In
attendance: Soni Castleberry,
Perry Chang, Jane Larsen-Wigger, Janine and Lowell Linder,
and
Doug Yeager
Perry
opened the meeting asking for our concerns and joys and led us in a combined
prayer.
Call to Guatemala: Doug called Rev. Raul Contreras. He was in a theological education class in
Coban thus unable to talk much. Doug
did, however, send greetings for Holy Week and let them know that we would like
to visit them June 25 – July 3 next year.
It sounded like that would be okay but Doug will follow up on Facebook
to confirm.
Evaluation of
Kick-off Event for Trip: Positive remarks made
about photos and information shared from past trips, momentum established, food
catered by La Casita and the financial outcome -- ($730 in donations/auction
sales). Since Henry Young Fellowship Hall was unavailable while construction is
underway in the building, we used the Choir Room. It worked well, but is not accessible and may
have kept some folks from coming.
Structure for our
Group: We agreed to try and keep with a regular
meeting schedule and set up some working groups to oversee needed tasks and
make progress reports at meetings.
Next
meetings: Saturdays from 11 am to 12:30 pm -- June 6,
Aug. 1 and Oct. 3 (please note on your calendars/ places to be decided –
contact Perry at 457-7833 or perrydchang@gmail.com if you’d like to
host one.)
Work
Groups: Coordinators
are needed for the first two groups and members for all groups. Please consider volunteering.
Education – Plan and
implement ways to educate our congregation about Guatemala and the history and
future of our partnership with the Q’eqchi’ Estoreno Izabal Presbytery. This will include a general brochure
explaining the partnership and its history (Janine will do this). Other tasks include writing a more detailed
partnership history (Soni will work on this and will check with Eva), planning other
occasions/ways to inform the congregation about issues in Guatemala, and
sending minutes of our Partnership Group meetings to a larger email list.
Fund
Raising
– Plan and coordinate fund raising strategies to help with expenses for the
2016 trip and any additional financial support we can provide for the work of
our partners. Use the 15 months between
now and the trip to carry out a diversity of ways to raise money including the
Aug. 8 St. Joseph’s Picnic Parking (Doug volunteered to coordinate this). Some folks and church committees have asked
the status of another yard sale. A decision needs to be made soon. Soni wants to know if there is interest in opening
an on-going store in the old youth room to
sell donations as a yard sale alternative.
Volunteers would need to sort/price items, but otherwise it would
operate on an honesty basis.
Recruitment – Soni will
coordinate. Develop and maintain a
database of members and visitors who have had past involvement with the
Guatemalan Partnership or are interested in becoming involved. Partnership
Group meeting minutes will be sent to this list. Contact and interest information will be
maintained and this group will help identify volunteers to help on activities
of the other work groups as well as travelers for the trip.
Trip
Planning
– Perry will coordinate. Develop agenda in collaboration with our Guatemalan partners
to outline details for destinations and projects. We also want to visit the churches in the
Presbytery’s eastern area near Belize. Our
partners have mentioned the possibility of our participation in a revival while
there. Our members also have expressed
interest in doing activities with children and learning more about whether we
could help get the sewing machines, donated to the Presbytery years ago by
another group, into use. Group also will
make travel arrangements and plan orientations for travelers.
Submitted by: Soni Castleberry
