A dozen folks met as CHPC's Guatemalan Connection Saturday afternoon, February 11. They heard from Megan, who shared some insight from her January visit with Presbyterians in Cuba. Shannon and Ben shared about their Guatemala City visit two weeks ago, for the Guatemala Mission Network gathering in Guatemala City. They stayed with and spent a lot of time with Ramiro and Raul Contreras. Ramiro reported verbally that - of the $1,500 CHPC had sent - the presbytery gave $250 to the presbytery's Presbyterian Women organization, would spend $250 on theological education for women, and spent $1,000 on church building improvements. There was no written report yet. Ben said all of the other North Americans there who were connected to partnerships represented U.S. presbyteries. Ben, Shannon, and others at the meeting heard a presentation from leaders of the national Guatemalan Presbyterian church (the IENPG) (Shannon shared the Spanish-language "PowerPoint" slides with Connection folks by e-mail earlier in the day). Ben said he believes the relationship between Estoreño Presbytery and the national church has matured (Ramiro is on the IENPG executive committee now) and Ben pitched for the group to think about sending any more money to the presbytery to do so if not through the PC(USA) (with its 10 percent administrative fee charge and backlog of money transfers) at least through the IENPG (with its 5 percent administrative fee charge). That way there would be some transparency, both parts of the Guatemalan church would know what the other was doing, and the national church would require some sort of accounting from the presbytery.
Ben also mentioned
that Ramiro is considering studying to be a pastor and was planning to visit
Texas, and this triggered an interesting discussion. Sandra expressed
concern about the eventual inclusion of financial transfers from CHPC to
Estoreño Presbytery as part of the partnership, in general, and about the
presbytery's re-allocation of $1,000 of the money sent his past fall from
theological education to building construction. She also worried about
CHPCers cultivating an attitude of us as saviors. A spirited discussion
ensued, including some conceding that CHPC folks may have sent mixed messages
about the delayed financial transfer, including possibly under-reacting when
Ramiro started sending pictures of building construction. Doug agreed to
contact Ramiro to push for written documentation of how the money was
spent. With the documentation pending and the continued discussion about
whether to send money and how to send it and how to respond to the
re-allocation and having sent it late last year, Perry suggested holding off on
sending any more money for a while.
Ben mentioned that
Ramiro mentioned that water quality has declined even in the past year in the
El Estor area, especially because of the nickel mine, and they have been going
up into the mountains above the nickel mine to get water. Living Waters
for the World made a presentation during the Guatemala Mission
Network gathering, but Ramiro mentioned this before the presentation.
Some CHPC folks have been interested in clean water work in Izabal for a while,
and Ramiro and Raul Contreras seemed to reciprocate a bit this time.
On the Saturday,
March 4 Latin Dance Party fund-raiser, Sandra reported that she has
settled on 5:00-7:00 p.m. with the group providing the dance
instructors and apparently Tim McNinch has updated and shared the flyer.
Mary will write up a blurb on the event and share with around the presbytery
and submit it for the March CHPC newsletter. Soni and Perry and provide
and sell refreshments and Megan and Perry will help provide a cooling down room
for kids in the Gathering Room. Jane has contacted the church's nursery
director and offered to pay her. Perry agreed to create a Facebook event
on the church's Facebook page to which people can be invited and about which
people will be reminded. People were reminded to personally invite people
directly, possibly using some of the materials, and doing so also to non-CHPC people.
Claudia asked about a
second possible fund-raising event that was discussed in the past - a 10
percent night at El Tarasco in St. Matthews - and Perry said the management was
just waiting for a proposed date. Perry said it was unclear whether CHPC
folks would be permitted to promote it with non-CHPC folks just happening by
the restaurant. Claudia will check with the restaurant about
either Friday, February 24, or Saturday, February 25 (and over
how many hours), since Perry said the management seemed to be indifferent about
the days of the week.
It is likely that at
El Tarasco customers would need to let their server/cashier know they are there
partly to provide the CHPC Guatemala partnership with, and the group
will design and print flyers for people to provide their server/cashier to
remind them. This event could be repeat-able.
Perry mentioned that
he, Soni, Ben, and Jane have been working on planning the April visit, apparently
now expanded to Thursday, April 19, to Sunday, April 23. Perry
cited Soni as saying as many as four to five people are interested in
going. After the meeting Ben and Perry continued to reach out to
transportation offices and learned that the hotel the summer 2017 team stayed
in in El Estor would run $26 a night per double room.
Mary said she would
shrink Tim's flyer, fit two on a page, print and cut it, and work with other
Connection folks to pass it out to folks in worship on the next day.
Perry also mentioned that
Outreach Council has recommended to the Session that the 2017 church budget
include $1,500 for a donation to Estoreño (which the group had discussed
in principle earlier on) and $1,000 for visits. (No funds for the IENPG
were proposed). With the approximately $1,500 already sitting in the
partnership account, that suggests there is abou5 $2,500 to help support the
April visit in the account.
The group agreed on
setting the next Connection gathering a week after the Latin Dance Party
fund-raiser, at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, March 11.
-Perry
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