2015 Guatemalan Connection annual report

2015 was another transitional year for Crescent Hill church and its seven-year-old partnership with eastern Guatemala’s Q’eqchi’ Estoreño Izabal Presbytery.  Opting not to try to arrange a 2015 Crescent Hill visit to Guatemala, the evolving group of CHPC folks helping focus on the partnership got a new name – the Guatemalan Connection - and planned a summertime 2016 visit.  This will hopefully be the church’s fifth large-group visit, the fourth involving some youth and young adults, and the first to Izabal in four years.  The visit may include first-ever visits to Puerto Barrios, Livingston, and the Gulf of Honduras coast and more time in Izabal with more visits to out-of-the-way churches.

Building on the success of the second Kentuckiana visit by three presbytery leaders – in this case, by Ramiro Quib, Raul Contreras, and Rosa Marina, in October 2014 – the Connection stayed in touch with these and other presbytery leaders via phone call, e-mail, Facebook message, and text message during the year. 

The Guatemalan Connection worked with the CHPC session, Outreach Council, Stewardship Council, and Presbyterian Women to send the presbytery $1,250 in 2015.  The bulk of this money went to aid the participation of eight presbytery leaders in a theological training program for Presbyterians from Guatemala’s Mayan cultures run by the national Guatemalan Presbyterian church and Guatemala’s Presbyterian seminary.  Two leaders who have visited us – Ramiro and – from an earlier visit – Pastor Gerardo Pop – completed the training program and graduated in 2015.

Other highs and lows of the year included:  (1) a spring event after worship in the Choir Room – during a time when the back building was closed for renovation – with refreshments from our friends at La Casita, information and conversation about the partnership and the upcoming 2016 visit, and a silent auction with Guatemalan items; (2) the addition of several new people into the life and work of the Guatemalan Connection; and (3) the loss of longtime Connection activist Lowell Linder (known in Spanish-speaking circles as “Raul”), who had twice visited Guatemala, who went to be with the Lord mid-year.  Joining Lowell later in the year was Frisco, a kind of Connection mascot who had attended almost all of the partnership planning meetings held during the Guatemalans’ two visits.  Lowell’s departure was followed by a tremendous service celebrating his life and ministry, that brought together many folks who had been interested and involved in the partnership, as well as one of its spin-off ministries, the joint English language learners education ministry.

During the summer, Connection folks also participated in a pre-Big Tent Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Guatemala mission network gathering (probably our fifth) in Knoxville and jump-started fund-raising for the 2016 visit by parking cars for the neighboring annual St. Joseph’s Orphans’ Picnic.