Latest trip info

10-12 Crescent Hill church folks and 10-12 Estoreño Presbytery folks will meet in July in Coban, urban-metropolitan capital of Guatemala’s Mayan Q’eqchi’ culture. On the agenda:
- a visit to the La Patria Presbyterian school in Coban and Sunday worship together
- Bible study focused on the partnership
- Wall of Wonder activity about the partnership
- outreach/mission/evangelism: sharing strategies dialogue
- a talk by Nazarene Pastor Delia Leal and walk through Coban
- a Finca Santa Margarita (coffee plantation) tour in Coban
- a visit to the Principe Mayan archeological museum in Coban
- a possible visit to the Semuc Champey waterfall area outside of Coban
- meals, devotions, free time, and closing worship together

Also on the agenda for the trip after the Estoreño and Crescent Hill folks leave Coban;
- a day or two of eating, relaxing, and free time in Antigua, old Spanish colonial city
- a possible afternoon Guatemala City museum visit

Crescent Hill folks on this tour will depart from Louisville on the morning of Saturday, July 10, and return to Louisville on the evening of Saturday, July 17. The trip will include two five- to six-hour van rides and accommodations in a church retreat center in Coban and in hotels in Antigua and Guatemala City.

By making the trip and participating in the rendezvous in Coban, Crescent Hill folks will be sustaining and extending the church’s one-year-old partnership with the Estoreño Presbytery, as folks participating get to know their Estoreño counterparts; engage in sharing, learning, and reflection together; and make plans for the partnership’s future.

Trip participants should include men and women, people with and without Spanish-language skills, Guatemala mission trip veterans and first-timers, and people of various ages, from 11th grade on up. The cost of the trip, before fund-raising, will be $1,200 to $1,500. Additional financial aid for trip participants may be available.

Before the trip, participants are expected to make installment payments, which will include a $250 deposit by Easter Sunday (April 4). (If you are interested in participating but are not sure you will be able to afford the trip or even the deposit, please be in contact with Pastor Jane this week.) Participants are also expected to participate in fund-raising and orientation activities and to make individual preparations (obtaining a current passport if necessary, visiting the International Travel Clinic, completing trip paperwork). After the trip, participants are expected to help educate other Crescent Hill folks about the trip and the partnership, including by helping lead a worship service.

Crescent Hill folks helping organize the trip will table after church on Palm Sunday (March 28) and Easter Sunday (April 4) and will be available to answer questions at that time. Folks who want to go on the trip should turn in a check to these folks or to the church office by Easter Sunday. The check should be made payable for $250 per person to Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church and should include in the memo line: 2010 Guatemala trip. On the memo line should also go the name or names of people going on the trip.

For those who are not able to go on the trip, there will be other ways to be involved this year. Before the trip, trip planning, orientation, and fund-raising are activities that will incorporate many different people. Crescent Hill folks will have opportunities during the trip to connect with individuals from Crescent Hill church going on the trip as prayer partners and with Estoreño folks going as their financial sponsors. Throughout the year, Crescent Hill folks will continue to pray with Estoreño Presbytery-wide groups and congregations and to keep up with the trip and the partnership by viewing this blog. Folks interested in the partnership will meet next at 9:30 a.m. on Easter eve Saturday (April 3) at Heine Brothers on Chenoweth Lane.