Partnership foundations

The scripture our Guatemalan partners and we brought to worship and Bible study set the tone for a fruitful dialogue about the meaning of partnership, in general, and the future of our partnership, in particular. The scripture Pastor Gerardo Pop read as part of the Sunday afternoon worship that the Guatemalans planned was, I believe, Acts 2:42-4 about the early church, after Pentecost (later in Chapter 2, after the part of the chapter we did parallel Bible study on, about Pentecost):

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

During our few days together, Pastor Gerardo sometimes saw the early church in Acts as a metaphor for our partnership. He stressed sharing, but acknowledged that this sharing, for us, might be sharing of experiences more than of possessions and goods. Note that this scripture also discusses teaching and learning, fellowship, prayer, and wondrous events.

In the Sunday afternoon Bible study they planned (and in subsequent comments by Ellen, including during Wednesday night worship), Pastor Jane and Ellen focused instead on Romans 2:8-13:

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at least by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.

I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make your strong —that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.

It was not one of us, but Gerardo’s colleague, Pastor Fidel Juc, the president of the presbytery, who succinctly summarized the key points of this scripture, as: (1) to arrive; (2) to get to know; and (3) to encourage. Although these words themselves are open to plenty of interpretation, I imagined this as: visiting, getting to know each other, learning, and encouraging. Fidel also interpreted arriving as striving towards a common goal, which hinted at a more project-oriented focus.

Scripture—as interpreted by, among others, Gerardo, Fidel, Jane, and Ellen—was key to our developing understanding of partnership. In words to us, to the Guatemalans at he and Gloria’s home, and to the wider group, Roger laid out an overlapping, if slightly different, vision of partnership. The Presbyterians of Estore o Presbytery and Crescent Hill folks are incomplete without each other. We need each other to fill holes in ourselves. And we both need each other to save our eternal souls. When issues of sharing economic resources came up, Roger apparently stressed to the Guatemalans: they need you for their salvation, just as you need them for yours. So Roger—like Lowell, earlier on—gave a somewhat spiritual slant to the understanding of partnership.

Building on our earlier discussions in the mission partnership Sunday school and in the presbytery executive committee, this gave us plenty to think about in Coban and—now—in Louisville and El Estor.

-- Perry