Giving Thanks for Theological Education

A Letter from Karla Koll, serving in Costa Rica

Spring 2023

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Dear friends,

“I am so glad that I found theological studies. I have discovered that God is so much different than the way God was presented to me in many churches.” Elena said these words over ice cream as we celebrated the successful defense of her licentiate thesis at the end of February.

Elena with amaranth flowers in the UBL garden.

María Elena Quichca came to the Latin American Biblical University (UBL) for the first time from Peru at the beginning of 2018 to finish her bachelor’s degree in theological sciences. When she arrived, she was extremely timid and hesitant to voice her own opinions. It was hard to imagine her preaching or leading a congregation.

Like many of our students, her deficient secondary education did not provide her with strong academic skills. Yet Elena worked very hard in her courses and her writing improved. In her bachelor’s thesis, Elena offered a theological argument in support of the use of medicinal plants in evangelical churches. In the Andean context, as in much of Latin America, evangelical pastors reject traditional practices of indigenous communities including the use of plants for healing. These plants, Elena argued, are part of God’s good creation. To reject them because people have used them for centuries is to reject blessings from God.

After Elena returned to Peru in May of 2019, she worked as a receptionist in a medical office. She also forms part of a collective of women who knit items by hand for export. Even though she had two jobs, she accepted the invitation to serve as a lay pastor for the Methodist church in the small community of Ahuac. She also began taking licentiate classes online. As happens with many of our students in smaller communities, her internet connection was not strong enough to allow her to connect to sessions in Zoom, but she would follow the conversations through WhatsApp.

While living in Ahuac, Elena became concerned by the lack of care people showed for the water flowing through channels from the springs in the hills. Once a year, the people of Ahuac gather where one of the springs bubbles up from underground. They draw on their ancient Andean spirituality to give thanks to Pachamacha, Mother Earth, for the gift of water. Yet throughout the rest of the year, they throw trash and chemicals into the channels flowing through the community without a second thought. Elena decided to focus her thesis on water as a vital part of God’s creation.

Karla and Elena on the day of her defense.

Back in 2018, Elena was part of the team that started our first community garden on campus. When she returned to San Jose in August of 2022, she jumped right back into work in what are now two gardens. For every day of the six months she has been here, Elena has risen before dawn to record the low temperature and the amount of rainfall on campus. The plants are going to miss her quiet presence and diligent care.

We are currently in the season of Lent. In 2019, we held our Ash Wednesday service beside the compost pile in our garden. Though the traditional liturgy for Ash Wednesday says, “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return,” the Hebrew in Genesis 2:7 affirms that God the Creator formed the first human being not from dust, but from fertile soil. Lent begins with a reminder that we are of the earth, part of the cycles of life in God’s creation.

As we move through the 40 days of Lent, we remember the wanderings of the people of Israel for 40 years in the desert. We also connect with the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert after his baptism. Here in Costa Rica, Lent coincides with the dry season. As the days pass, the plants wither and turn brown. Fewer and fewer insects are active. On campus, we carefully water the gardens each day to keep the plants and soil microbes alive.

Lent connects us with the cycles of the earth. It also connects us with water. In the ancient traditions of the church, baptisms were held during the Easter Vigil. The waters of baptism signify the beginning of new life in Christ. They also bind believers to the cycles of water that flow through creation. In her thesis, Elena wrote of water as ecumene, that which binds all inhabitants of the earth together in dynamic relationship with the Creator.

Elena is heading back to her two jobs in Huancayo, Peru. It has warmed my heart to hear her introduce herself as a lay pastor in the Methodist Church of Peru. I hope and pray there will be a pastoral call waiting for her. Wherever she is called, whether to Ahuac or another community, she will be encouraging believers to recognize themselves as part of God’s creation and to care for creation by caring for water.

Just as Elena gives thanks for her theological studies, I give thanks to all who make it possible for the Latin American Biblical University to offer theological training for women and men from throughout the region. Thank you for your prayers and financial support that allow me to be part of encouraging people like Elena to grow into their gifts and develop their skills for ministry.

In resurrection hope,

Karla