After church

The meeting was held at church after worship after being cancelled the day before due to snow. Those present shared prayer concerns and Perry opened the meeting at 12:30 p.m. with prayer for those concerns and for the groups and congregations within our partnership that we prayed for today and will pray for in February. Appreciation also was expressed to Nora Lara for the delicious authentic Guatemalan food she prepared for all to share.

History of our partnership – Perry began the meeting with a quick summary including:

- 2007 – First trip to El Estor with 19 adults and youth. PRESGOV and the Lara family helped Perry and Ada to arrange the trip. Travelers stayed at a motel in El Estor.

- 2008 – Stephanie and Ellen went to a retreat center in southern Guatemala for a meeting and met with some of our partners during that time.

- 2009 – Six CHPC members traveled back to El Estor in April and stayed with some of our partner families. During this visit the details of our official partnership were finalized. Ellen and Ben were the primary coordinators of this trip.

Trip possibilities – Perry handed out copies from the CHPC blog with ideas for a trip this year to Guatemala as well as information gathered to date on possible times. Check out other blog entries about this. After further discussion, it appeared that the July dates were more likely. Those present were encouraged to decide about their own participation in the trip as well as to talk to other folks who might be interested in going. There was some discussion about what to do about youth participation in the trip since many of our youth are attending Triennium this year thus could not afford, or have time, for both trips. Some questions arose about possible insurance issues especially in regard to minors. Perry agreed to check on how this was handled on previous trips.

Next meetings - Since we didn’t get to call Pastor Pop today because we forgot to bring his phone number and we need to begin planning this next trip, we agreed to meet this Saturday, Feb. 6, 9:30 am, at the home of Perry Chang and Stephanie Gregory, 3928 Kennison Ave., in St. Matthews. All are encouraged to attend. In case of a snow cancellation, we will email folks, or you can call Perry and Stephanie at 384-4339. We also decided to set a regular meeting time for the task force usually on the 1st Saturday of the month at 9:30 am. The next meetings would be Mar. 6, Apr. 3, May 8 (a week late due to Derby) and June 5. Meeting places to be announced.

-- Soni