Tax Night conversation

Carlos and Ellen met Wednesday night (April 15) to settle on resources about Pentecost to pass on to the Estoreño leaders and ended up also talking with Pastor Gerardo of the Arca de Noe church in El Estor. Ellen and Ben had both talked with Gerardo during the last couple of days of the mission team’s stay in Guatemala, and Ben had talked with Gerardo soon after our return. Ellen had also exchanged e-mail with Rene. But this was the first full-blown conversation after some time had elapsed since the trip.

Gerardo indicated that Estoreño folks continued to be energized by our conversation. He said people were looking forward to Crescent Hill folks returning for another visit – with more people – as they hoped more families could host us – as visiting angels. Carlos and Ellen promised to send Pentecost resources no later than next week. Later they also said we might supplement at least monthly e-mail exchange with at least monthly telephone conversations. The two of them reached Carlos when he was at Arca de Noe’s mission church west of town, at El Chupon. Carlos and Ellen – and I, after I arrived – again talked about a possible future visit of Estoreño folks to the United States and our hopes and fears about this.

Gerardo also said that women active in Estoreño congregations would cement formation of a presbytery-wide Presbyterian Women organization tomorrow (Thursday) by installing Estoreño PW leaders. Leaders within the national evangelical Presbyterian Church’s Presbyterian Women, with which Ellen and Amanda have worked, would attend. Ellen knows some of these women and says they will have traveled some 12 hours from near the Pacific coast – all the way across the country – to reach El Estor. This coming week a similar gathering will take place for a new Estoreño youth and young adult organization.

During Easter Sunday worship and throughout this week, Crescent Hill folks have been praying for adult women and youth and young adults assembling in these gatherings. We hope and pray that the official selection of designated presbytery youth and young adult and Presbyterian Women leaders will give all of us an opportunity to involve Estoreño young people and adult women more directly in partnership conversations with us (conversations that male pastors have dominated on their end).

Carlos and Ellen talked about two sets of resources they had in front of them and decided to take a Spanish-language text with background information about Pentecost (which is coming up in about six weeks) – which I have asked them to translate into English – and excerpt. They are taking out a few sentences that clearly reflect Roman Catholic theology – which might turn off among others our Estoreño partners – and then leaving paragraphs on the history of Pentecost, on the meaning of Pentecost, and on a couple of symbols of Pentecost, plus a closing prayer. From a study resource in Spanish and English that I found on the Web, they opted to send to the Estoreño folks the entire second chapter of Acts text – broken up into two halves – which sets of half a dozen study questions – pretty cut and dry, factual, basic reading-comprehension questions for the most part. These questions may seem rather narrow to some Crescent Hill folks. By sending these – plus the text itself – we’ll be suggesting that our partners start off with the kind of study guides they’re most used to – and go from there. Immediately before or after Pentecost Sunday, we may send a couple of broader, more critical reflection questions.

I will also post the English versions of this text and the questions. Many of us may profit from starting off with this more cut and dry approach, and not only to be in solidarity with our partners.

-- Perry