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