Advent in Peru, Maybe?

Advent is a time of active waiting, we wait for what we know will happen, because it already has, the birth of our savior. Each year for the four weeks before Christmas Christians in a variety of contexts around the world ¨wait¨together for the innocence of the Christ child who would come to suffer for many to be born in their hearts. The innocence of the manger that would grow to challenge the established order and powers and prinicipalities who denied access and guard justice as something to be distributed at their own whim.
The evangelical churches here in Peru do not usually follow the liturgical calendar and therefore do not typically celebrate or observe advent. I have found though that many Peruvians do know what advent or adventamiento is, they just do not use a wreath or really talk or preach about it. The Catholic Churches here do observe it, though they seem to use different color candles, but with similar meanings and themes.
Most of the sermons in the evangelical churches that I visit have just been going on with whatever the pastor wants or needs to preach on. Advent is one of the things that I miss while being here in Peru. The waiting, hoping, introspection, and reflecting while we observe the four weeks before Christmas. (and the hymns and music OHH!!)
I missed it so much in fact that I collaborated with the Director of PyE Ayacucho (an ecumenical organization) and the secretary to get 5 bellas or candles for a wreath. There was no greenery unless we used alfalfa which would rot too quickly or coca leaves which are sort of dry and might ignite (no mas fuego por favor). So we had five candles on a tray. That is okay though. It still went on, and by the way I love Peruvian candles, they burn slowly and seem to last forever, and you do not get that drippy wax all over you.

It is not a perfect wreath, but it was ritualistically there. Each Monday at our staff meeting we open with a biblical reflection and singing. For the past four weeks we have reflected together on advent. I lead the reflection and while one of the team members came forward and lit the candles. We talked about the meanings of each one (hope, peace, joy, and love), read some bibilical reflections to prepare us during this time of waiting and even managed to work in a little talk of access, peace, solidarity, and justice along the way. The PyE Ayacucho folks are always good for a theological discussion or unhashing of some kind. Some of the folks at Paz Y Esperanza are or were raised Catholic so they know what Advent or Adventamiento is. It was great to share a part of my culture with them, and to hear some of them reflect on advent and waiting for Navidad and the noche bueno as well.

I remember from living in Guatemala in 2004-2005 talking a lot about two types of waiting, fatalistic and hopeful. The first, waiting on something we knew would happen or was coming, and the other just as it sounds, waiting on something that we hope or want to come. As I travel to the different barrios of Ayacucho and the countryside to sit with victims who are step by step transitioning, through difficult proceses and work, to becoming survivors of the internal violence of Peru (1980-2000). I am reminded by their stories of horror, becasue of the violence and abuse at the hands of the military and the Sendero Luminoso, that many of them know a different reality than I, while at the same time many of us seem to anonymously walk in solidarity because we share threads of the same reality. The more powerful and tranforming thing though is I can also hear and recognize the hope resonating in their words and songs. Hope that is just as contagious and infectious as the Quehcua women´s laughter, timely advice and wisdom, and our mutual curiosity. I hear their hope that manifest itself in listening to one another and entering into a sacred space with my Peruvian compañeras and I. A sacred space (sometimes an adobe house and other times a grassy field) where the ¨Emanuel¨ on which we wait to be born in our hearts is already present and doing amazing things with people of Ayacucho, Peru.