La congregacion Esfuerza

Having abandoned the El Chupon mission congregation after a violent conflict with the nickel mining company over the land, the Arca de Noe church opted to sponsor a mission congregation on the northeast side of town in the Esfuerza neighborhood. A group of Crescent Hill mission team members visited this congregation on Tuesday afternoon and talked with Pastor Antonio and his family. Antonio is an old friend of Ellen and Roger and Gloria Marriott who is relatively new to the area. Antonio was serving the El Chupon visit when the 2009 Crescent Hill mission team visited El Estor, and he was the first Guatemalan to arrive (separately) for the Coban retreat in summer 2010.

Antonio is paid a very small stipend by Arca de Noe and he and Pastor Gerardo had a long conversation in Q’eqchi’ only in the midst of the mission team visit that surprised some team members. And Antonio hinted that he might not be doing this forever.

This and the La Union congregation were the smallest that team members visited, and it and the Panzos congregation had the most primitive quarters. Antonio and his family live next door.

-Perry

Doug (Sr.) and Pastor Raul's jam session

Click here and then on the right arrow to listen to beautiful music by Doug (Sr.) and Pastor Raul Sunday night at the Altar de Noe church in the Cerritos neighborhood of El Estor:  http://vimeo.com/46059789

Lunches at Arca de Noe church

Partnership document

Partnership dialogue

Tuesday afternoon, first the whole team, then a subgroup, sat down with the members of the presbytery’s partnership committee: the three December Kentuckiana visitors plus the two would-be visitors who were not able to obtain visas: Raul Contreras and Maria. Maria was one of women who participated in the 2010 Coban retreat. The two sides agreed to continue the partnership for at least another three years, until 2015. Crescent Hill mission team members agreed that a couple of hundred dollars leftover from the Q’eqchi’ Bible purchases could go towards for transportation of pastors and other church leaders of faraway Estoreño churches to and from El Estor for the theological training institute and for food and refreshments for the visitors (and other participants) while they were in El Estor. There was also some discussion about the $50 a month communication budget, which Crescent Hill folks had thought might go towards Internet access. Instead, the Estoreño folks said they preferred to talk with Crescent Hill by phone and use the money for cell phone minutes. They also said they had office space and could use money to pay an administrative assistant. Eventually, Crescent Hill folks said the presbytery leaders could choose how to spend the money, but they wanted the presbytery to report to the church twice a year how it was being spent (partly since CHPC had started sending six months’ worth of money every six months). (Other Crescent Hill folks wondered if Rene got money to pay for more bandwidth, which Rene has confirmed he could use, if Skype between El Estor and Kentuckiana might work.) Ramiro asked about the Guatemalans’ request that a fraternal worker, even a youth or young adult, be sent to Izabal, and Crescent Hill folks said they had tried (through the PC(USA)) to have a Young Adult Volunteer sent there. The Estoreño folks also agreed that the visits were worthwhile (although a woman at the La Union church had asked about their cost.) (Separately, Crescent Hill folks talked about trying on the next trip to visit the Monte Sinai church in San Carlos El Porvenir near Puerto Barrios and the Hijo del Dios Viviente church in La Guitarra.) The two sides each agreed to write up some plans for the future (as well as the Crescent Hill folks confirming the partnership extension with the church session). Seven people – members of the Estoreño partnership committee and Doug (Sr.) and Peter – exchanged telephone numbers.

Before the formal partnership dialogue, a small group huddled over expense reimbursement for the visit. Crescent Hill had offered to cover the cost of transportation for up to five visitors from each of the outlying churches (Panzos, Monte Sinai, Buen Samaritano, and Hijo del Dios Viviente) who would travel to and from El Estor for the Crescent Hill-led workshops and for groceries for the group lunches Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday and for the host families for Sunday supper and Monday breakfast. It was a little ambiguous as to whether Crescent Hill was to pay for the cost of groceries for lunch for the outlying visitors. In the relatively detailed bill that Roberto, the presbytery treasurer, presented Crescent Hill representatives, no grocery money for the host families was included, but the cost of the three lunches for the Crescent Hill mission team members, the visitors, and – in the case of Tuesday – all of the theological training institute students was included. Crescent Hill reps balked at paying all of this. When Crescent Hill added in the money to the family, the difference between what Roberto asked for and what the presbytery received in cash was about 400 quetzales, or about $50. Next time Crescent Hill and the presbytery may want to be more clear about the food costs.

-Perry

Theological training institute

In the wake of efforts by two different Presbyterian mission co-workers to upgrade theological education for Q’eqhchi’ pastors and other Q’eqchi’ church leaders, the Estoreño presbytery itself undertook such training initially for Estoreño church leaders only (although other Q’eqchi’ presbyteries apparently inquired about it as Estoreño got started). Estoreño leaders have been asking Crescent Hill church for assistance with this project for a while, and Crescent Hill promised to send (or beam) an instructor. But, without that, the presbytery managed to land a grant from the national Guatemalan church and partner with the Presbyterian seminary in Guatemala to bring a seminary professor to El Estor for three days (maybe once a month?).

Tuesday, the mission team’s third day in El Estor, was the first day of the first week of this training institute. Tuesday morning the mission team got to hear some of the professor’s opening and lecture and then team members were introduced. The next morning, when the mission team was about to leave El Estor, the team and the institute participants took a break to sing and pray the team on its way. In the interstices, the team saw that the curriculum for the institute, which the grant had helped pay for, included copies for all of the Spanish translation of "The Presbyterian Sense of Life," by John MacKay, a former Princeton seminary president.

One residue of the mission team’s visit, besides authorizing the leftover funds after the purchase of 120 Q’eqchi’ Bibles, was this: The seminary professor lectured very effectively in Spanish. After participating in the Peter-led church history workshop, which included Ramiro translating into Q’eqhchi’, the professor apparently opted to ask for Spanish-to-Q’eqchi’ translation of the rest of his lectures.

-Perry

Playgrounds

At one time or another, all of the young people on the mission team spent time playing at two parks in El Estor and one in Flores. In El Estor, they went numerous times to a park on the main street between Arca de Noe and the bakery. A couple of times they also went to a larger, albeit flooded, soccer field. In both places local kids accompanied them, and they played soccer and frisbee. In Flores the young people – and, for a while, Alfredo – went several times to a basketball court at the top of the hill in the center of the island that Flores sits on. Some of them met Brian, and played basketball against Guatemala, until all of them arrived and they threw frisbee and shot baskets. Back in Rio Dulce, the Bruno’s swimming pool emerged as a similar venue, where the young men and – for a time – Alfredo, Doug, and Perry – played monkey in the middle.

-Perry