San Gregorio

Saturday, I had the opportunity to participate in a trip with the Lutheran church here in Argentina to celebrate the Reformation and our Lutheran roots. We gathered at the main office of the Lutheran church in the capital (Buenos Aires) at 5:00 Saturday morning to travel by bus to San Gregorio. We were to leave at 5:00, but didn't actually leave until 5:45. After 6 hours on the bus and a couple quick stops we arrived in San Gregorio.

San Gregorio is a very small, tranquil town in the Province of Santa Fe - west of Buenos Aires. Just across the border of Buenos Aires and Santa Fe. We arrived before the worship service was scheduled to begin and had time to walk around the town. It was very pretty with lots of trees and little traffic. A nice change from the city.

We had a traditional Lutheran worship service that was very familiar to me. After worship, we had a pot luck lunch. I didn't actually read the email that was sent to us with the details of the trip. I just knew what time we were to meet Saturday morning. Friday night, Cristina mentioned taking lunch and I realized I hadn't even thought about where we would eat during the trip. I threw a lunch together Friday night. On the bus Saturday, Cristina and I learned that it was actually a pot luck lunch. Oops... So we bought cookies at the convenient store during one of our stops on the way to San Gregorio. Fortunately, there was plenty of food to go around and nobody really noticed our mistake, except for the people we told.

The pot luck was different from what I'm used to - buffet style. Most people had taken empanadas or migas (small sandwiches) and the containers/plates of empanadas/migas were placed randomly on the tables where people were sitting. People just gathered around the tables, eating and chatting.

The place where we gathered is actually a mission, not a congregation, and this year is the 20th anniversary of the mission. After lunch, there was a slide show about the history of the mission. I learned that the congregation (Santo Sacremento) that I'm a part of in Ballester was active in starting the mission.

We loaded the buses and headed home around 5:30pm. It was a long day - I finally got home around 1:00 Sunday morning. (After getting up at 3:30 Saturday morning and not really sleeping on the bus.) It was great to see some of what's outside the city. It was very flat with lots of pastures and fields. We had to stop at one point on the way there to wait on a farmer to herd his cows across the road! I've never been to Nebraska, but I was told this drive was just like driving through Nebraska. It was also nice to meet new people. Most of the folks on our bus were about my age and are students at the seminary in the capital.