christ want from me. Shouldn’t I be on mission all of the time, not just on a special trip to Mexico? Being on a mission, with a specific purpose, brought this to mind, but it also made me think about how fragmented and scattered my life could be back home divided up with many competing responsibilities. “Aren’t we supposed to be on mission –all the time- Is this not our vocation having been called to be king, prophet, and priest,” I thought to myself. “What? Are you kidding me? This is exhausting.” As I walk with our team, I am reminded of Archbishop Alejo’s statement, again, that we are ambassadors of our faith. Being on a mission means reflecting Christ and this means being incessantly prayerful and mindful of our mission. It occurred to me… that spiritual formation is hard work, requiring discipline, vigilance, submission of our ego to the mission and for the sake of our team. That one needs patience, and to work together and succeed, a community with the same spiritual vision. As Padre Serafin said, “I just say the Jesus prayer”.
San Esteban, our next village stop, is a town surrounded by beautiful mountain ranges. It is a picturesque landscape where colorful homes dot the hillsides and hibiscus, wild flowers, birds and butterflies call out the magnificence and variety of God’s nature. Walking up and down the hilly pathways, we cross dogs, horses, and chickens, smiling people wave and greet us with a “Buenos dias”. I find myself drawn in by the beauty of the Sierra Madre and the simplicity of the life around me in San Esteban. Forrest says in his book, anywhere God meets me is a Holy place, a sacred space, and an opportunity for communion with him, nature, and our brothers and sisters.
The children herein San Esteban, like kids everywhere, run about and play calling stray dogs by name and imagining all sorts of adventures. The tick of time seems to walk here in these villages, unlike the warp speed found in large cities back home. Here in these villages, time seems to be a complement to our prayers, even to each breath as we walk to church for Vespers. Our days become tempered and punctuated by prayers, teaching, and meals with the team and priests where like a family dinner – or Eucharistic table – much wisdom was imparted. I sense a peaceful joy, God’s blessing.
During one of these conversations around the table, I recall, Padre Serafin saying that the people of these villages often teach us how we should live (as Christians) in the world. Since we bring with us our own cultural context when we leave our home cities and countries. He called it “la mancha urbana” or the urban stain. From our “modern” point of view, this can include a reticence to embrace people different from ourselves, sometimes a form of internalized superiority because we so often read or listen to stories making us the primary protagonist in any international story. Similarly, sometimes our own sense of mission could carry a veneer of arrogance that we are people from a first world country arriving to impart our wisdom on the third world participants of our story. It takes some time to “see” and understand how the way of life in these hills contribute to simplicity and humility. For example, it was not until the last day of my trip that I discovered that our “driver” for most of this trip was, in fact, the Mayor of Pisaflores.
Our final stop was a town called Zapote Bravo. “Uriel get in the truck”, said Padre Antonio. O.k., Padre just kept us moving. A group of us rode in the truck, bracing ourselves through the winding mountain roads and over bumpy, gravely paths into the central plaza which was completely deserted. Zapote Bravo was remote and looked uninhabited to me when we rode into the plaza. Padre Antonio climbed up the tower steps to ring the bell that would let the community know that we had arrived. Children and parents began walking into the plaza. I could see people from surrounding homes poking their heads out of windows and doors.
Once assembled inside we began teaching children lessons while a few adults sat and watched. One man in particular was very attentive during a lesson on the power of forgiveness. In this lesson, two children held a string across from each other. One child represented God and the other child, holding the other end of the string. represented a mischievous boy named Marcello. In this exercise, each time the mischievous Marcello told a lie or disobeyed his parents we enlisted someone to cut the string held by the two youth. Cutting the string meant that Marcello had cut off his connection with God. Yet, each time God forgave Marcello the string was tied back together and became significantly shorter bringing Marcello physically closer to God. The basic lesson was that God would endlessly forgive us and yet we could still get closer to God through this forgiveness.
The adult who had been observing this exercise attentively approached Padre Serafin and asked, “Padre, can you bring me a copy of the ten commandments I would like to go over them. They are a little complicated, eh?” It occurred to me that the adults were paying close attention to our children’s lessons as well.
I am grateful for my experiences on this mission, for my praying, sharing and learning with the blessed people in these villages. Given my experience, the following quote by Thomas Merton best captures the spirit of my journey to Vera Cruz, Mexico:
“I believe my vocation is essentially that of a pilgrim and an exile in life, that I have no proper place in the world, but that for that reason I am in some sense to be the friend and brother of people everywhere, especially those who are exiles and pilgrims like myself…
My life is in many ways simple, but it is also a mystery which I do not attempt to really understand, as though I were led by the hand in the night where I see nothing, but can fully depend on the love and protection of He who guides me.”
Thomas Merton
Cold War Letters
My initial plan was to take my family with me. This included my wife Sarath and daughters Sofia, 16 and Eva, 8. My hope was that this could be a great bonding experience for us as a family, an opportunity to experience the Orthodox faith in a different cultural context, and to introduce my teenage daughter to an experience outside the U.S. Well, after learning more details about this particular trip we decided that it may not be a good idea to take my 8 year old, Eva. My teenage daughter Sofia, 16, dug in her heels and said, “I’m not going.” About two weeks before the trip, my wife began to experience health concerns making it too risky for her to go. What started as a family mission turned into a solo trip. I asked myself what had happened. “Should I go, alone?” Going alone was not part of my plan.
I boarded my flight in Philadelphia, a non-stop run directly to Mexico City, Mexico. I was anxious, not knowing what to expect, and concerned about my separation from my family over so many miles. Landing in Mexico City, I walked out of customs into the central area of the airport and saw two Orthodox priests who were looking around in search of visitors. I introduced myself and met Padre Antonio Perdomo and Hieromonk Serafín Mendoza . Father Antonio is a Priest who pastors an Orthodox church in Pharr, Texas called St. George the Great Martyr. St. George’s is only 7 miles from the Mexican border, Padre Antonio administers to the Spanish speaking community in both the U.S. and Mexico with his direct involvement in Orthodox mission work. I met the rest of our team Connie, Diana, and Lynn. I was surprised to learn that two out of our team members were also from Pennsylvania like me.
From the airport, we walked to the Cathedral de Ascencion. At our orientation meeting at the Cathedral de Ascencion, his eminence Archbishop Alejo asked us, “why are you on this mission?” What is your vocation? “Great question! I thought. “Dear Lord, why am I here?”
On the flight, I had been reading Jim Forest’s book, On the Road to Emmaus, which I hoped, would inform my journey to Mexico. Each chapter of his book penetrates another aspect of what it means to be a pilgrim on a journey with Christ whether one is physically traveling or simply living life. Let me give up my thinking and any anxiety over to God and accept this journey as a pilgrim. A pilgrim who has no place in this world, as “we are not of this world.” Never did this feel clearer to me than being so far away from home, my family, my natural habitat. But, I was there to accept what the road itself had to provide for me. What God himself had prepared for me. At the time, Archbishop Alejo asked us for a reason for participating in this mission trip, I thought that I would approach my mission as a pilgrim and allow God to determine what the message was, if any, that I should receive. According to Jim Forrest, “pilgrimage is a conscious act of seeking a more vital awareness of God’s living presence (within our own presence)”. By this definition, I was certainly seeking “…a more vital awareness of God’s living presence…” So, if I held a question with me during my mission experience it was what is God revealing to me about who He is and who I am?
The day after our arrival and orientation was Sunday. We participated in Liturgy at Catedral de Ascencion and we were blessed by Archbishop Alejo. We were also gifted prayer ropes to take with us. We departed that afternoon for Pisaflores. I didn’t know what to expect and the excitement among us was palpable. Christ be with us.
Winding for hours through the rocky roads, verdant pastures, and stony cliffs to Pisaflores, and onto San Esteban, our journey was a long one certainly, yet traveling by bus and car was easy compared to priests and missionaries who long ago traveled these pathways by horse and boat.
Padre Serafin is a Jesuit trained Monk-Priest with degrees in Theology and Philosophy. Soft spoken and prayerful, Padre Serafin has committed himself to serving 10 villages surrounding Pisaflores, the town where he pastors his own church and maintains his central office. Father Antonio was our team leader, resource, liaison with the community leadership.
Arriving in Pisaflores, Padre Serafin rang the bells that called the people to the church and let the community know that we had arrived. Soon, women, children, and young men carrying instruments began to arrive at the church. Then, the band began playing. A woman named Marcella started dancing, other women joined her, and one by one, mission team members too were on the floor dancing. We danced and we ate, celebrating Christ’s mission and our communion with our Orthodox brothers and sisters in Pisaflores. It was a blessed evening in Pisaflores.
I could not help feeling at this time, here I am so far from home, in the hills of Mexico dancing and connecting with people from Aztec tribes. There are two main tribes in this region, the Tepehuan and the Otomies. There are ten surrounding villages in the area where Father Serafin visits and administers to the spiritual needs of these communities. We were to visit three of these ten villages; Pisaflores, San Esteban, and Zapote Bravo. In addition to the Orthodox Christian traditions, the ancient Aztec traditions also co-exist especially in the religious and medical healing contexts. Father Serafim explained some of the practices, pointed out Aztec religious symbols, as well as, Aztec healing practices.
We were here to help with teaching, to pray, to share, but also as Archbishop Alejo reminded us to walk as icons of Christ.
What does this path show me, what does Christ want from me. Shouldn’t I be on mission all of the time, not just on a special trip to Mexico? Being on a mission, with a specific purpose, brought this to mind, but it also made me think about how fragmented and scattered my life could be back home divided up with many competing responsibilities. “Aren’t we supposed to be on mission –all the time- Is this not our vocation having been called to be king, prophet, and priest,” I thought to myself. “What? Are you kidding me? This is exhausting.” As I walk with our team, I am reminded of Archbishop Alejo’s statement, again, that we are ambassadors of our faith. Being on a mission means reflecting Christ and this means being incessantly prayerful and mindful of our mission. It occurred to me… that spiritual formation is hard work, requiring discipline, vigilance, submission of our ego to the mission and for the sake of our team. That one needs patience, and to work together and succeed, a community with the same spiritual vision. As Padre Serafin said, “I just say the Jesus prayer”.
San Esteban, our next village stop, is a town surrounded by beautiful mountain ranges. It is a picturesque landscape where colorful homes dot the hillsides and hibiscus, wild flowers, birds and butterflies call out the magnificence and variety of God’s nature. Walking up and down the hilly pathways, we cross dogs, horses, and chickens, smiling people wave and greet us with a “Buenos dias”. I find myself drawn in by the beauty of the Sierra Madre and the simplicity of the life around me in San Esteban. Forrest says in his book, anywhere God meets me is a Holy place, a sacred space, and an opportunity for communion with him, nature, and our brothers and sisters.
The children herein San Esteban, like kids everywhere, run about and play calling stray dogs by name and imagining all sorts of adventures. The tick of time seems to walk here in these villages, unlike the warp speed found in large cities back home. Here in these villages, time seems to be a complement to our prayers, even to each breath as we walk to church for Vespers. Our days become tempered and punctuated by prayers, teaching, and meals with the team and priests where like a family dinner – or Eucharistic table – much wisdom was imparted. I sense a peaceful joy, God’s blessing.
During one of these conversations around the table, I recall, Padre Serafin saying that the people of these villages often teach us how we should live (as Christians) in the world. Since we bring with us our own cultural context when we leave our home cities and countries. He called it “la mancha urbana” or the urban stain. From our “modern” point of view, this can include a reticence to embrace people different from ourselves, sometimes a form of internalized superiority because we so often read or listen to stories making us the primary protagonist in any international story. Similarly, sometimes our own sense of mission could carry a veneer of arrogance that we are people from a first world country arriving to impart our wisdom on the third world participants of our story. It takes some time to “see” and understand how the way of life in these hills contribute to simplicity and humility. For example, it was not until the last day of my trip that I discovered that our “driver” for most of this trip was, in fact, the Mayor of Pisaflores.
Our final stop was a town called Zapote Bravo. “Uriel get in the truck”, said Padre Antonio. O.k., Padre just kept us moving. A group of us rode in the truck, bracing ourselves through the winding mountain roads and over bumpy, gravely paths into the central plaza which was completely deserted. Zapote Bravo was remote and looked uninhabited to me when we rode into the plaza. Padre Antonio climbed up the tower steps to ring the bell that would let the community know that we had arrived. Children and parents began walking into the plaza. I could see people from surrounding homes poking their heads out of windows and doors.
Once assembled inside we began teaching children lessons while a few adults sat and watched. One man in particular was very attentive during a lesson on the power of forgiveness. In this lesson, two children held a string across from each other. One child represented God and the other child, holding the other end of the string. represented a mischievous boy named Marcello. In this exercise, each time the mischievous Marcello told a lie or disobeyed his parents we enlisted someone to cut the string held by the two youth. Cutting the string meant that Marcello had cut off his connection with God. Yet, each time God forgave Marcello the string was tied back together and became significantly shorter bringing Marcello physically closer to God. The basic lesson was that God would endlessly forgive us and yet we could still get closer to God through this forgiveness.
The adult who had been observing this exercise attentively approached Padre Serafin and asked, “Padre, can you bring me a copy of the ten commandments I would like to go over them. They are a little complicated, eh?” It occurred to me that the adults were paying close attention to our children’s lessons as well.
I am grateful for my experiences on this mission, for my praying, sharing and learning with the blessed people in these villages. Given my experience, the following quote by Thomas Merton best captures the spirit of my journey to Vera Cruz, Mexico:
“I believe my vocation is essentially that of a pilgrim and an exile in life, that I have no proper place in the world, but that for that reason I am in some sense to be the friend and brother of people everywhere, especially those who are exiles and pilgrims like myself…
My life is in many ways simple, but it is also a mystery which I do not attempt to really understand, as though I were led by the hand in the night where I see nothing, but can fully depend on the love and protection of He who guides me.”
Thomas Merton
Cold War Letters
