October prayers

This month Crescent Hill church will pray with and for our Guatemalan partners:

- On Sunday, October 2, and the week thereafter: Jesus Es la Puerta church in the El Estor suburb of El Chupon. and worshipers.

- On Sunday, October 9, and during the week thereafter: Arca de Noe church in El Estor, Pastor Gerardo Ich Pop and family, and members, deacons, and elders

- On Sunday, October 16, and the week thereafter: Altar de Noe church in El Estor’s Los Cerritos neighborhood, Pastor Raul Contreras Tut and family, and members, deacons, and elders.

- On Sunday, October 23, and the week thereafter: Espiritu Santo church in El Estor’s San Marcos neighborhood, Pastor José Domingo Xo Ical and family, and members, deacons, and elders.

- On Sunday, October 30, and the week thereafter: Monte Sinai church in the village of San Carlos El Pouvenir outside of Puerto Barrios, Pastor José Sub and family, and members, deacons, and elders.

Trip progress

Amanda Craft (pictured above with her son), with whom Crescent Hill has been working on the possible visit by Estoreño Presbytery reps to Kentuckiana this fall, approved the new dates (Tuesday, November29-Wednesday, December 7 – in two months) and said Crescent Hill ought to be able to get new letters to her via colleague Karla Koll, who will stop back at the Presbyterian Center as she wraps up accompanying PC(USA) International Peacemaker Juana Herlinda in mid-October. In the mean time, Amanda said she would go ahead and set up the visa application appointments for the five reps. About the dates that have now been firmed up somewhat, commented Amanda: “PS - Wouldn't it be crazy if they actually got to see snow?!?”

-- Perry

Fall is here!

New English as a foreign language teaching ministry coordinator Sky Ott reminded folks Sunday that the first day of classes for the spring term is one week from Monday, on October 2. Some publicity has gone up and teachers have been calling their students. Crescent Hill folks will prepare food, set up, and clean up the meal in two weeks, during the second week of class.

Crescent Hill Spanish teacher Ada Asenjo also announced via e-mail this weekend that the fifth term of the Spanish class will begin the same week as EFL, on Thursday, October 5. It will again run between 6:00 and 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, before choir practice, in the Fireside Room. Cost will be $70, for a seven-week session that will end the Thursday before Thanksgiving (November 17).

-- Perry

Food for Thought photographs

Faith Stories project

With her family looking on, Crescent Hill’s Jennifer Thalman Kepler explained the genesis and possible future of the Faith Stories project of her theater company, Looking for Lilith, at a Food for Thought lunch after worship Sunday. The project goes back to Jennifer’s year as a Presbyterian young adult volunteer in Guatemala, when women in Guatemalan asked what she did back in the United States and she explained she had been active in theater. Eventually, Looking for Lilith led workshops in which she helped women tell their stories and then develop them into a play, which they eventually performed for others. A key part of this process was encouraging and enabling women to reflect on their lives and their faith, including on challenges they faced and how they did and could overcome those challenges. Eventually women they worked with (including one from Izabal) began to want lead workshop themselves, helping Guatemalan reflect on their experiences with the health care sector, with poverty and hunger, and with domestic violence, and how they might confront those challenges. A touring play, in Spanish and English, reflecting on the lives and faith of women in both Guatemala and the United States, is also envisioned. During the recession, Jennifer conceded, funding for projects like this has been more difficult to assemble.

Looking for Lilith led a theater workshop for young people this summer at Crescent Hill, and they have been involved in the transformation of the old James Lees Memorial Presbyterian Church into a new 1741 Frankfort Avenue space. Crescent Hill and Looking for Lilith folks have talked about combining forces for a Faith Stories-like project in Estoreño Presbytery, and Lowell and Jennifer talked Sunday about Jennifer showing a longer video (longer than the one she showed Sunday) about the project at an upcoming Crescent Hill Guatemala partnership gathering.

-- Perry

Tentative new plans

At the start of the Spanish-language/bilingual Sunday school class Sunday, Carlos (pictured above) reported to the other folks there (pictured below) that he had talked with Gerardo and that Gerardo explained that he and the four other travelers preferred to visit the week plus after Thanksgiving, from Tuesday, November 29, probably through Wednesday, December 7.

Carlos called back after worship Sunday to confirm: the Guatemalans would actually leave El Estor on Monday, November 28, and so would be ready to leave the Guatemala City (?) airport on Tuesday morning. It sounded like they were flexible enough to stay in Kentuckiana for a whole week and a night and therefore wouldn’t get back to El Estor until Thursday, December 8.

Gerardo had previously wondered about both the cost of the trip and the cold weather. But he said this weekend that there were some things they needed to care of at church the week Crescent Hill had suggested (the week before Thanksgiving), and this day-by-day schedule insured they only missed one weekend of worship services.

According to the schedule they suggested, they would be in Kentuckiana for most of the week and then here for the second Sunday of Advent and into the next week. They would not be here for a presbytery meeting or for the EFL ministry or Spanish class fall terms.

Carlos reported that Pastor Jane was OK with the schedule. The schedule may go to Amanda later this week unless other Crescent Hill folks articulately and assertively push alternatives.

Gerardo also laid out who the new members of the Estoreño Presbytery executive committee are: Gerardo himself, president; Benjamin Sacul, vice president; clerk, Raul Contreras (also slated to be on the team visiting Kentuckiana); Roberto Caal, treasurer; and Antonio Cubal, corresponding secretary, along with Mario Ich, Angel Sacul, and Noe Puv.

- Perry

Guatemalan film

Crescent Hill’s Carlos and Hilda have been frequenting U of L’s Latin American Film Festival which this month has been focusing on films from Guatemala. At the Spanish-language/bilingual Sunday-school class, Carlos touted “The Return of Lencho,” a film shown this past Friday that illustrated the situation for creative Guatemalan young people. He also promoted the film to be shown this coming Thursday, at 7:00 p.m. in the new auditorium at U of L’s main Ekstrom Library, “Puro Mula” or “Slacker” (logo pictured above). A reception with the filmmaker, at 6:00 p.m., will precede the showing of the film, which will also be shown at 12 noon Friday at the same location.