Early January gathering

A partially successful effort to meet – by Facebook chat - all of the members of the Estoreño Presbytery committee working with the Crescent Hill partnership and a decision to send one Crescent Hill person to the Guatemala Mission Network gathering in Guatemala City later in the month were two features of the early January Crescent Hill Guatemala gathering. The two groups essentially had an appointment, and Estoreño folks had gathered at an unusual site to try to carry on a conversation with Crescent Hill folks via Facebook chat. Apparently because of wavering bandwidth in El Estor, the signal was interrupted several times, and in the end only the men – and apparently there are a couple of women in the Estoreño group – were able to introduce themselves. Doug and Gerardo were able to follow up by phone. The presbytery is planning on sending two representatives to the Mission Network gathering at Central Presbyterian Church in Guatemala City, but was not ready to give names. Crescent Hill folks had already learned that Pastor Gerardo was in better health and had returned to work at Arca de Noe church. Doug and Gerardo were not able to have a real extensive conversation. Although seeing everyone was exciting, no doubt people on both sides were a little disappointed that the Facebook video chat – at least in the locale in which the Guatemalans had situated themselves for that – did not really work very well (and had been a little chaotic even when the signal was working). Many thanks were expressed by Guatemalan folks about Crescent Hill’s financial support for the theological education initiative. A number of people had graduated from that in November, and the presbytery had in fact received Crescent Hill’s financial transmission in December, partly for that. There was no discussion about communications spending or the official partnership extension. With Jane no longer able to attend the Guatemala City gathering, the group agreed to send Perry (who will be commissioned Sunday, January 20). The group hoped to hear directly from Perry, him having just returned from the visit, at the next meeting – 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, February, at the Yeagers – and then focus more heavily on congregational engagement in the partnership and – related to this – fund-raising, including a summer 2013 (?) yard sale. The Guatemalan also asked for documentation about how much money Crescent Hill sent them when during 2012, and Doug and the rest of the group agreed to set up a mechanism so that everyone on both sides could track this.

-Perry