January 4 discussion

A group of us met after lunch at Mid-City Mall's #1 Asian Buffet on Sunday to talk about Guatemala mission. We heard from Ellen, one of two Crescent Hill church representatives who participated in a Presbyterian Guatemala mission network gathering in early November in Guatemala. Ellen told us about conversations with pastors of two Estoreño Presbytery congregations whom some of us met on the summer 2007 Guatemala mission trip. Ellen and Carlos also talked about exciting recent communications with one of these pastors, Gerardo. Ellen had received an e-mail and Carlos had spoken by phone with Pastor Gerardo on the previous day. A group of pastors in the presbytery had studied the Philippians passage that Ellen et al. had decided on for December study. Not only did Pastor Gerardo indicate that they were up for a possible late March visit by some of us, but he also said that folks around their congregations and their community had been asking about when we might return.

Carlos also shared with us some prayers concerns that Pastor Gerardo had expressed and asked us to join with them in praying about. Two nearby congregations – one in El Estor, one in an outlying town (“Guitar Village”?) – had approached the fledgling presbytery about associating themselves with the presbytery, and so the presbytery’s Executive Committee (there being no presbytery staff) would be busy teaching leaders of these congregations about evangelical Presbyterianism and in general incorporating them into the presbytery. Gerardo asked for prayers for this incorporation and the Executive Committee members who were to help make it happen. (That makes roughly a dozen churches, missions, and fellowships within the presbytery.)

Ellen, Stephanie, and Pastor Jane had also brainstormed on the same day as these communications and Ellen and Jane talked about a Friday, March 27-Thursday, April 2 trip to Guatemala City, Rio Dulce, El Estor, Rio Dulce, and Guatemala City. Perry had started contact with Soila, a former Honduran mission worker at Crescent Hill now living in Guatemala, for help with logistics and perhaps Guatemala City lodging. There was some concern about whether Sunday, March 29 was in fact Palm Sunday (Holy Week being very important in Guatemala – Palm Sunday is Sunday, April 5 [although March 27-29 is during March Madness]). Jane stressed that we should arrive in El Estor in time for Sunday worship, as we did in 2007. Possibly taking an express bus to Rio Dulce, then waiting for some presbytery leaders to drive us (probably in pickup trucks) to El Estor, we might need to leave Friday. Jefferson County Public Schools spring break starts late Friday afternoon, and we looked at these dates so school personnel and possibly high school juniors or seniors (16 years old or older) could participate in the trip. We continued this timing discussion because it turns out at least one interested school employee was not sure she could get Friday off. (We’d like to include everyone, but is it realistic for us to take a cab to arrive in the Guatemala City airport in early afternoon, take a cab to the bus station, catch an express bus, and get to Rio Dulce in time to sleep in the same hotel as last time and be up for a two-hour pickup truck drive by 6:30 a.m.?)

Jane, Ellen, and Stephanie also envisioned spending two nights in El Estor with church families (two CHPC folks per family), the CHPC folks taking the families grocery shopping (and paying for it), spending time in Bible study and development of a draft partnership compact (which we would then submit to the CHPC session and presbytery Executive Committee for consideration and possible final approval) (instead of us leading any workshops and helping out with construction or other work projects), and then leaving after 2 ½ days for Rio Dulce and then heading for museum-ing for 1 ½ days or so in Guatemala City, perhaps spending two nights at the Mennonite facility Soila helps run. (We’ve also mused about Soila helping arrange our express tickets, etc., although it’s not clear how we’d compensate her for helping us out.) (Bible study and compact construction will present some English-Spanish-K’ekchi translation challenges – for reading, writing, and discussion.) Carlos also proposed we stay at his brother’s hotel in Antigua (and his brother has helped pay for Carlos’ phone calls to Pastor Gerardo). Ellen had some ideas of Guatemala City history and culture museums that might help us understand more about Guatemalan and K’ekchi dynamics.

If there are model compacts we are reviewing, we might share those with Pastor Gerardo and colleagues (by e-mail or Word attachment). (There is also a debate about whether we can regular-mail them anything.)

Jane estimated the trip might cost about $1,200 (with plane fare running around $800). The Outreach Council has some discretionary money, but not the couple thousand extra dollars it had hoped to allocate all to Guatemala mission. There may be a small amount of money left in the Guatemala partnership fund (from sale of the cards), which we would try to replenish (and which falls outside of the regular church budget, and so it can accumulate across years). We batted around some ideas for a once-a-year fundraiser, including cooking and serving (or sending home?) Guatemala food, an auction/silent auction of church furniture etc. that we could part with, and a dinner theater event (and joint fund-raiser) with the women’s Guatemala theater group performing and Guatemalan food served. Fund-raising might lower the per person cost and/or might (with any supplementary church funds?) might help cover or cover costs for others who had helped organize or lead this or other trips (as in previous trips) (like Ben or Ellen?).

The following people expressed interest in going: Perry, Ellen, Claudia, Martha, Ben, Jane, and Lowell. Before leaving before the end of the meeting, Jerry, Eva, and Luke had said they would consider it. (Perry had also mentioned this after church to other young people from the previous trip not present at the after-church discussion: Gabe, Andrea, Natalie, and Rachel. Three other CHPC young people went in 2007. Participants from our early December slide-show discussion were Doug (Sr.), Marian, and Stephen. Several others not present participated in earlier 2008 and fall 2007 discussions.)

We had talked about sending four or five adults/young people. The relative outpouring of interest (16 people all together Sunday) suggested to us four to eight people, preferably with at least an intermediate Spanish speaker as one of the two staying with each family and with a couple of young people (as well as a mix of women and men, in general). The trip might be mildly strenuous as in late March it could be hot in El Estor and getting between Rio Dulce and El Estor might involve two two-hour rides in the backs of pickup trucks.

Jane suggested that folks interested in serving on a Guatemala mission task force – in the medium and long run - let Perry know (Lowell did let Perry know) and folks interested in mapping out a trip to meet at 7 p.m., this Wednesday (January 7) somewhere at church. Ben was to check on line for plane and express bus rates and availability. Soni (whether or not she is able to attend) was to ponder fund-raising. Perry was to follow up with Soila. Carlos was to follow up with Pastor Gerardo (particular on whether those dates would work and pairs of CHPCers staying with families would work). (Part of the object of the staying with families was for individuals to get to know each other and to share more about each other’s culture.) (The leaving Friday vs. leaving Saturday discussion was still open at the end of the conversation.) The idea is that we will help put together an after-lunch (Fellowship Hall?) lunch event at which Ellen and Stephanie will talk with interested people in the congregation about their November trip and we’ll let CHPC folks know more about ideas for the March trip (kind of like a combination of Jerry’s Russia mission/Russian lunch with the Guatemalan lunch we put together in December 2006 for those considering going on – or just wanting to know more about – the summer 2007 Guatemala mission trip). (Jerry was to also gather together some thoughts about the senior high school Sunday school class’s grappling with the Philippians passage and apparently we would translate this short summary into Spanish and communicate this to Estoreño folks.)

The task force might help decide when to make trips, how to communicate with Estoreño Presbytery folks and with the congregation and Louisville community about Estoreño -CHPC mission, when to invite Estoreño folks up here, what kind of projects to undertake, and how to extend this mission into partnering with other United Crescent Hill Ministries congregations to do outreach with Guatemalan Americans and other Latinos living in the Louisville near east side.

Join us at Wednesday’s meeting, join the task force, consider going on the trip, and offer your advice and prayers on the trip and the entire mission endeavor.

Incidentally, a leisurely general discussion followed most of the business part of Sunday’s discussion, a general discussion in which a number of people offered their thoughts. Nora talked about how difficult as a Guatemalan American it is to watch North Americans – apparently even CHPCers – leave half-full plates of food un-eaten. Ellen, Soni, and (implicitly) Stephanie discussed whether Pastors Gerardo and Pablo really understood the cards project. Soni thought they at least understood how art work developed by Estoreno women had helped CHPC folks raise money to go back to Guatemala. But Ellen and Carlos thought that the pastors might not understand what the cards were for. Guatemalan culture – and perhaps in particular K’ekchi culture – it turns out – is a more oral culture. The concept of writing thank you notes for example might be foreign to many Guatemalans. However, later on, we came back to this. Sharing cultures might be as important a part of this mission endeavor as anything else. Just as we might learn something from the Guatemalans about different ways of harvesting resources (like food), the Guatemalans might learn something from us about different says of expressing gratitude (writing thank you notes) (something we talked about in Sunday morning’s session meeting also. (Also participating in Sunday’s discussion were Ana and Phil.)

-- Perry