Changing situation

U.S. government officials have indicated that they will not press hard to reverse the Honduran military coup that toppled elected Honduran President Manuel Zelaya from office, exiled him, and endangered his supporters and other Hondurans. Although the Obama Administration has suspended some aid to Honduras and supported negotiations mediated by Costa Rican President Arias, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (pictured above in Kenya on Thursday) has begun to criticize Zelaya for “provocations” and will not declare the coup a coup. Zelaya has called for the United States to suspend most favored nation trading status trade with Honduras, which would deal a serious blow to the Honduran economy, which is heavily dependent on U.S. trade. The Obama-Clinton move came as Republican senators—much more supportive of the coup—have threatened to hold up Obama State Department nominations.

The United States operates military bases in the Honduras, and the Honduran military and leading families can afford to ignore the wishes of Honduran middle and working classes and rural communities partly because the U.S. subsidizes the Honduran government. Zelaya’s leftward turn in the past year alarmed various Honduran interests, who feared that the Zelaya administration aspired to govern in the style of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. But Zelaya’s effort to schedule a straw ballot on whether Honduras should have a constitutional convention was one of only many steps that he would have had to take to make it possible for him to serve another term. In fact, Zelaya was not on the ballot for the upcoming election, and the ballot is already finalized. The coup has apparently given the Honduran security forces and others a free shot at left-wing and community leaders they can tie to the outgoing administration.

Consider contacting Kentuckiana House member John Yarmuth at 582-5129, at (202) 225-5401, or at The Honorable John Yarmuth, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515, and Senator Mitch McConnell at 582-6304, at (202) 224-2541, or at The Honorable Mitch McConnell, United States Senate, Washington, DC 20510. Ask them to help restore democracy and the Zelaya administration in Honduras. Have the coup declared a coup and suspend most favored nation trading status.

-- Perry

Saturday AM gathering

Crescent Hill folks interested in our Guatemala mission partnership with the Q’eqchi’ Estoreño Izabal presbytery will gather at 9:30 a.m. this Saturday, August 8, at the home of Soni and Brad Castleberry, kitty corner from the St. Matthews city hall and Eline library (pictured above). Contact Soni at 896-8561 for additional directions. Sure to be discussed are: the latest news from Guatemala, our September fast and vigil timed to coincide with the start of the annual presbytery meeting in El Estor, the new English as a second language ministry for Crescent Hll/Clifton neighbors, and possible participation in the October Guatemala mission network gathering in Cincinnati. Everyone is welcome. Bring your ideas, your energy, and your openness to learn.

-- Perry

Outreach opportunity

We have a unique opportunity that fits our commitment to mission as partnership and lets us reach out to our local community in new ways.

The Hispanic/Latino Commission of Mid-Kentucky Presbytery is inviting churches to engage in direct mission and ministry with new immigrants by teaching English as a Second Language. One of the areas they’d like this to occur is in our own Clifton/Crescent Hill neighborhood. So, we’re in conversation with the other Presbyterian Churches in this area—James Lees and Covenant Community (which meets in the James Lees building on Frankfort Avenue)—about a partnership among our three churches to embark on such a ministry. The plan is not just to teach ESL, but also to provide child care and a meal for folks. So this is an opportunity for people to be involved in various ways depending on your interest and skill and time. This approach will also help us to get to know and build relationships better.

I’m really hoping there are many of you who will consider being a part of this partnership. The presbytery is sponsoring an informational meeting on Saturday, August 22, 10:00 am to 12:00 noon as well as a training for teachers, site coordinators and child care workers on Saturday, August 29, 9:00 am to 12:00 noon. Both events will take place at Strathmoor Presbyterian Church, 2201 Hawthorne Avenue.

But, to make sure our three churches have enough interest in and commitment to this before we commit to it, the other pastors (Phil Lloyd-Sidle and Jud Hendrix) and I would like to gather interested folks together on Tuesday, August 11, at 5:30 pm at James Lees Church, 1741 Frankfort Avenue. And I’d like to hear from you even before then about your interest and possible participation. So . . . let me know if this is something you can get involved in.

This is such a great invitation for us to let our partnership with a presbytery far away in Guatemala impact our ministry and life right here in our neighborhood. I look forward to seeing what may spring forth.

- Jane

Amigos de K'ekchi' update

Crescent Hill church folks recently received notes from the late April gathering of Amigos de K’ekchi, the network of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) presbyteries and congregations working with Q’eqchi’ presbyteries and congregations, primarily in north central Guatemala.

Crescent Hill folks participated in a similar gathering last summer, in Nashville, and hope to stay connected with this group. A different group, the Guatemala Mission Network, which focuses on all of Guatemala, has also garnered Crescent Hill participation and may do so again when they congregate in October as part of the PC(USA) Mission celebration there.

Judging from the notes, the April gathering, which no Crescent Hill person was able to be there for, focused on three transitions:

Follow-up to the PC(USA)’s suspension of funding for education of disadvantaged people in Guatemala – including for theological education of the Q’eqchi’ and other Mayan indigenous people – and the possibility of some pilot projects to get the funds flowing again. The Walton Funds came from WalMart widow Helen Walton, a Presbyterian, after she visited Guatemala.

Follow-up to the PC(USA)’s partial withdrawal of participation in PRESGOV, an organization that was to facilitate partnership among PC(USA) presbyteries and congregations and those of the Guatemalan evangelical Presbyterian church (the IENPG), which had devolved into a short-term mission trip travel agency and then only that. Crescent Hill worked with PRESGOV on planning the summer 2007 Izabal mission trip and the PC(USA)’s decision not to send replacements for David and Jeanne Wiseman, who helped lead that trip, marked a nadir in the IENPG-PRESGOV-PC(USA) relationship. A challenge is that the Guatemalan church leans more heavily to the Ladinos (the dominant lighter skinner, Spanish-speaking cultural group), instead of the Q’eqchi’ and other Mayan indigenous groups. For Crescent Hill’s spring 2009 church we planned the trip more ourselves, working also with friends (Soila and Jeff) at the Mennonite SEMILLA organization. It apparently has worked with several PC(USA) presbyteries and congregations on summer 2009 mission trips. Whether PRESGOV will actually function better without North American staff such as David Wiseman and be able to reconnect with more PC(USA) folks and refocus its work on partnerships more broadly – instead of just these short-term mission trips – remains to be seen. A related issue that Amigos folks discussed in Spokane was whether short-term mission trips are a good idea at all. (Of course, most of the partnerships that Amigos incorporates started with short-term mission trips.)

A third transition that the gathering took up was to what extent and how the Amigos group might function not just as a network of disparate PC(USA) groups involved in partnerships with Q’eqchi’ peers, but how it might function as a stand-alone organization as a whole. Immediately before the Spokane gathering a group of Amigos folks traveled together to north central Guatemala, before fanning out to connect with various partners and then returning to the United States to go to Spokane. A challenge in working with Amigos folks: Most of these congregations and presbyteries have been working with Q’eqchi’ folks in Izabal for years, and many of their partners are in north central Guatemala (where many Q’eqchi people live), while the Q’eqchi folks we just started working with in the past couple of years are in far eastern Guatemala. It’s also possible to interpret some of what went on at the Nashville Amigos gathering that some Crescent Hill folks attended last summer as a summit on development issues that Q’eqchi’ regions face. Crescent Hill folks and our partners just don’t have the resources, vision, experience, and even inclination to start out trying to solve key social and economic development issues in the Iaabal region. It appears that transfers of money from North American Presbyterians to their Q’eqchi’ partners is a key part of some of these partnerships, and we have shied away from starting it like that.

Hopefully, additional fruitful communication among Crescent Hill, the PC(USA), the Amigos, the mission network, the IENPG/PRESGOV, Q’eqchi’ partners, and PC(USA) mission co-workers such as Roger Marriott, Gloria Marriott (who worshiped at Crescent Hill earlier this summer), Marcia Towers, Karla Koll, and Dennis Smith will continue.

-- Perry

Hunger strike

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission co-worker Karla Koll has been keeping folks up to date about the hunger strike by three Guatemalan women (pictured above), outside of the Guatemalan Supreme Court of Justice in Guatemala City.

One of these women, Norma Cruz (in the center), won U.S. government recognition this spring for her advocacy work for women in the Guatemalan judicial system. The other two, Olga Lopez (above left) and Raquel Par (above right), are women who say their children were kidnapped so that they could be turned over to U.S. families as part of the lucrative U.S.-Guatemalan adoption economy.

U.S. families have adopted thousands of Guatemalan children in recent years, at least some of these in dubious circumstances that involved third parties kidnapping Guatemalan children and then posing as the biological parents so that they could pass on the children to U.S. families as part of expensive private adoptions.

The three women ended their hunger strike late last month after Guatemalan authorities found Par’s daughter before she was adopted, charged two people for her kidnapping, and plowed ahead with court actions to have the adoptions of the other women’s child – and apparently other children – canceled.

No word yet on the location of the child of the third woman, Olga Lopez (also pictured below).

-- Perry

Good news from Soila and Jeff!

Greetings to all of you as we come to the end of July. I hope that you are all enjoying these weeks of summer.

I wanted to take the opportunity to let all of you know that Jeff and I finished our time with SEMILLA in Guatemala on June 9th. We went back to Honduras for around a month to process our last documents at the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa. Thanks for all your prayers and support that you have given to Jeff and I while going through the visa process. Thanks to God we got the visa during the first week of the political situation in Honduras. In spite of everything that was happening in Honduras, the US consular section stayed open and we were able to finish all of the necessary documentation.

We arrived in Lancaster, PA on July 14th. and we were grateful to experience no problems going through customs at the Miami Airport. Here in Lancaster there are some job opportunities for me to work and we are also happy that Jeff got a job to teach Spanish with Conestoga Valley School District. He did the interviews through skype while we were still in Tegucigalpa.

I'm also thankful for your prayers for the people in Honduras and the political situation right now that sadly is affecting the majority of Hondurans (the poor more than anyone else). We hope that the situation improves in Honduras and that the best interests of Honduras are pursued and not just those of one particular side of the conflict.

During the last week of August we will be moving to our own place, which will be temporary (month by month) until we know for sure where I'll be working. We don't have a phone number yet but this will be our address in case you want to find us:

Soila Matute and Jeff Eshleman
1610 Morningside Dr.
Lancaster, PA 17602

I look forward to hearing from you.

-- Soila

Second song (March 29)

This second song sung by the Arca de Noe church's youth and young adults was less spirited. But the video gives a better view of the whole group. Click on the arrow below, and you be the judge yourself which song was better.