Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2021-04-28
A Weekday Emailer from
Matt Matthews
To Members and Friends of
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
Dear Friends,
I am looking forward to our Cuba Celebration on (1) TONIGHT
(2) Saturday morning, (3) Sunday worship, and (4) Sunday afternoon Two-Step. Links below.
Tending the relationship with our sister church in Havana takes Jesus’ definition of “neighbor” seriously. Our neighbor is far and wide, both the expected and the least expected. Our brothers and sisters at Luyano Presbyterian Church in Havana need us and we need them. Here’s a short essay from our travel journal from our winter trip in 2019.
* * *
Friday, March 1st
Matt Matthews
Prior to breakfast, I traipsed around the Luyano campus trying without success to capture some pictures taking advantage of morning light. The light was summery and golden but my pictures turned out flat and uninteresting.
Breakfast was not. As usual, we relished fresh pineapple, guava, bananas, frothy fruit drinks, small shots of hot café, breakfast ‘hotdogs’, an egg scramble, bread, cold water, and hot sweet milk.
Conversation wasn’t so great because I had to sit next to Daniel. Ha, ha. He’s getting pretty good at ‘busting’ me. I’ve been treating him with kid gloves. The gloves will come off at lunch. In my world, joking and a hand on the shoulder means familiarity, friendship, and love.
We piled onto the bus—our rickety, old friend—for a 30-minute drive to Santa Maria del Mar. Robert was the first soul into the ocean. I was the last. We bobbed around as white as fish bellies in bright swim trunks. The deeper water was blue. At the beach, turquoise waves broke into pearl foam. Midway between the beach and the horizon the blues blended into a color I cannot describe, and in midwinter could hardly believe.
Katerine and Norco are our friendly hosts. Katerine and her twins are moving soon to England. I told her she would miss her Cuba sun and Cuba warm. There’s an ocean in England and the same sun, but there is no scene comparable to this. Cambridge is filled with wonders, but not Cuba’s.
At the Restaurante Costarenas a hundred yards from the beach, we sat outdoors beneath a high tarp. By now, our pink skin needed protection from the bright sun. Katerine, Robert, and I ordered cervezas nacionale. Norco ordered a coke. Judi and Rachel ordered rum and cokes; when the drinks appeared with ice in them, they became immediately alarmed and asked the waiter to take the ice out; nothing poses as egregious a threat to intestinal health as a cube of local ice. Amiably, he returned the drinks sans ice but with more rum. Soon Judi and Rachel were laughing loudly and talking with their hands like native Cubans.
The waiter thought my and Rachel’s pizza was to be an appetizer for the table and the paella was for everyone, which is why we ended up with two whole pizzas and six paellas, a heck of a lunch for just six of us.
I used Judi’s Spanish-English dictionary to shape nonsense sentences, which amused Norco and Katerine. I liked hearing them laugh and watching their faces twist up with delighted smiles. Maybe they were being polite. “Dessert with sugar in a plates,” I said, “to bring happiness to the peoples of the world.” And, “I stamp (sellar) a jungle (selva) with a traffic light (semaforo).” They didn’t know what I was talking about and nobody cared. The laughter seemed meaningful enough.
Towards the end of lunch two men approached with congas and a nylon stringed guitar. They regaled us with an impromptu concert. Nothing quickens one’s pulse like music, especially music well-played, as this was. Spanish speakers in the small crowd of diners—there were maybe ten of them—laughed at the same times. Those of us who didn’t speak Spanish missed the joke, and I told Katrina when we walked to the van later that I wondered if the singers had been making fun of us gringos. On the contrary, she said. They were singing about America.
I blushed with shame.
I dozed on the bus to the chatter of the others. When we returned to Luyano, we retreated to showers and naps. Marilyn, we were told, would take us to Old Havana tonight.
We spilled out of our rooms to the patio for reading and conversation. Oswaldo (“not Lee Harvey,” he insisted), Vladimir, Marilyn, Daniel, Hector, and Rosita’s husband all dropped by for afternoon salutations. As the afternoon eased towards evening, we watched the old women in white shirts congregate in the compound for Tai Chi. We talked about joining them, and then we did. We stood up and formed a ragged line behind them. We stretched, massaged our faces with our finger tips, touched our toes (or tried), stood on our toes, pointed our toes, and bent our necks and arms in every direction. The women were flexible and could stand on one foot like flamencos, which is to say they were perfectly balanced. These gentle contortions relaxed me, though made me feel a little like a beached whale as I was the most awkward of our nimble group. At least I was a relaxed beached whale.
These centering movements took us to another good dinner—this time shrimp creole, salad, baked plantains, and a creamy yellow soup. Daniel arrived late with a six pack of cold Bucanero Cervezas. Cheers!
Dinner
frutas especiales
much hard work
we are
loved
Silvi
always serves
with a smile
she’s a
saint
* * *
Friday evening was a letdown, one for which, I guess, we were due. Everything else all week had been so amazing. You can’t have one amazing experience after another forever. Carlos faithfully dropped us off at the Iglesia San Francisco in the heart of Old Town Havana. Marilyn, our faithful guide from Luyano, took us through dark alleys until we stepped out onto the wide plaza. We watched a street band play a song, strolled in a circle, sat down at tables on the plaza and tried ordering dessert but they only sold booze, so we got up, walked around in another circle, then found ourselves in a chic second story restaurante that, to our happiness, served ice cream and flan. The cigar smokers in the small club shared their secondhand smoke. The piped-in muzak was too loud and lacked the soul of the tunes outside. Even in the third world one can be beset by first world problems.
We did devotionals back at the church. Sitting on the patio in perfect weather refreshed me. The stray cats moaned their discontent, however. Maybe one was in heat. Maybe one wasn’t thrilled with our reading from or interpretation of Hebrews.
* * *
News:
Remember to reserve your place for Worship each week by calling the church office by noon on Fridays. This Sunday we will connect with our sister church in Cuba.
* * *
Cuba Celebration weekend this Saturday and Sunday May 1st and 2nd. Join us for our Cuba Forum on Saturday, May 1, at 10 am. In the meanwhile watch firstpres.church/
firstpres.church/cubaforum
On Sunday, worship will have a Cuba theme with special prayers for our partner church in Havana, the Luyano Presbyterian Church. Later Sunday afternoon, we’re having a Cuba Two-Step salsa lesson.
Shared Worship Sunday, May 2 9 AM at FirstPres.live.
Cuba Two-Step Sunday, May 2 1 PM at firstpres.church/cubatwostep
For more information, contact the Church Office at 217-356-7238 or zoom@firstpres.church. The links for the Cuba Forum, Shared Worship and Cuba Two-Step will all be live on their designated dates and times.
* * *
This news from friend to many and former church member Larry Braskamp:
I am sad to inform you that Judith (Kolenbrander) Braskamp passed away on April 25th after a short illness caused by a recurrence of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
Judi was born on February 10, 1943 in Hull, IA, a small Dutch community in northwest Iowa. Along with her brother and two sisters, she attended primary schools in Iowa and Nebraska, and high school in Guelph, Ontario. She graduated from Central College, where she majored in history and met Larry Braskamp. They were married June 12, 1964, a few days after her graduation from college.
In their first years of marriage, Judi focused on raising David (now married to Kris with a daughter, Isabel) and Steven, (now married to Caroline with a daughter Sophia and son William). After the boys were in school, she pursued her CPA at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. To study for the CPA exam, she put tax codes to popular songs and carols. She created a beautiful sound throughout our home, and all through her life she could be heard singing and humming, often to herself.
For the past 31 years, Judi and Larry lived in Chicago, a city she fell in love with. She worked at several firms and especially enjoyed working at the Chicago Legal Foundation since she worked with lawyers and others defending the less privileged among us. She was active at Fourth Presbyterian Church, a wonderful faith community that gave her much joy and meaning in life. She served on the Board of Trustees and as a Deacon. More recently, she found fulfillment in being active in the Church’s Meals Ministry program, serving food and getting to know some of the homeless. Throughout her life, she led a life of humility and service.
She loved traveling the globe and visiting her grandchildren. She enjoyed cooking, reading, visiting museums, and with her discipline, walking 10,000 steps each day.
A memorial service will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations in her honor may be made to the Fourth Presbyterian Church Meals Ministry Program.
Her favorite Bible verse was 2nd Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind.”
Our family today can say that we have been blessed with Judi’s presence in our lives for which we proclaim, “Praise the Lord.”
Larry Braskamp
* * *
Humor
Monday’s jokes came from Bill Gamble. Today’s jokes come from Bob Kirby.
Teacher: Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested?
Harold: A teacher.
Teacher: Glenn, how do you spell ‘crocodile’?
Glenn: k-r-o-k-o-d-i-a-l.
Teacher: No, that’s wrong.
Glenn: Maybe it’s wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.
* * *
Good Word:
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
(Psalm 23)
Let us pray
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord’s face shine on you with grace and mercy.
The Lord look upon you with favor and ☩ give you peace. Amen.
* * *
Much love to you all.
PEACE,
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church
