Crescent Hill church folks recently received notes from the late April gathering of Amigos de K’ekchi, the network of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) presbyteries and congregations working with Q’eqchi’ presbyteries and congregations, primarily in north central Guatemala.
Crescent Hill folks participated in a similar gathering last summer, in Nashville, and hope to stay connected with this group. A different group, the Guatemala Mission Network, which focuses on all of Guatemala, has also garnered Crescent Hill participation and may do so again when they congregate in October as part of the PC(USA) Mission celebration there.
Judging from the notes, the April gathering, which no Crescent Hill person was able to be there for, focused on three transitions:
Follow-up to the PC(USA)’s suspension of funding for education of disadvantaged people in Guatemala – including for theological education of the Q’eqchi’ and other Mayan indigenous people – and the possibility of some pilot projects to get the funds flowing again. The Walton Funds came from WalMart widow Helen Walton, a Presbyterian, after she visited Guatemala.
Follow-up to the PC(USA)’s partial withdrawal of participation in PRESGOV, an organization that was to facilitate partnership among PC(USA) presbyteries and congregations and those of the Guatemalan evangelical Presbyterian church (the IENPG), which had devolved into a short-term mission trip travel agency and then only that. Crescent Hill worked with PRESGOV on planning the summer 2007 Izabal mission trip and the PC(USA)’s decision not to send replacements for David and Jeanne Wiseman, who helped lead that trip, marked a nadir in the IENPG-PRESGOV-PC(USA) relationship. A challenge is that the Guatemalan church leans more heavily to the Ladinos (the dominant lighter skinner, Spanish-speaking cultural group), instead of the Q’eqchi’ and other Mayan indigenous groups. For Crescent Hill’s spring 2009 church we planned the trip more ourselves, working also with friends (Soila and Jeff) at the Mennonite SEMILLA organization. It apparently has worked with several PC(USA) presbyteries and congregations on summer 2009 mission trips. Whether PRESGOV will actually function better without North American staff such as David Wiseman and be able to reconnect with more PC(USA) folks and refocus its work on partnerships more broadly – instead of just these short-term mission trips – remains to be seen. A related issue that Amigos folks discussed in Spokane was whether short-term mission trips are a good idea at all. (Of course, most of the partnerships that Amigos incorporates started with short-term mission trips.)
A third transition that the gathering took up was to what extent and how the Amigos group might function not just as a network of disparate PC(USA) groups involved in partnerships with Q’eqchi’ peers, but how it might function as a stand-alone organization as a whole. Immediately before the Spokane gathering a group of Amigos folks traveled together to north central Guatemala, before fanning out to connect with various partners and then returning to the United States to go to Spokane. A challenge in working with Amigos folks: Most of these congregations and presbyteries have been working with Q’eqchi’ folks in Izabal for years, and many of their partners are in north central Guatemala (where many Q’eqchi people live), while the Q’eqchi folks we just started working with in the past couple of years are in far eastern Guatemala. It’s also possible to interpret some of what went on at the Nashville Amigos gathering that some Crescent Hill folks attended last summer as a summit on development issues that Q’eqchi’ regions face. Crescent Hill folks and our partners just don’t have the resources, vision, experience, and even inclination to start out trying to solve key social and economic development issues in the Iaabal region. It appears that transfers of money from North American Presbyterians to their Q’eqchi’ partners is a key part of some of these partnerships, and we have shied away from starting it like that.
Hopefully, additional fruitful communication among Crescent Hill, the PC(USA), the Amigos, the mission network, the IENPG/PRESGOV, Q’eqchi’ partners, and PC(USA) mission co-workers such as Roger Marriott, Gloria Marriott (who worshiped at Crescent Hill earlier this summer), Marcia Towers, Karla Koll, and Dennis Smith will continue.
-- Perry
Crescent Hill folks participated in a similar gathering last summer, in Nashville, and hope to stay connected with this group. A different group, the Guatemala Mission Network, which focuses on all of Guatemala, has also garnered Crescent Hill participation and may do so again when they congregate in October as part of the PC(USA) Mission celebration there.
Judging from the notes, the April gathering, which no Crescent Hill person was able to be there for, focused on three transitions:
Follow-up to the PC(USA)’s suspension of funding for education of disadvantaged people in Guatemala – including for theological education of the Q’eqchi’ and other Mayan indigenous people – and the possibility of some pilot projects to get the funds flowing again. The Walton Funds came from WalMart widow Helen Walton, a Presbyterian, after she visited Guatemala.
Follow-up to the PC(USA)’s partial withdrawal of participation in PRESGOV, an organization that was to facilitate partnership among PC(USA) presbyteries and congregations and those of the Guatemalan evangelical Presbyterian church (the IENPG), which had devolved into a short-term mission trip travel agency and then only that. Crescent Hill worked with PRESGOV on planning the summer 2007 Izabal mission trip and the PC(USA)’s decision not to send replacements for David and Jeanne Wiseman, who helped lead that trip, marked a nadir in the IENPG-PRESGOV-PC(USA) relationship. A challenge is that the Guatemalan church leans more heavily to the Ladinos (the dominant lighter skinner, Spanish-speaking cultural group), instead of the Q’eqchi’ and other Mayan indigenous groups. For Crescent Hill’s spring 2009 church we planned the trip more ourselves, working also with friends (Soila and Jeff) at the Mennonite SEMILLA organization. It apparently has worked with several PC(USA) presbyteries and congregations on summer 2009 mission trips. Whether PRESGOV will actually function better without North American staff such as David Wiseman and be able to reconnect with more PC(USA) folks and refocus its work on partnerships more broadly – instead of just these short-term mission trips – remains to be seen. A related issue that Amigos folks discussed in Spokane was whether short-term mission trips are a good idea at all. (Of course, most of the partnerships that Amigos incorporates started with short-term mission trips.)
A third transition that the gathering took up was to what extent and how the Amigos group might function not just as a network of disparate PC(USA) groups involved in partnerships with Q’eqchi’ peers, but how it might function as a stand-alone organization as a whole. Immediately before the Spokane gathering a group of Amigos folks traveled together to north central Guatemala, before fanning out to connect with various partners and then returning to the United States to go to Spokane. A challenge in working with Amigos folks: Most of these congregations and presbyteries have been working with Q’eqchi’ folks in Izabal for years, and many of their partners are in north central Guatemala (where many Q’eqchi people live), while the Q’eqchi folks we just started working with in the past couple of years are in far eastern Guatemala. It’s also possible to interpret some of what went on at the Nashville Amigos gathering that some Crescent Hill folks attended last summer as a summit on development issues that Q’eqchi’ regions face. Crescent Hill folks and our partners just don’t have the resources, vision, experience, and even inclination to start out trying to solve key social and economic development issues in the Iaabal region. It appears that transfers of money from North American Presbyterians to their Q’eqchi’ partners is a key part of some of these partnerships, and we have shied away from starting it like that.
Hopefully, additional fruitful communication among Crescent Hill, the PC(USA), the Amigos, the mission network, the IENPG/PRESGOV, Q’eqchi’ partners, and PC(USA) mission co-workers such as Roger Marriott, Gloria Marriott (who worshiped at Crescent Hill earlier this summer), Marcia Towers, Karla Koll, and Dennis Smith will continue.
-- Perry
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