Lord, I want to be a Christian in my heart

The mission delegation from Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church, Louisville, Kentucky was at the end of their Guatemala journey. It had been a week outside their comfort zone but inside the embrace of the indigenous Kek’chi people.

Something holy happened in the steamy little fishing village of El Estor, situated on the blue waters of Lago Izabal. But at this moment the gathered gringos, 8 youth and 11 adults (plus their PRESGOV hosts), had gathered for their final reflection time on the rooftop patio of El Carmen Hotel in the cobblestone, Guatemalan gem of a town called Antigua.

Sitting in a circle in the shadows of two majestic volcanoes, the group was trying to bring to speech what their week had meant to them. They spoke of many things and thought of others:

• the hospitality of the Kek’chi women who had boiled to perfection chicken-caldo- with-vegetables over the open fire; the fresh, steamed tilapia, just caught from the lake, stuffed with tomatoes;
  the blisters, like badges of courage, on the hands of suburban teenagers, part and parcel of two full days of hauling sand and mixing concrete in stifling heat so that dirt-poor families could have the dignity of a decent floor;
  
• the tri-lingual banter of Presbyterian pastors, elders and deacons during a leadership training event, encountering The Word amidst foreign words with accents not one’s own;
  
• the simply drawn pictures of a typical day in the life of a Kek’chi woman, sketched by Presbyterian mujeres, sleeping babies strapped to their backs or nursing at their breasts;
  
• shy youth and bold ones too talking across the great cultural divide about their hopes and dreams, wondering about their future, pondering where God is in all this;
  
• the boat ride through Bocaron Canyon where Mayan warriors once paddled their hand-hewn barcos, the distant cry of the owl echoing off craggy rock formations that looked like the profile of Tecún Umán himself, Guatemala’s national hero;
  
• lively worship set to the rhythm of clapping hands and the mellow marimba, Guatemala’s national instrument;
  
• God’s spectacular surprise: los colores of a rainbow on their first day of travel, foreshadowing the promise of God’s unmistakable presence at the host church, Iglesia Arco de Noe (Noah’s Ark Church).

Then one of the women from Crescent Hill spoke, as if weaving all these myriad thoughts and feelings together into a vibrant tapestry so typical to the Guatemalans: “Throughout this week, I have never felt so much like a Christian.”

There was silence.

It was like this journey inward into some deep and sacred space and this journey outward into genuine friendship, partnership and solidarity with Kek’chi brothers and sisters revealed what Jesus’ disciples have always looked and longed for.

Mission service does not get much better than this.

J. David Wiseman, PC(USA) Mission Co-Worker
PRESGOV Coordinator, Guatemala

Reflections on the trip by Ellen Dozier

In my 10 years plus of living and working in Guatemala, I have on ocasión had the opportunity to travel with a delegation from the U.S.A. visiting in Guatemala. I have always enjoyed these trips; it is a time to be with people from the U.S.A. who are interested in Guatemala and to share some of my experiences with them; it is time to eat in restaurants and sleep in hotel beds (when I travel with the Guatemalan women we eat in “comedors” (tortillas, beans and eggs for a dollar) and often sleep on church floors); and it is time to travel in a vehicle that stops for bathroom breaks!

So when I was offered the opportunity to travel with the group from Crescent Hills Presbyterian Church in Louisville, I immediately said, “YES.” The time with this group of 19 folks met all my expectations and more. There were hotel beds, restaurants, bathrooms, but far more important was the time to be with new found friends and fellow pilgrims “on the way,” trying to live in God’s Kingdom.

I especially enjoyed watching the group prepare and carry out the workshops – for elders and deacons, for youth, and for the women. Since my work in Guatemala is with women, I was able to share from my experience some of the realities of what it means to be a woman in Guatemala. For example, most of the women at the workshop had never had an opportunity to attend school, were unaccustomed to thinking abstractly, and lived in their small world of home, church, and market. The Crescent Hills group rapidly adopted my suggestions, such as drawing a picture of the Scripture passage to help the elders and deacons visualize the words they were reading.

After this experience I have a new understanding of how delegations can support and be a part of on going ministry in places they visit. Delegations can encourage, bring needed resources, and work alongside those of us – mission co-workers, long and short term volunteers, Young Adult Volunteers – who are already doing ministry in these places.

And all this is very Biblical! After all we read in the Old Testament that Moses’ father-in-law told him he could not take care of all the problems of the Israelites out there in the desert, he needed to appoint others to help him. And Jesus was not a “loner,” men and women traveled with him, learning from him, and participating in ministry with Jesus. And one of the most prominent images in the New Testament is of the Church called to be the body of Christ - feet, hands, mouth, arms – all are necessary and have a part in ministry.

My hope and prayer is that more delegations will work closely with those of us “on the field,” whether in Central America, Africa, Asia or any other part of God’s great world, that together we can be signs of God’s Kingdom in this world.

Ellen Dozier

Presbyterian News Service story on David Wiseman

Taking life on

PC(USA) missionary gave up comfortable pulpit for mission service

by Jerry L. Van Marter

ANTIGUA, Guatemala — The Rev. David Wiseman was all set. His 26-year pastorate at Cary (NC) Presbyterian Church had been a success by all measures. The church was vital, growing, mission-minded. Just staying put until retirement was a live option.

“But I remember what a seminary professor told me once,” Wiseman said in a recent interview here while accompanying a mission delegation from Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church in Louisville. “He said, ‘Why take life easy when you can take it on?’”

So in May 2004, Wiseman resigned his pastorate “without having anything else to go to,” a move his friends and colleagues “called, at best, a risk,” he said. “I figured I’d take nine months to sort everything out and then see where God led.”

Wiseman filled the time well — a spirituality retreat at Gethsemane monastery in Kentucky, a course in conflict resolution, interim pastor training … and six weeks in Antigua — the former Spanish colonial capitol of Guatemala — learning Spanish.

It was during that time that Wiseman began to seriously think about mission service. Upon his return to the U.S. in late-2004, Wiseman checked out the PC(USA)’s opportunity list for mission positions in Latin America. There was one opening — in Guatemala.

By March of 2005, Wiseman had been selected as the new coordinator of PRESGOV, the agency of the Iglesia Evangelico Nacional Presbiteriana en Guatemala (IENPG) that helps organize and support PC(USA) study and work group trips to Guatemala.

After orientation and six more months of Spanish language study (back in Antigua), Wiseman and his wife, Jeannene, settled in Xela (pronounced Shay-lah), which also goes by the name Quetzaltenango. From there, he travels regularly to the capital, Guatemala City, in order to meet visiting PC(USA) groups and escort them from one end of the country to the other.

“PRESGOV serves as a bridge between the PC(USA) and the IENPG to broaden and deepen relationships between U.S. and Guatemalan Presbyterians,” he said. “The IENPG is clear that PRESGOV’s purpose is to strengthen the IENPG by trying to find ways to move U.S. Presbyterians from friendship to partnership to solidarity over the long term.”

This year alone, Wiseman has worked with 35 delegations from presbyteries and congregations throughout the PC(USA).

For instance, the Crescent Hill group — 19 people from ages 14 to 61 — traveled more than eight hours from Guatemala City to the eastern town of El Estor, where six congregations of indigenous Kek’chi Presbyterians minister in a remote corner of Guatemala that is largely neglected by the government.

Over the course of five days, they conducted a one-day “Bible school” for more than 100 children; led leadership training for pastors, elders, deacons, women and young people; and helped hand-pour cement slabs in three formerly dirt-floored houses in the community.

“I am energized when groups like this one come,” Wiseman said. “Most of them have not been to Guatemala before and it’s like a kid’s first visit to Disneyland — everything is fresh and new despite being way out of their comfort zone.”

Jeannene Wiseman, also a minister and an introvert, was initially uncertain about having to deal with a different group of strangers every few days, David Wiseman said. But while he has embraced the PRESGOV work, Jeannene “has carved out a wonderful ministry working with indigenous Guatemalan women and providing support to the four Young Adult Volunteers who also serve the PC(USA) in the country.

“We could have stayed in Cary,” Wiseman said. “But the challenge here is exhilarating. Jeannene and I (they met in seminary) made a pact while we were in graduate school in Edinburgh, Scotland, that one day we’d do something international,” Wiseman said.

“It just took us a little longer than we figured.”
Information about and letters from PC(USA) missionaries around the world can be found at www.pcusa.org/missionconnections.

"No fishing" in Lake Izabal for 30 days!

On Saturday, July 14, I read an article in "Prensa Libre" (the newspaper I try to buy every day) that I think will be of interest to you. The article is entitled "Prohiben la pesca por 30 días" and says that for 30 days, August 15 - September 14, fishing in Lago Izabal will be prohibited.

This is a "decree" of the Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganadería y Alimentación. It seems that the fish population is diminishing and they need this 30 days of no fishing so the fish can repopulate (that is my new word for today!). The article says that in 2006 they did the same kind of thing.

Based on what they told us in El Estor, that 80% of the men are in involved in fishing (I think that was the figure), this prohibition on fishing will greatly impact your brothers and sisters in El Estor so I am sure they would appreciate your prayers.

Ellen Dozier

A Day Just for Women

July 4, 2007 - El Estor, Guatemala

When we volunteered to do the Women's Workshop we knew we wanted to learn more about their daily lives and to share about ours. We thought it would be an easy and fun project. We had expected it to be a lengthy process because of the need to translate into both Spanish and K'ekchi but doable. That was until we read our first email from Ellen Dozier, Guatemalan mission co-worker and women's facilitator, explaining how simple our workshop would need to be.

She recommended that we not use long Bible passages because of the women's limited life experiences. She also said that it would be hard for them to do anything that would require reading or writing since most of them are illiterate. She challenged us to think of other ways that we might be able to get the women more involved. She mentioned that one group previously had used drama very effectively. Since neither of us had ever used drama before, we decided we would have to find an alternative. Both of us had had previous experience using drawing as a means of communication so that seemed like a logical choice.

So off we went to Heine Brothers Coffee to plan our workshop. We quickly decided that it would be good for each of us to bring photos of how we spend our days in the United States. We thought that might open the door to the Guatemalan women sharing with us about their lives. We also came up with the idea of using a timeline form to help them recall each daily activity. Starting with sunrise, the paper had blocks of blank spaces leading toward sunset. We decided that we would ask the women to illustrate their day by drawing in each of those blocks one daily activity.

Fully prepared, we thought, we left for Guatemala armed with markers, crayons, paper, photos and excitement about our plan. We also asked the other women in our group to come prepared to share about their lives too. Once there, we quickly saw through a previous workshop with men and a session with the children that our workshop was going to be more difficult than we had thought. Contrary to most Americans, when art materials were placed in front of the people we met they seemed to question whether it was okay to touch them and did not seem to know what to do with them when they did. We found that we had to coach them in order to just get the exercise underway. We also found that the women were extremely shy and not easy to convince to share information about themselves. All of these observations began to make us nervous about our workshop.

But, Wednesday came and when we arrived at the church at 8:15 am there were women lined up outside already. We all went in and began setting up. We met our K'ekchi interpreter Paulina, who we immediately loved. She is in her 20s, unmarried and we were excited to find out she is a teacher. Our workshop was expected to be for four hours. At first, that seemed like a very long time, however, once we saw how long it took just to do introductions in three languages we realized that the time was perfect for the number of women there.

There were 14 women and we thought you might like to know some demographic information about them: Ages: 18-22 5
23-30 4
30s 1
40s 2
50s 2
Of these 14 women, one of them had nine children, three had seven each and two had six each. Only three were unmarried. Most of them said they worked only at home, but two said they also worked in stores in front of their homes. Five of them were officers in their church's women's group.

We focused our time together on finding God in our daily lives. We used Colossians 3:17. It says "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

The second part of our workshop was to get the women engaged in our "Day in My Life" drawing project. As you will see from the photos, the women really got into this project. We are not sure why they seemed more at ease with the project than the men and children had earlier. Maybe it was because we seemed less strange to them by then since this was our fourth day in town. Sometimes it was even hard to get them to stop drawing because they wanted to finish their pages. This made our plan of sharing as a large group detour into just sharing at our small table groups. This actually turned out to be a wonderful change.

The women were very open about explaining what they had drawn and we were able to learn even more than we had expected about their lives. Even the K'ekchi women, who did not speak Spanish, were able to tell us through interpreters about their often more simple, almost symbol-like, drawings. We came to realize that some of them understood some Spanish but just were unable to speak it fluently. Once we got going, the conversations back and forth between women of all languages began to flow more normally. We all became less inhibited even about asking more personal questions about each others' lives with our husbands and families. As the questions went back and forth we talked about where we most experienced God as shown in the pictures of our days. At first it was hard for the women to think of their daily work as working for God so they only made references to praying in the morning. But, the more we talked, it became obvious that God was in every part of our days. One of the older women told us that in her morning prayer she always asked God for guidance in what she does that day.

At the end, success was ours! We felt like we had come full circle. We had felt confident at the beginning with our planning, but then began to have doubts the closer it came to our workshop. But then, once into our work with the women we began to see that our plan was working. Our idea of the timeline and drawing were a great way to address the challenges all of us had faced. As we debriefed later with each other and with Ellen, we realized that we had some amazing images from the lives of these hard-working, creative women.

We brought home the drawings made by our new-found sisters. They are a wonderful reminder of the incredible experiences we had together and the joy we saw in their simple, very productive lives. There were no goodbyes but until we see each other again. We are still thinking about how we want to use the drawings that have become inspirational for many of us.


By Soni Castleberry and Sandra Duverge

Bridging the divide...or not

Julio and Gloria are siblings who live with their family in a house in El Estor. Their house is immediately behind one of the houses that we helped lay concrete floor in on Monday.
Julio, 15, is an avid soccer player. He is no longer in school. He helps his older brother make candles mainly for their El Estor neighbors whose houses lack electricity.
Gloria, 17, is a single parent who spends her days helping her mother cook for seven people who live in their family’s compound and hand-washing clothes for all seven people in the family, three times a week.
Julio, Gloria, and Gloria’s three-year-old son live with the parents and younger siblings in one of the two houses on the property. Their older brother (the candle maker) and his family live in another house.
The yard is all dirt, except for a garden of banana trees and sugar cane. We were not invited inside either of the houses, but the houses no doubt have dirt floors just like the nearby house we worked on (until we helped complete the concrete floor Monday afternoon).
It is hot in El Estor, and the houses’ tin roofs make it even hotter inside, though trees shade some of the family’s property. The family’s pigs and chickens wander the yard freely.
Julio, Gloria, and their family are active in the Arca de Noe Presbyterian Church in El Estor, the church which has been our home base in El Estor.
Julio and Gloria were very hospitable and gracious. They showed us around their garden, shared family pictures with us, told us about their dog dying last year, and played Frisbee and marbles with us.
But there were uncomfortable moments, too. I asked Gloria where her esposa (husband) was, and she looked embarrassed and said she had none. (She’s the only mother I’ve met in El Estor who is not married.) I apologized to her for some reason and dropped it, but still wondered about the father.
Playing Frisbee with a large group of boys (including Douglas and Vincent from our group), I called out to Julio to ask him a question, but I had a block on his name and called him “Jose,” after I had just been talking with him for more than an hour. I fear this humiliated him, privately (since we had just spoken for a long time), and publicly, with his friends ribbing him about me getting his name wrong.
Prior to visiting Guatemala we had read in the guidebooks that some Guatemalans are fearful about U.S. people — especially women — visiting because Guatemalans fear that these U.S. people want to kidnap and adopt Guatemalan children. The night before Presbyterian mission worker and host David Wiseman had warned of a rumor around Guatemala about U.S. people taking Guatemalan babies to harvest their organs.
Imagine the surprise that Stephanie felt when adults in Julio and Gloria’s family, upon learning that Stephanie and I had just one child (16-year-old Vincent), offered us Gloria’s three-year-old boy as a child for us to adopt.
At some level, Stephanie was scared and horrified, and so she pretended not to understand. At another level, Stephanie and I had to confess to each other that we have considered adoption and had half joked about looking for a Guatemalan baby on this trip. (Later, in Antigua, we met a number of U.S. couples at various stages in the process of adopting Guatemalan babies.)
Stephanie even conceded to me that she really wants a girl, not a boy, and that something seemed wrong with Gloria’s child. And so we also felt sheepish about “cherry picking” potential adoptees.
On the other hand, the fact that we met only one single parent all day Sunday and Monday —in this gender- and age-stratified culture —may suggest that remaining single is not really a very good option for El Estor women and that a 17-year-old single woman with a three-year-old son may face bleak marriage prospects.
Towards the end of the day, Gloria deduced that one of the youths in our trip (17-year-old Douglas) was her age. She asked if he had a girlfriend. Douglas responded in English that girlfriends cost too much. Stephanie and I decided to translate this liberally, since we felt that a literal translation might be misunderstood. It takes a lot of money to have a girlfriend, we tried to explain in Spanish.
As we left, I also tried to explain that Vincent was my stepson, and that another man was his biological father. Gloria understood and supplied a word for “stepfather” in Spanish that I’ve subsequently had a block on, but also said I was Vincent’s segundo padre. It occurred to me later that perhaps Gloria would also like to have a segundo padre for her son. But perhaps in the K’ekchi culture that is unlikely to happen.
So we felt mixed emotions during the day. Our hosts have been so hospitable and so open to communicate and work with us, and yet a cultural and economic divide still separates us.

Perry Chang (written Monday, July 2)

Monkeys around the Mine

Wednesday morning also saw half a dozen men from our group travel by van to see monkeys in a reserve west of town and the edge of the property of a nearby abandoned nickel mine. This brief trip gave us both relaxed time with some men from the area and a chance to see in person evidence of the area’s economic and ecological contradictions.
A number of us had viewed with concern the YouTube video clip of the Guatemalan authorities removing from the nickel mine property a community of long-term squatters and destroying their homes.
We didn’t get to see the exact the area video depicted. On the way to the reserve, however, we saw the abandoned housing once occupied by mine company workers. The company had exhausted the supply of affordable-to-mine nickel and then shut down operations there.
But the price of nickel has been rising recently, and the company—apparently aided by Guatemalan authorities — has reclaimed its property and has been exploring it for new possible mining sites.
We drive past armed guards and first walked around through the woods watching monkeys in the trees and a huge ant colony bigger than anything I’d seen up in a tree before.
On the way we walked past the house of a finca (plantation) owner as nice as any of our houses in Louisville (no dirt floors) and a fish farm-type pond.
Amazingly, we were then able to walk briefly onto the mining company’s land. What awaited us was one of the strangest sights of our trip.
From the finca owner’s house we had already seen the top of the nickel processing plant peering out above the tree line (we could later see this letter during our Lake Izabal boat ride). Through the fence gate we saw a long, gigantic airstrip whose runway stretched in the direction of the processing plant for as far as the eye could see.
We stood out for several minutes talking on the airstrip (we saw no planes) with no sombra (shade) and got a little too much sun. Woozy from the sun, we let our imaginations run wild as we speculated what the airstrip might be for.
The scene seemed so odd that it made some of us feel like we were in the middle of the scene of a John LeCarre spy novel. Could the nickel mine now be a front for a secret CIA prison? Or a secret base for SPECTRE, the villainous world-conquest organization that James Bond battles in his early movies?
The whole scene pointed to economic and ecological incongruities: The beautiful monkey preserve on the edge of the nickel company land, with its potential for surface mining (on the edge of the mountain the overlooked the mine) and perhaps even mountaintop removal (which some of us had seen in June month in person in Eastern Kentucky).
The sumptuous finca owner’s house, in comparison with the extremely rugged houses we had seen — and tried to improve — in El Estor.
Perhaps most incongruous was the fact that there were connections between the men with us and both of the sites we visited. (It turns out that was probably why we had been able to get by the armed guards.)
Gerardo Pop, pastor of the church we spent the most time at, had told us a story earlier that morning about how he had confronted a finca owner and his family, apparently about their maltreatment of their workers.
Pastor Pop and the family had then developed a relationship, and it was this family’s house we circled on the way to see the monkeys.
Luis, a lay leader at Pastor Pop’s church, it turns out, was also one of the locals who was working with the nickel mine company.
Luis even told us that, if one of us were very ill, we might be able to arrange for a private plane to pick us up on the airstrip and fly us back to the United States.
So we wondered about the justice of the nice house in comparison with the others we had seen or the wisdom of exploring for nickel and constructing an airstrip right next to the monkey preserve.
Yet those we visited had connections with all of this.

Perry Chang

The Volcano That Almost Killed Us

Saturday at 5:30 a.m. Soni, Stephanie, Perry, Doug Sr, Gabe, Luke, Vince, Douglas, Natalie, Daniela, Andrea, Sarah (our YAV), her friend Ryan, and I piled into a van and drove an hour and half to hike up to the top of the Pacayo Volcanoe. When we got to the head of the trail, which was paved for about 50 feet, all we could see was it going up and up and up. Well, we were not quitters so we bravely started up the trail. At the end of the paved section of trail, we realized the adults were already lagging behind. Soni had brought a backpack containing every imaginable medicine. She quickly discovered that there was no way in H-E-double-hockey-sticks that she could make it up with that thing strapped to her back, so us spry young youth took turns carrying it for her. Guides with horses followed our group with horses tempting us to pay to ride up. That just felt plain wrong. We would rather kill ourselves walking than cheat by riding a horse. We got somewhat discouraged by signs that lined the path showing a drawing of the volcano and a little hiker hiking up the mountain. We thought the hiker was showing us our progress up the mountain, but it seemed he wasn't moving at all. Turns out he wasn't moving at all and it was just the volcano logo. After about an hour and a half of walking and resting, walking and resting, we got to the part of the volcano where horses could no longer go and all were forced to continue on foot. Our path was now covered in solidified lava that had erupted 3 months ago. We were forced to climb over this rock and it was as sharp as knifes. Simply placing your hand on the rock would scrape up you hand. This part of the path was even steeper and even more treacherous than the earlier stretch because you had no way to catch yourself because of the sharp rock. We all feared the trek back down. At one point Soni, Stephanie, Vince, Douglas, Natalie, Luke, and I came to a place where the lava rocks were still warm and there was a small fire burning between two of them. We decided to stop and go back. But Gabe, Andrea, Daniela, and Perry had decided to go up even farther -- almost to the very top. We could just barely see them climbing up a thin stretch that was almost vertical. Andrea tried to come down sitting but soon slipped and had to try and regain her balance with out grabbing the rocks to hard. Eventually they all made it down safely. The next stretch found Douglas, Natalie, And I using ALOT of teamwork to try and make it down without getting hurt. It took about a half hour to make it safely off of the lava rock and onto the actual trail. By then we were all ready to get back to Antigua to eat lunch and do some exploring. Unfortunatley, because we went traipsing around Antigua right after lunch, we had no time to rest our legs and some of us (including me) had very sore legs on Sunday.

Rachel Grace Van Marter

Leaving for Antigua

A Taste of Pentecost

A spiritual highlight for many of us on this trip has been praying with the Kek'chi Presbyterians. For example, at the end of elder/deacon training Jane stepped up to close our time together.
"Let us pray," she said, and began her prayer. Suddenly to our surprise a swelling chorus of voices joined with Jane--and we realized that all the Kek'chi elders and deacons were praying aloud with her, each with his own words and in his own language. Several of us (guess who!) were moved to tears. It was like Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came "like the rush of a mighty wind" and the disciples spoke in other tongues.
We had just read from Acts 2 and discussed with the elders and deacons the beginning of the church. Now we were experiencing a taste of Pentecost in Guatemala. We were blessed by this style of participatory prayer at the worship services we attended and at a workshop some of us led for women of the presbytery.

By Eva

Sacred Space

As I write this Saturday morning I'm wearing my Quirigua tee-shirt. Five bucks from a friendly Kek'chi grandmother at this historic Mayan archaelogical site. The Mayan civilization, which extended from the Yucatan in Mexico down into Guatemala and Honduras, lasted less than 1,000 years -- from roughly 100-900 A.D. The civilization, which was comprised primarily of a single dynasty (the Sky) suddenly disappeared for reasons that are not fully known.
Quirigua was an economic, political and cultural center that was an offshoot of a larger community in nearby Copan in Honduras. The "golden age" of Quirigua was 730-790 A.D., the 60-year reign of Cauac Sky. During this time, numerous stelae (vertical carved sandstone monoliths reaching as high as 60 feet) were erected on a vast expanse of grassland between Rio Dulce and Guatemala City near the Honduran border. An acropolis was also constructed on a hill overlooking the field with steep stairs going up to it. A number of other monuments and altars were also built during this time. The steles were built every five years and together document the reign of Cauac Sky. When Mayan civilization disappeared, so too did the archaelogical wonders of Quirigua. They were not rediscovered until the mid-1800s and were not excavated until the 1930s.


They are a wonder to behold. We were awestruck, not just by their beauty, but by their ability to carry us back through the centuries, all the way back to the times of the early Christian church a couple continents away. This unity of the human spirit was particularly powerful at Quirigua as we are in the midst of discovering our unity with the Kek'chi, who are so different but also so like us. Human connections -- the stuff of life itself -- are so powerful at Quirigua that we were mostly left speechless (which you CHPCers who know us so well KNOW must be quit a trick).
David Wiseman shared with us an excerpt of the Popol Vuh, the story of creation as told by the Maya. This is long, but note the parallels to the Biblical creation account. Once again, it's all about human connection.

THE CREATION

Here is the story of the beginning,
when there was not one bird,
not one fish,
not one mountain.
Here is the sky, all alone.
Here is the sea, all alone.
There is nothing more
--no sound, no movement.
Only the sky and the sea.
Only Heart-of-Sky, alone.
And these are his names:
Maker and Modeler,
Kukulkan,
and Hurricane.
But there is no one to speak his names.
There is no one praise his glory.
There is no one to nurture his greatness.

And so Heart-of-Sky thinks,
"Who is there to speak my name?
Who is there to praise me?
How shall I make it dawn?"
Heart-of-Sky only says the word,
"Earth,"
and the earth rises,
like a mist from the sea.
He only thinks of it,
and there it is.

He thinks of the mountains,
and great mountains come.
He thinks of trees,
and trees grow on the land.

And so Heart-of-Sky says,
"Our work is going well."

Now Heart-of-Sky plans the creatures of the forest
--birds, deer, jaguars and snakes.
And each is given his home.
"You the deer, sleep here along the rivers.
You the birds, your nests are in the trees.
Multiply and scatter," he tells them.

Then Heart-of-Sky says to the animals,
"Speak, pray to us."
But the creatures can only squawk.
The creatures only howl.
They do not speak like humans.
They do not praise Heart-of-Sky
And so the animals are humbled.
They will serve those who will worship Heart-of-Sky.

And Heart-of-Sky tries again.
Tries to make a giver of respect.
Tries to make a giver of praise.

Here is the new creation,
made of mud and earth.
It doesn't look very good.
It keeps crumbling and softening.
It looks lopsided and twisted.
It only speaks nonsense.
It cannot multiply.
So Heart-of-Sky lets it dissolve away.

Now Heart-of-Sky plans again.
Our Grandfather and Grandmother are summoned.
They are the most wise spirits
"Determine if we should carve people from wood,"
commands Heart-of-Sky.

They run their hands over the kernels of corn
They run their hands over the coral seeds.
"What can we make that will speak and pray?
What can we make that will nurture and provide?"
asks our Grandmother.
They count the days,
seeking an answer for Heart-of-Sky.

Now they give the answer,
"It is good for you to make people with wood.
They will speak your name.
They will walk about and multiply,"
"So it is," replies Heart-of-Sky.

And as the words are spoken, it is done.
Th doll-people are made
with faces carved from wood.
But they have no blood, no sweat.
They have nothing in their minds.
They have no respect for Heart-of-Sky.
They are just walking about,
But they accomplish nothing.

"This is not what I had in mind,"
says Heart-of-Sky.
And so it is decided to destroy
these wooden people.

Hurricane makes a great rain.
It rains all day and rains all night.
There is a terrible flood
and the earth is blackened.
The creatures of the forest
come into the homes of the doll-people.

"You have chased us from our homes
so now we will take yours,"
they growl.
And their dogs and turkeys cry out,
"You have abused us
so now we will eat you!"
Even their pots and grinding stones speak,
"We will burn you and pound on you
just as you have done to us!"

The wooden people scatter into the forest.
Their faces are crushed,
and they are turned into monkeys.
And this is why monkeys look like humans.
They are what is left of what came before,
an experiment in human design

# # #

And so it goes...

Jerry

Gains and Losses

As we prepared to leave El Estor on Thursday afternoon, many of our thoughts turned to the question: How do we make this an "hasta lluego!" ("see you later!") moment and not an "adios." David Wiseman has drummed into us something we knew already -- that an experience like this is not an end in itself, but the first step along the road to friendship, partnership and solidarity. As I (and others) shared Friday night during our nightly reflection time, we feel like we've made a promising start on the friendship thing. Genuine partnership and solidarity with our Kek'chi brothers and sisters is harder to come by, despite our strong simpatico feelings. We'll be asking all of you to help us figure out how CHPC can turn these first baby steps into a lifelong journey together.

We concluded our stay in El Estor with two watery adventures. In the morning, after a two-hour wait for a second skipper, we traveled by boat across Lake Izabal to the Polochic wildlife refuge. We didn't see the manatees, alligators or howler monkeys, but the profusion of flowers and plants, birds and mosquitos made for a wonderful cruise. To be out on the lake that we had traveled along for days, which we had gazed at from our hotel on the shore, and which gives so much sustenance to the people of El Estor gave us a sense of completion to our stay.
About halfway on our two-hour journey on mostly gravel roads back to Rio Dulce (El Estor is on the western shore of the lake, Rio Dulce is on the eastern shore), we stopped for an hour at a baño termal ("thermal bath"). From the parking lot near the road, a dirt trail followed a small river back into lush woods. After about a five minute walk, the trail suddenly opened up onto a lovely glade with a deep pool of clear water...and a steaming 20-foot waterfall. The water plunging over the falls was ALMOST too hot to touch, but it warmed the pool just enough to create one of God's great swimming holes. We frolicked mightily.
We suffered two painful losses on Thursday. Just before we left, we received the word that Andrea's grandmother had died on Wednesday. We hurt so much for Andrea but thanked God that so much of her CHPC family (particularly Rachel, Natalie and Daniela) was with her to surround her with CHPC love. The past couple of days have been bittersweet for Andrea and for us, but God continues to bless us and this trip, surrounding us with constant reminders of divine presence and care.
The other, more surprising loss, came as we arrived in Rio Dulce. There have been sporadic reports of banditry along the isolated road from El Estor to Rio Dulce. And so, three of our new friends from El Estor followed us in their pickup truck all the way to ensure that we arrived safely. Not only were we sorry to have to say "hasta lluego!" we were deeply moved at their commitment to our safety.
On Thursday night we slept well.
Jerry

Lugrar Sagrado

The Risky Rapids Race

Saying our Good-byes

After three and a half wonderful but exhausting days of worship, workshops, play and floor-pouring, we gathered Wednesday evening for a closing worship service with our Kek´chi brothers and sisters here in El Estor. Thursday afternoon we head back to Rio Dulce (a stopover on our way back to Antigua, where we´ll arrive Friday to complete our stay here in Guatemala.
The closing service was at Iglesia Presbiteriana el Espiritu Santo, a small, rustic (compared to Arca de Noe) church in the San Marcos section of El Estor. Like Noah´s Ark, Holy Spirit has a corrugated tin roof, but the walls are made of sticks and the floor is bare concrete. It has a raised ¨chancel¨with a simple podium draped with a flowered tablecloth, a banner across the back wall depicting a dove descending on an open Bible turned to Luke 8:1, and about a dozen vases filled with artificial flowers lining the front. The sanctuary seats about 80 in a space about a third the size of Arca de Noe. The place was packed -- standing room only.
We were greeted by the house band -- two keyboards badly in need of tuning, an electric bass, and drums. The host pastor welcomed us with words from Psalm 133: ¨How good it is when God´s people dwell in harmony.¨Two thirds of the service was music (we offered up a stirring rendition of ¨Contad al Senor¨). We were particularly moved by a young women who sang a lovely song with about 30 verses and then prayed in a quiet voice that trembled and frequently broke. Nearly all of the songs were sung to vigorous hand-clapping. We (and the Holy Spirit, we´re sure) felt right at home.
Jane spoke briefly (ably translated by Doug): ¨Our Bible teaches us many things, but you have taught us better -- about welcoming strangers, generosity and hospitality. We thank God for you and for being our brothers and sisters.
Our time together concluded with the giving of gifts to each of the six Kek´chi congregations here -- ubiquitous CHPC plates (which are now omnipresent in El Estor as well), soccer balls, matted photos of our grupo taken by Ian, an autographed Doug Yeager flute CD, a parachute (for flinging small objects of your choice up in the air), and suitcase full of arts and crafts supplies (suitcase included).
As a congregation, we will surely be discussing next steps, because each one of us feels a life-long connection to these new brothers and sisters. And that´s what it´s all about, isn´t it -- becoming the ONE body of Christ?
Thanks for all the wonderful comments you are posting here. We treasure them. May God continue to be with us here. May God continue to be with you there.

Jerry

The water wasn´t THAT dirty.....

Caution: Dramatization


You have probably seen the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, where Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and company explore the West Indies for treasure. Imagine our adventure like theirs only on a smaller scale. We began the trip with having to get past a monstrous water snake that blocked our path (some of the locals just found it fun to throw rocks at its innocent little body.) Then our crew entered the eerily beautiful walls of the canyon. We all marveled at the beautiful formation of trees on the walls and the branches and vines that stretched out over us. Not to mention a rock formation that looked like a face. No lie. By the time we reached our destination we were in the midst of dangerous white water rapids, (a small current that had enough push to keep us from moving forward easily.) Andrea bravely attempted to cross the treacherous river, but unfortunately her foot slipped and the rapids pulled her down the canyon. Then Daniela trying to save Andrea from the current was taken by mother nature. The rest followed suit. As the rest of the group entered the water they all suffered the same wrath. Ian, Jerry, and our guide David were taken by the water. Doug Sr. accompanied us with his piccolo music including ¨Grand Ole Flag¨ and ¨Yankee Doodle¨ very appropriate for our date, the 4th of July. After some wading around a race began to form. Ian decided that to finalize the girls´ shower order they would race against the current to a group of rocks. The race started out very close, but Natalie soon lost her right shoe, and Luke pulled down Rachel not knowing that this race for serious goods. Andrea came out on top, with Daniela, Rachel, and Natalie following. We soon packed up our things for the return trip, but the Youth and our Young Adult Volunteer Sarah decided to swim back. It was a rough trip but we ended up surviving, Luke did get Typhoid Fever, just kidding. Everyone ended up being okay. We took a beautiful scenic drive back to the hotel and prepared for the goodbye service with the people of El Estor.

Gabe, Natalie, and Rachel

History Lesson

Happy Fourth of July! After a night in which there was a lot of rain -- which served only to increase the humidity today to about 200% -- Kate and Daniela led our morning devotions today. We were asked to reflect on our experiences with the children here. Then we all prayed to be more childlike -- curious, open, trusting, fun-loving, carefree -- in our approach to life here.
Wednesday morning our 11 women led a workshop for our Guatemalan partner women. Men not allowed. After tossing a nerf football around for a few minutes, the eight men in our grupo were treated to a history lesson by the pastor of Iglesia Presbiteriana Arca de Noe (Noah´s Ark Presbyterian Church), where most of our gatherings are taking place here in El Estor.
Rev. Gerardo Pop told us that the beginnings of the Presbyterian Church in Guatemala date to 1882, when the then-president of the country invited Protestants (specifically the Presbyterian Church in Mexico) to send a missionary to Guatemala as an alternative to the Catholic Church, which had become entrenched and corrupt since priests arrived with ¨the conqueror Christopher Columbus." Through the Presbyterian Church in the United States, missionary John Clark Hill came to country to serve the first Presbyterian church in the country, in a building near the national palace in Guatemala City donated by the government. Thus Central Presbyterian Church in the capital has been the flagship of Presbyterianism here for 125 years now. Typical for Presbyterians, the new church first built a hospital (in 1910) and then a string of schools beginning in 1919.
It was not until 1950 that Presbyterians came to the Kek´chi region of Guatemala. The first ¨missionary¨was a mixed Ladino (Spanish descendant)-Indigenous Guatemalan rancher who has property in this area but who lived most of the time in Guatemala City. Travel back and forth between the capital and El Estor was very difficult then, so in 1960, Presbyterian officials from Guatemala City visited El Estor and seven years later sent the Rev. Oscar Barriento to El Estor to establish a Presbyterian presence among the Kek´chi. Getting started was difficult, because very few Kek´chi were literate in Spanish. So Barriento´s initial efforts consisted of introducing the Spanish language to the Kek´chi.
The first Kek´chi Presbyterian pastor, Julio Izam, was ordained in 1968. Our host, Gerardo Pop, is the fourth. His father, Santiago Pop, converted to Christianity while working as a laborer on a nearby ¨finca¨(plantation) owned by Germans. The German, pleased by Santiago´s conversion, ordered the finca´s whiskey still destroyed "which angered the other workers and so our family was thrown off the finca ... for the Gospel," Gerardo said.
The church has grown steadily in the Kek´chi region of the country and in 1979 the first Kek´chi presbytery was formed. There are now five Kek´chi presbyteries and they recently petitioned the synod (there is only one so it is equivalent to our General Assembly) to form a separate Kek´chi synod -- a highly controversial move that is tantamount to dividing the Presbyterian Church in Guatemala.
Pastor Pop said the Kek´chi desire for its own synod is part of an historical feeling of being marginalized and rendered powerless by the dominant Guatemalan culture. The differences include culture, language, theology and geography, but mostly the issue for the Kek´chi is their geographic isolation from the rest of the country. "No matter where you go,¨" Gerardo said ruefully, "church politics is all the same."
Pastor Pop told us he´s somewhat surprised that his preaching has been accepted. "I told the people that they hear the Bible but don´t live it." He told them: "You are like the garbage that blocks the drain -- until you clear the drain by repenting and acting out the Gospel, Jesus Christ cannot get through." Pop conceded that ¨those are hard words, but the people have accepted them and the church is growing."
He thanked our grupo for backing up his message with our presence here. "Your being here and doing the floors and training our leaders is very important because are doing the Gospel, not just saying the words."
The conversation then turned to the effect of Guatemala´s 36-year civil war (1960-1996) on the church. "The biggest problem was the military, not the guerillas," he said. "When we gathered for worship, the army was suspicious because they felt that whenever the people gathered they were up to no good."
He recounted preaching in one church surrounded by more than 300 government troops, all with their rifles trained on him. "All indigenous people were considered ´collaborators,´ so they asked me all kinds of questions,¨ he said. Finally, two things happened that helped the church, he said: the government began issuing certificates that allowed churches to meet for one hour once a week for worship ... but only during daylight, and a government official who was a member of Central Presbyterian Church persuaded the president to exempt pastors from military conscription. "Otherwise, it would have been much worse," Gerardo said.
The government is still corrupt and inept, he said, "but the military is not nearly so strong, so we are neglected but not threatened." With another presidential election coming up in September (there are 17 candidates on the ballot), Gerardo said that whenever he´s asked which party he supports, he responds: "The Party of Christ."

In a later post, one (or more) of our women will tell you about the women´s workshop. For now, may God continue to bless us here and may God continue to bless you there. Enjoy the fireworks!

Jerry

The Stereotypical American Girl

The Youth Workshop

Tuesday afternoon eight of us and twenty-five Guatemalan jovenes (young people age 13 to 30) gathered at the Arca De Noe church to have a workshop to get to know one another. We split up into four groups consisting of the American and Guatemalan boys and the American and Guatemalan girls. Each group was asked to draw a picture of what they thought their gender of the other nationality is like.
In a nutshell they think all american girls look like Andrea--tall, slender, blonde, beautiful, nice, blue eyes, and smiling. We drew a picture a girl in full traditional dress carrying food on her head and a baby in her arms. We described her as dark skin, long black hair, many children, shy, hardworking, short, and not much education. The Guatemalan boys got really into it and ( literally) drew a picture of David Wiseman (the Missionary) depicting a stereotypical american man. They thought that American men are all tall, light haired, bearded, and blue eyed with glasses. Our boys drew a short black haired dark skined man with short hair, long sleeved shirt and pants, and sandals.The guys thought that Guatemalans were quiet, didn't have alot of technology, and did alot of manual labor. After the activity, we learned that some of our stereotypes were correct while some were not.
After we showed our drawings to each other we were able to ask eachother questions about life in our different countries. The Guatemalans asked questions like "What sports do you play?" "What are your schools like?" and "What do you do while not in school?" We also went around the circle and said the country that we would most like to visit. Most of the Guatemalans said "Estados Unidos" or "Nuevo York" while many of us said New Zealand. Go figure!
This activity made many of us realize that our stereotypes of each other were wrong, and that we have so much more in common than we thought.

This amazing blog has been brought to you by Rachel Grace Van Marter and Natalie Claire Rich!

The Tuesday Morning Building Grupo

Leadership Training Day

While much of the grupo returned to pour another floor Tuesday morning -- Jane, Jerry, Perry, Ada, Eva, Soni and Sarah (our YAV) "conducted" leadership training for a group of 20 elders and deacons (all men) from half a dozen Presbyterian churches in the El Estor area. A fine time was had by all, despite language differences (we had three-way translation -- English, Spanish and Kek'chi), cultural differences, and very different ways of "being church." Still, we found an incredible degree of commonality and desire to serve Jesus Christ.
The morning got off to a slow start, as trying to engage the Kek'chi leaders in conversation about what they do as elders and deacons drew mostly blank stares. They seemed unable to talk conceptually about their responsibilities as church officers. It was only after we gave them markers, crayons and pencils and asked them to draw pictures of what they do that the morning took off. And it REALLY took off. As each participant described his picture, they all began to take increasing pride in what they do for their church and the conversations became very animated.
But the exercise was not without its revelations. From Ada (in Spanish) through Luis (in Kek'chi), I learned that the elder sitting next to me had NEVER before held a pencil or other writing instrument in his hand. Impossible for Norte Americanos to comprehend such a thing. But he proudly drew a rudimentary picture and was extremely articulate in telling us how he serves Christ and his church. It was certainly the highlight of my day.
After the four-hour workshop, we shared a meal together and the elders and deacons, who had taken part of the day off leisurely ate but then hightailed it out of there back to their communities.
Tuesday afternoon, Kate, Ian and our eight high-schoolers led a "workshop" for the youth of Arca de Noe (where all of our sessions are being held). Rachel and Natalie will tell you about that.
Before we came here, we kept telling ourselves that, no matter what "work" we do, this trip is all about building relationships with our Guatemalan partners. What we have learned in abundance is that no matter what activities we engage in with them, relationship-building is the primary focus for ALL of us, CHPCers and Guatemalans. It's a wonderful gift we're receiving every minute of every day.
May God continue to be with us here and may God continue to be with you there.

Jerry

Jose the Happy Homeowner.

Stephanie Hard At Work

You Can Do It, We Can Help (Home Depot... NOT!)

Monday was spent on work projects -- we split into two grupos and helped our Guatemalan partners convert dirt floors to concrete in their houses. This was a little more than your normal home improvement project -- beginning with the working conditions: 90 degrees/95 percent humidity, inside tin roofs/with no electricity. This meant mixing tons of cement by hand (shovels and hoes). At my worksite, Natalie and Andrea were immediately overrun by every kid in the neighborhood (and for all we know several nearby neighborhoods as well). Those of us wheelbarrowing sand and gravel and mixing cement by hand became convinced that Natalie and Andrea were working much harder than we were. This kind of a project becomes a community affair, so the camaraderie was a wonder to behold, and even included the local chickens, pigs and, of course, mosquitos.
The heat and humidity were oppressive but the satisfaction outweighed it all. Evening devotions were mercifully short as we all were more than ready to fall into bed.
Thanks for the comments posted here. We were all very sorry to miss Sarah Colwill at church Sunday morning. She should have been here!
Amy and Alan Pauw asked about the food. Plentiful. We can all vouch for plentiful. Some of us were not thrilled about being served WHOLE fish for lunch today. It tasted wonderful, but Rachel especially was somewhat unnerved about being stared at by her meal. The fresh fruit is delicious, we are getting plenty of chicken and pasta. The tortillas are out of this world. And a highlight for many of us is the fresh fruit juice (mango or pineapple) that we are served each morning and usually at lunch. In this weather, most of us are having trouble drinking enough water, despite our best efforts. Natalie (Phil, don't read this part) says, "We sweat so much we don't have to pee!" She, of course, speaks only for herself (though she insists she speaks "for all the girls.")
Natalie and Ian led devotions Tuesday morning and talked about the prevalence, beauty and God's promise in rainbows. We've seen more of them in the last three days than Ellen Dozier says she's seen in the last year. We consider them a special gift to us and last night we celebrated them and all the many gifts we've received already here.
May God continue to be with us here and may God continue to be with you there.

Jerry

Tres niñas

We showed them our church, they showed us theirs.

Word of the Day: Hospitality

Sorry for the delayed posting here. One of the first things we learned about El Estor is that Internet service (and the three Internet Cafes in town) have sporadic hours on Sunday. We should do better the rest of the week. News has piled up, so today you are only going to hear about our arrival and the day we spent Sunday. Monday´s news will have to wait until Tuesday.
We have been welcomed in Guatemala with incredible hospitality -- at our debriefing after a long day Sunday, "hospitality" was the most frequently mentioned response to our first day here. The drive from the Guatemala City airport to Rio Dulce -- our Saturday night layover -- was about five hours long, over a beautiful road that wandered through spectacular mountains. We are in two vehicles -- a 20 passenger van and a 10 passenger mini-van. We are accompanied by PC(USA) mission co-workers David Wiseman and and Ellen Dozier, Young Adult Volunteer Sarah Robinson, and our sturdy drivers, Martin and Jose. Around dusk we spotted a beautiful rainbow that stretched from horizon to horizon. We all pointed wildly, whereupon Jose told us that among the Kek´chi people, if you point at a rainbow, your finger will fall off. We´ve all been keeping eagle-eyes on our fingers ever since.
Sunday morning we were up early for the two-hour drive to El Estor, a beautiful little town on the shores of Lake Izabal. We were welcomed for worship at Arca de Noe (Noah´s Ark) Presbyterian Church, where the congregation included members from several other Presbyterian Churches in the Lake Izabal area. Seventy-five percent of the population here is Kek´chi, descendents of the Mayans. There is a lovely mural on the back chancel wall depicting Noah´s Ark -- made us wish we´d brought photographs of our now-famous "youth wall." The first thing we discovered, AFTER sitting down, is that women sit on the left and men on the right. After moving to the correct side of the aisle, two guys from a neighboring church lugged a massive wooden marimba (the national instrument of Guatemala) down the center aisle and set it up right in front of the pulpit. We knew immediately this was going to be different. Throughout the service, four guys played simultaneously, sometimes joined by Doug Yeager on flute.
The little church is lovely -- cinderblock walls, tile floor, corrugated tin roof, paneless windows and a sound system far better than CHPC´s. Our entire grupo was invited to offer a song, so we muddled through "I´m Gonna Live So God Can Use Me" -- we surely could have used Lewis Washington in the lead. About halfway through the service, the pastor got up and asked if anyone was prepared to preach. David Wiseman offered a few words, and then Jane. Everything took longer than usual, because three languages were in use -- English, Spanish and Kek'chi. STILL, the service didn´t last much longer than our CHPC semi-marathons. David said it would have been a lot longer, but "I think they were probably expecting us to preach longer."
After lunch (also in the sanctuary), we entertained what seemed to be every kid for 50 miles around. We had planned a number of activities -- bead-stringing, picture-coloring, paper bag puppet-making, jigsaw puzzle-making, and a host of outdoor games. The afternoon started with just a handful of kids from the churches, but before long kids (and their mothers, grandmothers and older siblings) were pouring into the church. It was an extraordinary afternoon, with nothing (not even language or the insufferable heat and humidity) getting in the way. We have no idea who had more fun, the kids or us.
Even though it was a very long day, debriefing Sunday night was exhilarating. We are so blessed already to be here and are so grateful for the prayers and support we feel strongly from all of you.
May God continue to be with us here. And may God continue to be with you there. Adios until Tuesday.

Jerry