Soni and I and then also Richard Welch talked Wednesday. It turns out Richard has talked with Raul Contreras and Rosa Marina. The presbytery Executive Committee will meet Thursday (June 26) and then they hope to get passports for everyone without the Welchs’ help. All apparently have national ID cards already. Then Raul and Marina will be in Coban, where the Welches now live, for theological education in a couple of weeks, and then the Welches will help them fill out the English-language U.S. visa application/visa application appointment request form online. Then the Welches may have to go to El Estor to help Ramiro and Byron.
The Welches will leave for two months on July 24 – about the same time Amanda, Omar, and their family will move to El Paso – and so they’re on an accelerated time table. If that doesn’t all work out we may have to ask for help from Sandy and Brian and/or possibly bump back the dates. Pray for , our partners as they seek passports and our mission co-worker friends as they get used to new homes.
I suggested that we needed to call Raul Contreras soon, if only to soothe any ruffled feathers because I called Marina, instead of him or Ramiro, when I needed info on her that I thought they wouldn’t know.
Soni also proposed we develop a kind of puzzle – to fill in all the pieces – to ask people to get on board with tasks that need done. Among the tasks are hosting (although both we and Soni and Brad and Hilda are interested), welcoming at the airport, driving and going on excursions, cooking and setting up and cleaning up from any congregation-wide, etc. activities with our partners, helping out with St. Joe’s parking, etc., possibly any other fund-raising (the group that met a couple of months ago wasn’t sure an event would be needed – and it would have to done carefully to avoid stealing from Peter to pay Paul with people fulfilling their pledges – but it may still be necessary – Perry will check in with Jack Leake Sunday).
Doug, Vincent, and perhaps Perry will be gone for St. Joe’s, and we need to be sure we have enough people. Perry will again help coordinate, at least in advance. We talked about going 1:00-7:00 p.m. The proceeds will help pay for the security guard this time. Soni will check on that. Soni and Perry talked about the possibility of an ongoing thrift store or silent auction. Soni had hoped we could build something out of a screening of Undocumented, but there was no surge of interest.
Soni and I also talked about having folks meet several times before the scheduled visit, as well as clearing some space so that folks might be able to participate in part or all of the Guatemala Mission Network gathering out at Cedar Ridge the three days after Labor Day, September 2-5.
Here’s the proposed schedule Soni and I discussed:
Saturday, July 19, at 11:00 a.m.: Guatemala gathering – place TBA
Sunday, August 2, at 11:00 a.m.: Guatemalan visit task “puzzle” deployed/unveiled - CHPC
Saturday, August 8, 1:00-7:00 p.m.: St. Joe’s parking – CHPC
Saturday, August 16, at 11:00 a.m.: Guatemala gathering – place TBA
Tuesday, September 2-Friday, September 5: Guatemala Mission Network gathering – Cedar Ridge Camp
Thursday, September 11, at 6:00 p.m.: Guatemala gathering – CHPC
Saturday, September 27, at 11:00 a.m.: Guatemala gathering – place TBA
Saturday, October 4-Monday, October 13: Guatemalan partner visit – Kentuckiana, etc.
We talked about having a tentative visit schedule in place (as well as an article by Soni or Perry in the August “Westminster Ways” CHPC newsletter) before August 3, so the task puzzle would include specific activities/events (ELL? Mammoth?). We also talked about who else we might invite to be involved.
-Perry
