Sunday morning, after sleep and breakfast with our bost families, the families help get all of us to the Iglesia Arca de Noe, the largest Presbyterian church in town, which had essentially been our base of operations in 2007. We chit chatted with each other – including some calls on Raul’s cell phone home (including one that told us the bad news about the Louisville-Michigan State basketball game). (Above, many of us posed for a picture, including Jesus, a woman I remembered from the 2007 trip - and a woman who my notes suggest is married to Pastor Fidel of the Iglesia Peniel church. ) (Below Pastors Jose Domingo and Raul and Pastors Benjamin and Abelino Tec chat.)
Then we sat down together. Two years ago some of us had sat down with presbytery leaders, David Wiseman, and Martin to negotiate the plan for workshops and cementing floors of homes, while the children’s workshop went on. Somewhat on purpose, most of us sat on one side of a large circle, and many of them sat on another side. This ostensibly allowed Ben and Ellen to do nearly simultaneously translation from Spanish into English. These two also took turns translating what the rest of us said in English (except for what we said to each other) into Spanish. Periodically, Pastor Gerardo – Arca de Noe’s pastor and the presbytery’s treasurer – translated from Spanish into Q’equchi’ – as some of the pastor’s Spanish skills were weak – and – eventually – sometimes some extended Q’equchi’ conversation ensued.
As the program (see “Sunday (March 29) schedule”) shows, Pastor Pablo – the presbytery president – read some scripture and began with some remarks, and then there was general conversation. Pablo and Gerardo and Pastora Juanita, among others, each said something about their hopes for the possible partnership. And we also spent some time giving each other background information about the presbytery (Estoreño) or the church (Crescent Hill). In this the information in their pamphlet (found in “Information about the Estoreño Presbytery” blog entry) was invaluable. They stressed that theirs was a presbytery committed to growth and new church development, with some three or four congregations started in the previous six months. We stressed that we were a medium-sized church, struggling like them with issues of (slight) growth and building improvement, with some theological expertise, creativity, curiosity, and Spanish speakers and familiarity and interest in Latin America cultures. (Below Pastors Gerardo and Benjamin and our Benjamin talk while others listen.)
Half way through the discussion we took a break and several of us wondered down to some stores – including the bakery – that had been staples of our 2007 trip. (Several hours later, on our way to the next stop, we drove a couple blocks away from our 2007 hotel, but we never did get all the way down there and see the lake, the docks, and the bright colored City Hall.)
Early on we had been seated in a relatively wide circle. As the sun shifted, we moved our seats also. And after the break we moved our chairs closer, starting a process that would continue Monday. After 12 noon we wrapped things up, to be continued Monday. I was very impressed with the Estoreño folks. There were moments when many of them spoke up, instead of the most educated and skilled in Spanish speaking up. At one point a new person, Luis Boztoc, the vice president of the presbytery, a Arca de Noe layperson who had been important in 2007 (including taking the men to the monkey preserve and nickel mine), appeared and joined us. I was also excited about how the conversation had gone, but still was a little anxious about how we’d do coming up with something on Monday.
(One distracting feature of the discussion before break was there was a worship service going on – partly with people from a mission church we would visit later that day – that was quite loud at times. This made it hard for everyone to hear.)
We had lunch – fish again – in a room near the sanctuary. And we relaxed some before our departure, as Luke continued to play frisbee – and occasionally soccer – with some kids who had gathered (who asked a lot about where Douglas (Yeager Jr.) was), and occasionally adults.
(Pictured below is Pastor Abelino Tec and his wife Sarafina and their children Noe and Isaac.)
As the program (see “Sunday (March 29) schedule”) shows, Pastor Pablo – the presbytery president – read some scripture and began with some remarks, and then there was general conversation. Pablo and Gerardo and Pastora Juanita, among others, each said something about their hopes for the possible partnership. And we also spent some time giving each other background information about the presbytery (Estoreño) or the church (Crescent Hill). In this the information in their pamphlet (found in “Information about the Estoreño Presbytery” blog entry) was invaluable. They stressed that theirs was a presbytery committed to growth and new church development, with some three or four congregations started in the previous six months. We stressed that we were a medium-sized church, struggling like them with issues of (slight) growth and building improvement, with some theological expertise, creativity, curiosity, and Spanish speakers and familiarity and interest in Latin America cultures. (Below Pastors Gerardo and Benjamin and our Benjamin talk while others listen.)
Half way through the discussion we took a break and several of us wondered down to some stores – including the bakery – that had been staples of our 2007 trip. (Several hours later, on our way to the next stop, we drove a couple blocks away from our 2007 hotel, but we never did get all the way down there and see the lake, the docks, and the bright colored City Hall.)
Early on we had been seated in a relatively wide circle. As the sun shifted, we moved our seats also. And after the break we moved our chairs closer, starting a process that would continue Monday. After 12 noon we wrapped things up, to be continued Monday. I was very impressed with the Estoreño folks. There were moments when many of them spoke up, instead of the most educated and skilled in Spanish speaking up. At one point a new person, Luis Boztoc, the vice president of the presbytery, a Arca de Noe layperson who had been important in 2007 (including taking the men to the monkey preserve and nickel mine), appeared and joined us. I was also excited about how the conversation had gone, but still was a little anxious about how we’d do coming up with something on Monday.
(One distracting feature of the discussion before break was there was a worship service going on – partly with people from a mission church we would visit later that day – that was quite loud at times. This made it hard for everyone to hear.)
We had lunch – fish again – in a room near the sanctuary. And we relaxed some before our departure, as Luke continued to play frisbee – and occasionally soccer – with some kids who had gathered (who asked a lot about where Douglas (Yeager Jr.) was), and occasionally adults.
(Pictured below is Pastor Abelino Tec and his wife Sarafina and their children Noe and Isaac.)
-- Perry
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