Nazarene Theological Seminary

            This past week I had the opportunity to take the 20 hour bus ride to Gualeguaychu, Argentina for the Congreso Nacional de Mujeres (National Congress of Women) with Flavia Ventura, one of the speakers and coordinators for the event and a missionary here in Paraguay.  While the bus ride was somewhat uneventful, although completely different from anything I have previously experienced (the seats recline so that you can sleep and you are given meals on the bus!), the Congress was an exciting and different experience for me.  This was the first time for me to be in a place where there truly were no English speaking persons readily available, which is great for my Spanish but can make a person somewhat nervous and apprehensive.  The Congress was attended by women from various different parts of South America – Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay – the Southern Cone field of the SAM region.  The theme for the Congress was “Vasos de Dios” or “Vessels of God” with a focus on 2 Corinthians 4:7.  While I did not understand everything that was being said, I had the opportunity to soak in a lot of Spanish and I understood the general ideas of all of the speakers. 

            One of the unique elements of Argentina is the amount of “mate” (pronounced mah-tay) that people drink on a daily, and sometimes hourly basis.  After crossing the border from Paraguay into Argentina, our bus stopped at a gas station for gas and bathroom breaks, and in the parking lot of the gas station was a metal rectangle on a cement block.  It looked like the air machines that one sees at most gas stations in the United States for the tires of a car.  However, it was full of hot water for people to fill up their thermos with water for mate.  I actually saw one car stop on the side of the street and a person jumped out of the car, ran up to the machine, filled their thermos with water, and then went and got back into the car!  I wish I had captured that moment on film! 

            Perhaps I should explain “tomando mate” (drinking mate).  It is a complete experience, it is not a simple drink that one drinks by oneself.  Yerba mate is the main ingredient, which is placed within a uniquely shaped container, sometimes made out of a gourd, metal, or glass.  The content is somewhat like tea, although people tend to like their own mixtures of herbs and flavors that they mix in with the yerba mate they purchase at the store.  So, once one has filled their mate container with the tea-like substance and obtains a thermos of hot water, three or four other people gather around.  This is the most interesting part about drinking mate – it is rarely done alone; mate, in my observation, is almost always taken with other people.  Everywhere you go in Argentina one finds groups of people sitting around and drinking mate together. Most people are willing to share with anyone who makes their way into their group, even a foreigner like me. 

            I had the opportunity to share mate with several different groups of people, none of which I knew very well, but all were more than willing to allow me to be a part of the group and drink mate with them.  Drinking mate is a social experience, it is more than just a drink.  It is a time of sitting around with one's friends, and people that you have just met, and sharing a drink.  It works like this: one person is usually in charge of the water and the cup.  The straw that one uses to drink mate is long and metal with a round filter at the bottom and an almost flat area at the top for drinking. The person with the water adds a few sips to the mate cup  and passes it to someone in the circle.  When one is finished, the cup is passed back, again filled with water and passed to another person.  Everyone shares the same cup, the same straw. 

            This practice would be almost unheard of among Americans in the United States, where we are so concerned about germs and sanitizing everything.  I imagine that there are many who would be unwilling to engage in this practice of drinking mate.  But there is significance to this practice of drinking mate – one common cup in which all people share, where people are not excluded but are invited to become a part of the circle.  Each person is given an opportunity to drink from the cup.  Each person is made to be a part of the group.  Even foreigners and outsiders are encouraged to take the cup and drink.  And people take time out of their day to sit down and share mate with other people.  As people engage in this practice, and I have had the opportunity myself to take part, I am continually reminded that people and the time that we are able to spend with those people is most important.  May we as the body of Christ be this open to others, inviting them to come and join us with open hands and lives .... and may we take the time to be present with others and share in the lives of others, strangers and dear friends.