Thursday, June 30, 2016
Children´s and youth workshop
The Tuesday morning workshop with children and youth was for the most part a rousing success. After some speeches, prayer and singing Elisabeth, Cara, and Ben huddled with local youth leaders (all of them young men) from the Tuesday host church (Altar de Noe) and developed and embellished the original CHPC plan. Altar de Noe youth acted out the calling of Samuel story, and then helped lead a movement activity that was supposed to replicate Samuel/everyone following God. Then the assembled were divided up into three groups, which looped through three activities: a parachute activity symbolizing being wrapped in God´´s love, a banner activity in which the saying ¨"Joyfully using our talents for God" was written and decorated in English, Spanish, and Q´eqchi´, and a googly eyes activity in which participants turned plastic cups into puppets later used in another version of the calling of Samuel skit. Slower moments towards the end of the morning were the puppet shows version of that Samuel story (with a young woman playing God) and a ¨Peace Like a River¨sing-along/gesturing activity. Jane rallied those there by bringing a message about everyone receiving a call from God. A chicken lunchy for all followed.
-Perry
"The Company"
The Russian company that owns the nickel mine just west of El Estor is apparently tougher on its workers than its Canadian predecessor, and pollution it emits is bad for workers and for the town. A couple of people from some of the churches the team has visited each work for Ël Compania,¨ but many mine company workers are from other parts of the country, from Russia, or from other parts of the world. Apparently a bunch of the workers live in a company housing complex west of town (although a few have even stayed in the team´s hotel), and a few have connected with local women. In order to operate in Guatemala, foreign companies must have a local business partner, and in the case of the mine the local partner is a company headed by recently deposed Guatemalan President Oscar Perez Molina, a former general who was involved in atrocities during the civil war but helped negotiate the Peace Accords (which probably means the military is aligned with the nickel mine).
-Perry
-Perry
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Gender roles
One thing that seemed to trouble team members early on during the visit was the apparently reduced role of women in churches even in worship leadership. In some churches teams had visited before women had at least sang solos, and during the 2012 visit team members met women from one faraway church who were apparently church elders and deacons (including Rosa Marina, who subsequently visited CHPC). It wasn´t until the last visit Monday - at the very end of worship - that a woman sang a solo. In the abstract at this Peniel church, a woman and man had sung a duet (but the man generally hogged the microphone) and a women´s chorus sang to the group (but again a male soloist hogged the microphone and the women looked very sad). Cara observed that the kids were very approachable but the boys more than the girls and by the time they reached adulthood (socially defined at a very young age) they seemed very reserved and even fearful. Others in the group observed that - all the more so what some group members had observed the night before - the women get up very, very early to start making tortillas all day long and serve meals to their husbands and kids and may look sad and be - to our minds - shy because they are just so darn tired. Perry also observed that at Panzos the CHPC team had been served chicken and rice and tortillas first, then presbytery leaders (all men), and then the men of the church ate. The women and children were lucky to get any tortillas (so women and children were last).
On the other hand, team members were happy that in several churches two women - Jane preaching or reading scripture and Elisabeth translating were the team´s leading worship leadership representatives - and also Cara and Elisabeth (and Jane) were CHPC´s leading representatives during much of the children´s and youth activities that followed Tuesday morning. With role models like that . . . .
- Perry
On the other hand, team members were happy that in several churches two women - Jane preaching or reading scripture and Elisabeth translating were the team´s leading worship leadership representatives - and also Cara and Elisabeth (and Jane) were CHPC´s leading representatives during much of the children´s and youth activities that followed Tuesday morning. With role models like that . . . .
- Perry
Early church visits
During the team´s first 24 hours in El Estor, team members visited four different churches. Arriving in El Estor at 6:00 p.m. Sunday night, the team soon worshiped in the presbytery´s largest church, Arca de Noe, near El Estor´s center. There were lots of familiar faces to some as the group, as they group sang, Doug played flute, and Jane preached about Jesus called many of the disciples from fishing on the lake just like Jesus calls them/us from the lakeside (Lake Izabal) and riverside (Ohio River) to fish for people. Elisabeth translated into Spanish for Jane.
Sunday night Ben and Ben went onto stay at the home of Pastor Raul Contreras and found themselves at a second Sunday night worship service They did not sing, Ben Langley did preach.
Monday the group traveled to two outlying churches and had two lunches. The first was a bumpy one and a half hour ride from El Estor, past the nickel mine, over a bridge across the Polochic River, and through a ten-minute walk up a hill. This is a community that half of the 2012 team had visited, and remembered fondly. It is very out of the way, involves a congregation/community combination which is close knit partly because most of the families fled together from Hurricane Mitch some years ago and returned together, with some help from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. The community had also piqued the 2012 team´s interest because it was mired in a land dispute with PDA, the national Guatemalan church, local and national governments, and the nickel mine company, and the team thought it might be able to help.
This year´s visit was a little rushed, but once again the group sang, Jane read scriptures, and the team got a surprise very hot chicken lunch. Altough the team didn´t get to see 2012´s turkeys, Doug saved the day by going down and talking with the women who has prepared the chicken, including several women the 2012 group had met and who CHPC had pictures.
After a quick second lunch on the Arca de Noe church campus, the team rode ten minutes to a community on the opposite side of El Estor, Boqueron, where the 2007 team had canoed and swum through the canyon Here the team visited a church no CHPCers had visited since 2009, the Peniel church, which had a attractive new green sanctuary. The mood was more relaxed at Peniel, since the group had nowhere else to go that day. The team and congregation and presbytery leaders comingled, and after that there was a worship service Again, the team sang and Jane and Elisabeth read scripture. A highlight was the contemporary worship band music, which was good if loud and featured not only a slew of young men on keyboard, drums, bass and guitar but also a little boy in a green shirt who played percussion and sang and stole all of our hearts. Young men and women also shared lead vocals. A pig guarded the front of the church campus. Lots of women and kids in this congregation, and lots of relaxing and music.
-Perry
Sunday night Ben and Ben went onto stay at the home of Pastor Raul Contreras and found themselves at a second Sunday night worship service They did not sing, Ben Langley did preach.
Monday the group traveled to two outlying churches and had two lunches. The first was a bumpy one and a half hour ride from El Estor, past the nickel mine, over a bridge across the Polochic River, and through a ten-minute walk up a hill. This is a community that half of the 2012 team had visited, and remembered fondly. It is very out of the way, involves a congregation/community combination which is close knit partly because most of the families fled together from Hurricane Mitch some years ago and returned together, with some help from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. The community had also piqued the 2012 team´s interest because it was mired in a land dispute with PDA, the national Guatemalan church, local and national governments, and the nickel mine company, and the team thought it might be able to help.
This year´s visit was a little rushed, but once again the group sang, Jane read scriptures, and the team got a surprise very hot chicken lunch. Altough the team didn´t get to see 2012´s turkeys, Doug saved the day by going down and talking with the women who has prepared the chicken, including several women the 2012 group had met and who CHPC had pictures.
After a quick second lunch on the Arca de Noe church campus, the team rode ten minutes to a community on the opposite side of El Estor, Boqueron, where the 2007 team had canoed and swum through the canyon Here the team visited a church no CHPCers had visited since 2009, the Peniel church, which had a attractive new green sanctuary. The mood was more relaxed at Peniel, since the group had nowhere else to go that day. The team and congregation and presbytery leaders comingled, and after that there was a worship service Again, the team sang and Jane and Elisabeth read scripture. A highlight was the contemporary worship band music, which was good if loud and featured not only a slew of young men on keyboard, drums, bass and guitar but also a little boy in a green shirt who played percussion and sang and stole all of our hearts. Young men and women also shared lead vocals. A pig guarded the front of the church campus. Lots of women and kids in this congregation, and lots of relaxing and music.
-Perry
Home stays
The team´s first night in El Estor, team members stayed in homes of the families of presbytery leaders. Experiences varied ' three veteran team members stayed with families they new well, sooe others stayed with people they had just met. Some slept in beds in homes with bathrooms, others slept on hard floors with no shower or perhaps even outhouse in sight. Some stayed up until 11 or midnight with their host families, others crashed at 7:30 p.m. or 8:00 p.m. Some felt almost embarrassed by their host families´ hospitalityñ others felt a lack of enthusiasm on the part of their host families. The jury is still out on whether the home-stay experience will continue in the future. One possibility for next time is a hybrid in which team members are given a choice about whether they want to do the home stay (with some doing it and other staying in a hotel throughout) Another possibility would be to do it later in the stay, when people everyone had started to get to know each other and to get acclimated. Team members also had mixed feelings about displacing individual family members, all the more so in families whose homes were already very crowded.
-Perry
-Perry
Across country
The drive all day Sunday from Guatemala City to El Estor, center of the Estore o Presbtery, was relatively uneventful, with a couple of exceptions: The team stopped at the airport, where Ben and Elisabeth succeeded in retrieving their late luggage without too much delay. The group stopped at a Shoney´s-.style restaurant, Saritaá, and then grabbed ice cream at the adjacent Sarita´s ice cream shop. Then on the road towards Rio Dulce a relatively bad accident stopped the van and group in their tracks, but the group used the opportunity to practice singing with flute and ukelele for subsequent worship services. About nine hours after departing the hotel in Guatemala City, the group and van pulled into the Arca de Noe church in downtown El Estor.
-Perry
-Perry
Saturday, June 25, 2016
Bird´s eye view
Leslie Vogel, the Prebyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission co-worker who works in Guatemala with the progressive theological program known by the acronym CEDEPCA, gave the visit team a bird´s eye view of Guatemala political history and then focused on recent protests and reform. Leslie highlighted some key events:
-Spanish conquest of Guatemala
-Guatemalan independence from Spain
-weakening of the government alliance with the Catholic Church and the incorporation of U.S. Presbyterian missionaries into Guatemala
- the 10-year success and then 1954 U.S.-sponsored coup that toppled the social reform Arbenz government
-the 25-year civil war that pitted Guatemalan elites and the military against guerillas and - in the end - the indigenous population
Leslie then concentrated on the past 15 months of Guatemalan politics, with a United Nations-sponsored effort to root out corruption in the Guatemala government and then a swelling anti-corruption movement - complete with a (nationwide?) general strike last summer, the impeachment of the president, and a complex national election. With the culture of silence apparently diminished, things are far from perfect but activism and organizing continue - including small protests that continue every Saturday (and which team members witnessed in front of the Presidential Palace a couple of hours earlier).
Leslie wrapped up by saying that the indigenous people in the part of the country the team will visit have a reputation for being docile), but that the recent presidential candidate that at least some of Crescent Hill´s partners supported apparently slid in the polls because of possible links between his businesses and drug trafficking. Leslie also highlighted immigration to the United States (with the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that kept the U.S. government from opening up more immigration, daily flights into Guatemala City of Guatemalans being deported back from the United States and Mexico, and the importance of remissions from the United States to Guatemalan famlies in Guatemala and the Guatemalan economy) and femicide (the widespread and largely unpoliced torture and killing of hundreds and thousands of Guatemalan women) as key issues. And she also closed by sharing a prayer and reading suggestions ("Bitter Fruit," "The Brothers," and "Silence on the Mountain) with the team and huddling especially with the younger people about the team about more information/resources.
-Perry Chang
In Guatemala City
The 2016 Guatemala visit team arrived in Guatemala City Saturday, having arrived at the Louisville airport at 4:45 a.m., flown through the Houston airport, and encountered the most serious roadblock at the Guatemala airport when two team members´ luggage did not arrive. Planning to return to the airport Sunday morning, team members visited ate lunch and dinner and walked through Guatemala City´s main plaza, past the Presidential Palace and largest Catholic Cathedral, and through the three-level downtown underground market, doing a little shopping. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission co-worker shared background info about Guatemala, Pastor Jane led debriefing, and Ben Langley led a short devotion focused on team members´call to the visit, through the lens of God´s call to Samuel in the temple. During the debriefing, the consensus was team members were exhausted but hopeful about and engaged in the visit. Sunday team members plan to get a pretty early start, stop by the airport, and arrive in El Estor in time for worship at Arca de Noe church and supper, fellowship time, and sleep at host families´ homes. Central to much of Sunday´s activites will be working with Alfredo, a contractor with the branch of the Guatemalan Presbyterian church that helps out with visits by North American who is driving the van the team is traveling in and de facto helping guide the group. Alfredo also drove and helped guide Crescent Hill´s 2012 visit.
-Perry
-Perry
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Visit team commissioning
[To Guatemala Visit Team:]
God has called you to a particular mission—to visit our Kekchi sisters
and brothers and to deepen our partnership relationship with Estoreño
Presbytery. Do you welcome the responsibility
of this service as a part of your commitment to follow Jesus, to love
neighbors, and to work for the reconciling of the world? I do.
[To the congregation:]
And do you, members and friends of Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church,
promise to prayerfully support and encourage all of these friends in this
ministry? We do.
Let us pray:
We ask your blessing, O God, on these friends
who stand before us this day.
Bless their journey and their visit.
May they be strengthened in their faith
and upheld in your love.
May this visit further our partnership—
not just with Guatemalan sisters and brothers,
But also with the Christ whom we follow.
In the name of Jesus we pray.
Amen.
[To Guatemalan Visit Team:]
You are commissioned to service on our behalf and in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ. GO with our prayers and
be mutually encouraged through your visit with our Kekchi sisters and brothers.
Monday, June 20, 2016
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Revised 2016 visit schedule
Mission Visit Schedule
Saturday/
Sabido, Junio 25
- Depart / Salida Louisville at
6:00a.m.
- Arrive / Llegada Guatemala City
Airport 1:00p.m.
- Check in/Llegar al Hotel Hostal De Don Pedro
- CEDEPCA Workshop/Taller
- Dinner/Cena
Sunday/Domingo,
Junio 26
- Depart /Salir Guatemala City
- Lunch /Almuerzo in route
- Arrive/Llegar in El Estor
- worship service/Culto in Arcas de Noé
- go to host families and enjoy dinner/Ir
a las casas de nuestras familias a comer Cena
Monday/
Lunes, Junio 27
- Breakfast with host families/Desyuno
en las casas con familias
- Visit / Visitar Hurricane Mitch
Church por la manana
- Lunch and Check in Hotel Calle Real/
Almuerzo y ir al hotel Calle Real
- Visit Boqueròn in the afternoon/
Visitar Boqueron por la tarde
-
Tuesday/
Martes, Junio 28
-
VBS 8:00AM/ Esquella Biblica
- Morning meeting with Youth of the
Church/ Reunion con los jovenes de el presbeterio
- Lunch/ Almuerzo
-
Afternoon meeting with Women of the Church/Por la tarde una reunion con las
mujeres del presbitario.
Wednesday/Miercoles,
Junio 29th
- Visiting various churches /Visitar
Varios iglesias
- Lunch/Almuerzo
-
4PM
meeting at the hotel with church leaders to discuss the partnership./Reunion
con la junta y lideres del presbitario en el hotel
Thursday/Jueves, Junio 30th
- Depart hotel and visit the churches of
La Guitarra with Pastor Gerardo and San Carlos.
Then check into the hotel in Puerto Barrios. Eat lunch somewhere along the way/ Salir el
hotel para PuertosBarrios y comer almuerzo en el camino. Visitar las Iglesias de La Guitarra y San
Carlos.
-
Check
into Hotel and Dinner/ Llegar al hotel
en Puertos Barrios
Friday/Viernes, Julio 1st
- Breakfast /Desyuno
- Depart on boat to Livingston/Montar un
barco a ir al Livingston
-
Check
into hotel and have lunch /Llegar al hotel y comer Almuerzo
-
Enjoy
the afternoon at the beach or visiting
different local sites/Desfrutar la playa y visitor diferente tiendas
-
Dinner/Cena
Saturday/Sabido Julio 2nd
- Breakfast/Desyiuno
- Checkout and boat trip to Rio
Dulce/Salir al hotel, montar una Barca a ir a Rio Dulce y a reunir con el Pilot
Jose
- Lunch/Almuerzo
- Travel to Guatemala City/Ir a Ciudad
de Guatemala
- Arrive at Seminary Casa Emaus/Llegar
al Seminario Casa Emaus
- Dinner/Cena
Sunday/Domingo, Julio 3rd
-
Breakfast
and depart for Airport/Ir Al Areopuerto
2016 visit team prayer partners
Shannon Bostrom: Elizabeth Thiele, Mark Barnes
Ben Bridgman: Lee Cybulski and Joanne Cybulski, Stewart
Bridgman (Sr.)
Cara Bridgman:
Nikki Green and Dalen, Gail DeMarch, Claudia Foulkes, Stewart Bridgman (Sr.)
Soni Castlebery: Ada Asenjo, Jim Bartlett Turner
Perry Chang: Janine Linder, Beverly Bartlett Turner, Lucy
Steilberg
Stephanie Gregory: Laura Proctor, Mary Love
Ben Langley: Carol Roderick, Stephen Bartlett, Carlos, Amy Linfield and Ken Linfield
Jane Larsen-Wigger: Tricia Lloyd-Sidle, William Farrell, Mary
Love
Elisabeth McNinch:
Ada Asenjo, Gayle Trautwein
Doug Yeager: Bruce Whearty, Barbara Barnes, Peter Kemmerle
Saturday, June 18, 2016
2016 visit flight schedule
Saturday,
June 25
4:30 a.m.
- Arrive at Airport
6:15 a.m.
–Depart on United
3959
8:00 a.m.
–Arrive in Houston, Texas
10:25 a.m. – Depart Houston on United 1908
12:20 p.m. – Arrive in Guatemala City
Sunday,
July 3
1:20 p.m. – Depart Guatemala City United 1904
4:30 p.m. – Arrive in Houston
7:55 p.m. – Depart Houston on United 4222
11:10 p.m.- Arrive in Louisville
Friday, June 17, 2016
Visit schedule
Saturday/
Sabido, Junio 25
- Depart / Salida Louisville at
6:00a.m.
- Arrive / Llegada Guatemala City
Airport 1:00p.m.
- Check in/Llegar al Hotel Hostal De Don Pedro
- CEDEPCA Workshop/Taller
- Dinner/Cena
Sunday/Domingo,
Junio 26
- Depart /Salir Guatemala City
- Lunch /Almuerzo in route
- Arrive/Llegar in El Estor
- worship service/Culto in Arcas de Noé
- go to host families and enjoy dinner/Ir
a las casas de nuestras familias a comer Cena
Monday/
Lunes, Junio 27
- Breakfast with host families/Desyuno
en las casas con familias
- Visit / Visitar Hurricane Mitch
Church por la manana
- Lunch and Check in Hotel Calle Real/
Almuerzo y ir al hotel Calle Real
- Visit Boqueròn in the afternoon/
Visitar Boqueron por la tarde
-
Tuesday/
Martes, Junio 28
-
VBS 8:00AM/ Esquella Biblica
- Morning meeting with Youth of the
Church/ Reunion con los jovenes de el presbeterio
- Lunch/ Almuerzo
-
Afternoon meeting with Women of the Church/Por la tarde una reunion con las
mujeres del presbitario.
Wednesday/Miercoles,
Junio 29th
- Visiting various churches /Visitar
Varios iglesias
- Lunch/Almuerzo
-
4PM
meeting at the hotel with church leaders to discuss the partnership./Reunion
con la junta y lideres del presbitario en el hotel
Thursday/Jueves, Junio 30th
- Depart hotel and visit the churches of
La Guitarra with Pastor Gerardo and San Carlos.
Then check into the hotel in Puerto Barrios. Eat lunch somewhere along the way/ Salir el
hotel para PuertosBarrios y comer almuerzo en el camino. Visitar las Iglesias de La Guitarra y San
Carlos.
-
Check
into Hotel and Dinner/ Llegar al hotel
en Puertos Barrios
Friday/Viernes, Julio 1st
- Breakfast /Desyuno
- Depart on boat to Livingston/Montar un
barco a ir al Livingston
-
Check
into hotel and have lunch /Llegar al hotel y comer Almuerzo
-
Enjoy
the afternoon at the beach or visiting
different local sites/Desfrutar la playa y visitor diferente tiendas
-
Dinner/Cena
Saturday/Sabido Julio 2nd
- Breakfast/Desyiuno
- Checkout and boat trip to Rio
Dulce/Salir al hotel, montar una Barca a ir a Rio Dulce y a reunir con el Pilot
Jose
- Lunch/Almuerzo
- Travel to Guatemala City/Ir a Ciudad
de Guatemala
- Arrive at Seminary Casa Emaus/Llegar
al Seminario Casa Emaus
- Dinner/Cena
Sunday/Domingo, Julio 3rd
-
Breakfast
and depart for Airport/Ir Al Areopuerto
Visit hotel schedule
Saturday, June 25th: Hostal De Don Pedro
Guatemala
City
Telephone-
502-2285-3434
4ta. Avenida 3-25 Zona 1, 01001
Ciudad de Guatemala, C.
A.
Centro Histórico
Teléfono:
Website: https://es-la.facebook.com/Hostal-de-Don-Pedro-391126750937854/
Breakfast
included
Sunday,
June 26th . Stay with
Families
El
Estor
Youth
will be paired with a CHPC Adult while other adults might be staying by
themselves. Dinner and Breakfast with host families
Monday,
June 27th – Thursday Morning
will stay at
Hotel Calle Real in El Estor
3era
calle, 7-41 zona 1 Barrio el Centro el Estor Izabal
Telephone
– 502-7949-7869 & 502-4219-0203
Thursday, June 30th – we will stay
at
Hotel Norte in Puerto Barrios
7a Calle and 1a Avenida, Puerto
Barrios 18001, Guatemala
Telephone: 502-7948-2116
Spoke to Dona Orra
Friday,
July 1 – we will stay in Livingston
Hotel
Vecchia Toscana
Barrio Paris, Livingston, Rio
Dulce 18002, Guatemala
Saturday,
July 2nd – we will stay in Guatemala City at
Casa Emaus- Mennonite Seminary
26 calle 15-56 zona 11,
Colonia Las Charcas
Ciudad de Guatemala,
Guatemala
Telephone: 502-2485-7620 or 502-3003-5470
Website: https://www.facebook.com/CASA-EMAUS-322384177859758/
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