Latin American Quaker stories for English-speakers

I received a complimentary copy of Friends Journal this month, and was surprised and delighted to find a review of the book, From Encounter to Ministry: The Life and Faith of Latin American Quakers. Published by the Wider Quaker Fellowship in 2013, this booklet is an English translation of five stories that originally appeared in a larger collection in Spanish I edited and saw published in 2012.

The reviewer, William Shetter (a member of the Bloomington, Indiana meeting), notes that “These five Latin American Friends in their brief but forcefully narrated stories tell us how they had to go through a ‘dark valley’ as a test before they could emerge into the light.” He then goes on to summarize each story. And he provides the information (which I did not know) that the English language booklet, plus the original Spanish version, is available online at voicesoffriends.org; click on “Quaker Thought Today,” then go to “New Publications.”

Check it out!

In one of the writers workshops in Peru that led to the stories collected in the book, Mario Colque, the man on the right, wrote about how God helped his family face the challenge of a daughter born with a serious birth defect.

Hilarion Quispe, Bolivian Friends pastor, wrote about a difficult journey to a jungle village, part of his traveling ministry of visitation.

Central American Friends in the workshop in Guatemala read their stories aloud in a peer review exercise. For many of these Friends, this was their first time to publish anything.

Story-telling, teaching and love

"[The] thing that has the capacity to make storytelling glorious is love. Just as great teaching is loving a subject in the presence of students who are also loved, so it is with story. A man who loves the story he is telling, and loves the people he is telling it to, is a formidable bard. Something mysterious happens when story-grip sets in. One man writes a disheveled story, breaks numerous rules, and gets away with it. Another writes a story with every hair in place, prim hands folded on the lap, and it stinks. Then someone else writes a textbook example of doing everything right, and it works anyway. Failures of story-telling are at some level a failure to love. Successes in story-telling are examples of love triumphing."

Douglas Wilson, “Love Story,” March 8, 2010  (www.credenda.org/index.php/From-the-Vaults/love-story.html)