You're invited!

Be part of the conversation about Crescent Hill’s Guatemala mission partnership. Join us at a gathering of the Guatemala mission partnership task force at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 6, at Ken and Amy Linfields’ home (directions and contact information below). We’ll start with reflections on Acts 2. Everyone is welcome!

Pictures of the landmark meeting

Laura helped open - with reflection on scripture - tonight's meeting of Crescent Hill church's session, at which elders serving on the session approved the church's partnership plan with the Q'eqchi' Estoreño, Izabal Presbytery. Pastor Jane (below) followed session meeting discussion with a smile.

Ana, Carlos, Anita, and Eva (below) took the discussion seriously.

Stephen (below) listened carefully.

Marcus (below) looked over written information carefully.

Peter took careful notes about the brief Guatemala mission partnership discussion and other debates.

We helped close the meeting (in a still picture and short video clip below) by singing - in Spanish and English - "Song of Hope" - the same song the spring 2007 Guatemala mission team sang in worship services at Iglesia Familia de Noe and Iglesia Arca de Noe a month ago.

-- Perry

We're official!

Having already listed the Guatemala mission trip worship service this past Sunday as one of the occasions in the last month during which they felt God’s presence, elders currently serving on the Crescent Hill church session this evening approved with little discussion the partnership and partnership plan between Crescent Hill and the Q’eqchi’ Estoreño, Izabal Presbytery. We’ll share news of this – and the content of the information given to the session (text below) - with our new partners.

March 29-30 discussions between members of the spring 2009 Guatemala mission team (Perry Chang, Ellen Dozier, Jane Larsen-Wigger, Ben Langley, Lowell Linder, and Luke Van Marter) and leaders of Guatemala’s Q’eqchi Estoreño, Izabal Presbytery produced a partnership plan that include:

Regular prayer for each other.
- At least monthly e-mail communication, with sharing of celebrations, prayer concerns, and news (possibly supplemented by telephone conversations).
- Joint scripture study – this spring, of the second chapter of Acts, leading up to Pentecost Sunday, May 31.
- A Saturday morning, September 19 Crescent Hill church prayer vigil and fast, timed to coincide with the start of the Estoreño Presbytery annual meeting.
- Additional travel and visits as possible.

In May we’ll be praying for the following Estoreño Presbytery churches:
- La Union mission church, pastors Pablo Sacul Chub, Antonio Tec, and Robert Caal, and worshipers there (on Sunday, May 3 and during the week that follows).
- El Chupon mission church, pastors Gerardo Ich Pop and Antonio Tec, and worshipers there (on Sunday, May 10, and during the week that follows).
- Arca de Noe church in central El Estor, Pastor Gerardo Ich Pop, and church elders, deacons, and members (on Sunday, May 17 and during the week that follows).
- Altar de Noe church in the Los Cerritos neighborhood of El Estor, Pastor Raul Contreras, and church elders, deacons, and members (on Sunday, May 24, and during the week that follows).
- Espiritu Santo church in the San Marcos neighborhood of El Estor, Pastor Jose Domingo Xo Ical, and church elders, deacons, and members (on Sunday, May 31 and during the week that follows).

-- Perry

Amigos de K'ekchi news

Roger Marriott e-mailed us that the Amigos de K’ekchi gathering this past weekend in Spokane went well. The Amigos group brings together half a dozen different Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations and presbyteries that have partnered with Q'eqchi' communities and presbyteries in Guatemala. He said the group, which sponsored a trip to Peten earlier this month, is putting together a steering committee and asked our church to nominate a representative. He and Tracey King are to be involved in the committee. Roger is a PC(USA) mission co-worker who works with the K’ekchi in Guatemala. Tracey is the PC(USA)’s regional liaison to Central America. She is based in Nicaragua. Each of the congregations/presbyteries represented in the Nashville gathering some of us attended last July would also have reps on the committee. They might meet by Skype. The larger Guatemala Mission Network will apparently gather in Cincinnati in connection with the PC(USA) mission conference this October. Instead of trying to meet there, Amigos – with reps of partner congregations and presbyteries – might gather next at the Nazarene Center in Coban (pictured above), in north central Guatemala – somewhat a la the Lago Amatitlan Guatemala Mission Network gathering that Stephanie, Ellen, Pastor Gerardo, and Pastor Pablo participated in this past November.

-- Perry

Pastor José of Iglesia Monte Sinai

Guatemala features two port towns on its eastern coast, on the Gulf of Honduras - one nearer the country's northern border and its border with Belize (Livingston) - which also features an Afro-Caribbean Garifina population - and one nearer the country's southern border and its border with Honduras (Puerto Barrios). Traveling from Guatemala City northeast towards El Estor, if one keeps going on the main road - instead of turning north towards Rio Dulce - one heads straight for Puerto Barrios.

The Estoreño Presbytery now has one church each in or near these two towns (both more ethnically and linguistically diverse than El Estor). The pastor from the farthest away church - the one near Puerto Barrios, José Sub, also traveled to El Estor to visit with us during the summer 2007 mission trip. José is picture above - to the right of his Livingston counterpart (Abelino Tec Chub) - just minutes after he disembarked from the microbus from El Estor - before these two pastors went their separate ways towards the two different port areas.

Pastor José church is the Iglesia Monte Sinai (Mt. Sinai) in the San Carlos El Porvenir village, outside of Puerto Barrios. The church has some 135 members. The presbytery ordained José in November 2007, just a few months after we'd met him during our 2007 trip. It seems that José is one of the pastors whose Q'eqchi' is better than his Spanish. He sat silently while Pastor Gerardo talked during a conversation that took place during the 2007 women's workshops. Then José traveled with a group of us men to the monkey preserve near the nickel mine.

After Pastor Abelino and his family left, a truckload of the El Estor area pastors - who had been - like last time - tailing us - appeared and Pastor José and they walked up to our hotel rooms with us. For a few minutes - while Benjamin went to buy them sodas - they relaxed on the balcony outside of our rooms. Then they we were off - in José's case - headed for a bus to Puerto Barrios, and in the others' cases - headed in the truck back to El Estor. We felt a little sheepish showing off our relatively luxurious hotel accommodations. But we got to say good-bye and I showed some of my pictures to some of the pastors (on the camera itself). We hope Pastor José's bus ride was mercifully short.

-- Perry

En route

Somewhat a la the 2007 trip, the Espiritu Santo church was the last one we stopped at. Wrapping up our partnership discussions with "Unidos, Unidos," having lunch together (without Serafina), and then Ben videotaping some greetings to us (which we saw in Sunday worship), we then jumped in another microbus, with our stuff, that Pastor Gerardo had corraled for us in downtown El Estor. The bus already had a couple of passengers, and Ellen worked hard to have additional passengers they were taking on because she knew Gerardo had already offered what would be a very good price for a very full bus. And so we didn't entirely replicate the experience of bussing to El Estor. Instead of 21 people, there were more like 10. And, in fact, we ended up feeling a little bad as the bus emptied out a little more and the driver wouldn't stop along the way to pick up a woman and child a couple of times. I was chatting so much with Ellen that too my discredit I essentially forgot that the two pastors of Estoreño Presbytery churches near the Gulf of Honduras coast - in the very far eastern part of the presbytery - were riding with us to Rio Dulce. We passed close to the shores of Lago Izabal again on the way.

-- Perry

From the new president

Below is the text of an e-mail message from the president of the Estoreño Presbytery's new youth and young adult organization, Iglesia Arca de Noe's Armando Chub (shown in the picture above on the far right):

Hermanos en Cristo de la Iglesia de Crescent Hill: Tengo el gusto de saludarles en este dia tan muy especial que nos da o regala nuestro creador y permanece para siempre, para mi es el gusto de saudarle a todo los hermanos de su diglesia los ancianos y pastora y sociedades de jovenes les mando un saludo a todo por recordarle que han venido a visitar a nuestro Iglesia Presbiteriana Arca de Noe de aqui en nuestro municipio de El Estor Izabal me despido de ustedes y atento servidor Armando que dios les vendiga.