Experiences
"Caminamos a la Luz / We are Walking in/to the Light"
What a team God assembled to travel to Guatemala on this occasion! Two members from John Calvin Presbyterian Church, Ed Esparza and Bob Yarbrough, one of the drivers, one from First Presbyterian Church San Antonio, Adam Clemmons, one from FPS Weslaco, Wendy Rodgers, and six related to Divine Redeemer, Rob Mueller, Clare Parry, Ethel Saldaña, Arlene Esparza, Kristin Travis and Katie Fitch. We ranged in age from 20 to over 60.
In Guatemala we were joined by an ecumenical group of youth conference leaders. Two of them had been at Divine Redeemer with the Reconciliation and Mission Program, Bernabe Garcia and Alejandra Azurdia. The others are part of a ministry team that staffs youth events primarily in the urban Ladino portion of the Guatemalan Protestant church. Most were in their late teens and 20's with two married couples part of the group.
The energy level, commitment to Christ, love for youth, sense of humor and style of ministry that each part of this bi-national team brought were consummately congruent. We fit together like hand in glove immediately, even knowing and sharing alternative versions of the same group games for community building and recreation. From the first night together we knew we had a great match.
The Trip
The round trip was 3300 beautiful miles. Our image of Mexico will never be the same. The verdant hills, mountains and valleys were breathtaking. The vistas of both Gulf and Pacific coasts were stunning at times, rivaling anything we had seen before. Road conditions were much better than we anticipated as was the availability of adequate gas stations and restrooms along the way. We traveled 12-15 hours each day for three days. Though the pace was a bit grueling at times it made for some great group bonding. We traveled from San Antonio to Tuxpan the first day, Tuxpan to Puerto Arista the second day and Puerto Arista to Quetzaltenango the third day; reversing the order on the way back with some slight variations.
The only mishap was the burned brake pads on one of the vans during the descent into San Juan La Laguna on Tuesday morning. I described the road as a Grand Canyon mule trail, widened for vehicles and paved. The pitch was very steep and the switchback curves truly deserved the designation ‘hairpin!” The disabled van was left with a mechanic who was a connection provided thanks to the Body of Christ at work. It was repaired for about $100 and awaited our return a week later.
The rest of Tuesday and Wednesday morning were spent getting to know some of the villages around Lake Atitlan, where we were situated. We tried our skills at bargaining in the markets and endeavored to remember all the people we were supposed to buy something as a memento of the trip.
The Time in ministry
Wednesday afternoon the volunteers from Guatemala City came up to begin coordinating with us the plans for the weekend. We spent that afternoon and all day Thursday going over the schedule, sharing and defining our expectations, brainstorming and sharing group recreation ideas and testing them out on one another to build our own sense of community. We laid out the plans/speakers for the various ‘content’ workshop talks and devotionals, and the processes for registration, cabin assignments, collation of material booklets for the participants and preparing meals for ourselves as a group. Most activities (with the exception of the talks/devotionals) were planned and led by a team composed of members from both Guatemala and Mission Presbytery.
Friday afternoon 80 youth arrived from various small Mayan villages and congregations that work with CESSMAQ. They were both excited and unsure. Some had to travel first by bus, then by boat and finally by small pick up truck to arrive at the camp site. By the time we got everyone there we were already behind and making adaptations to our schedule! (The best laid plans…) After cabin groups had a chance to get settled and create a name and slogan for themselves, we shared in some group ice-breakers and community building games to begin building relationships among and with the youth.
The Theme for the event was: Caminamos a la Luz—We are Walking in/to the Light and was grounded in reflections from the prophet Isaiah and the books of Acts and I John. Rob led the first reflection which invited the participants to reflect on their own dreams for the well-being of their communities and the gifts which they personally brought to the task of reaching for those dreams. After dinner we played some night games held a campfire and Christ-centered devotional led by Julio, and closed the evening with a cabin-group reflection time called the ‘Circle of Friendship.’
Saturday we were up bright and early to a devotional led by Alejandra Azurdia in the Chapel space which overlooks the lake. After breakfast we went on a hike that was designed to reflect the journey of our lives. At various points along the journey, small groups stopped to reflect on questions, scriptures, realities in their lives. When we arrived at our destination we sat on the shore of the lake to reflect in small groups. The kids and leaders commented about the trash that polluted the shoreline, and wondered if we could do anything about it. Finally, we determined to scrap the rest of the morning plan, and get trash bags and do a mass clean up. The group immediately energized around the idea and we spent the next 90 minutes cleaning the beach. We learned important lessons about stewardship of the earth, the power that many hands make to accomplish large tasks, the value in responding when you are able rather than walking away from problems expecting others to deal with them.
After lunch, we spent the early afternoon in recreation games which solidified the group spirit and brought out the team spirit in all the youth. Christian communities and the way they confronted the problems that faced them. The evening activity was a Cultural Night. Each village or church group of youth was asked to come prepared to present something that represented their culture/community. The variety and quality of the presentations was amazing: original drama and song, the recitation of original poetry, the dramatic illustration of scripture passages, representations of the daily life and dress of the people, traditional dances, social analysis of villages. It was a remarkable demonstration of the giftedness of these young people and their leadership. The event lasted late into the evening, which again was closed with a circle of friendship in each cabin.
Sunday morning we rose to a beautiful morning which began with a devotional led by Alejandra again, this time from I John. After singing some praise songs together, the leadership team presented our own original drama, created the day before called, “Walking in the Light” After the drama, the youth were divided into small groups to reflect on the drama and the weekend and report back to the whole group. The schedule had to be revised one more time because of the length of return trip for the some of the youth.
Before lunch we skipped a water games recreation time to move straight into the closing ritual. This gave the youth a chance to share with one another the tokens they brought to exchange with one another. Each youth was asked to exchange a simple gift with another youth in the group with words of encouragement for the work they were doing with their community. After a closing with prayer, we ate lunch and aided the campers to get on their way.
The leader team gathered for about 90 minutes to evaluate the weekend and noted the many strengths as well as weaknesses of our efforts. We were all overwhelmingly positive about the experience and desire to do it again. The youth left energized by the time with their peers, nurtured in their faith, encouraged by their common efforts, excited about future event possibilities, and linked for the first time by this common experience and the new relationships that were born here. CESSMAQ has identified clear future leadership and will be hiring some local promoters to work over the coming year to continue focusing the lessons from this event in the local villages.
There are many areas we can improve for the next time, which will be written in a separate document so the planning team for the next event will be able to draw upon this first experience’s lessons. We clearly felt that a new seed had been sown and that a new dimension of ministry has begun with the youth. This has been an area CESSMAQ has desired to launch for some time, and now we feel it has begun with a very positive first step. There is much to do. CESSMAQ would like to take time to train the older youth themselves to be part of the leadership team for the next gathering. The youth themselves should define the focus and core goals for the next event. We have brainstormed more than a dozen ideas for better utilizing the Mission Presbytery Team even with the language obstacles. Nonetheless, we are unanimous that this was an event that God has used to strengthen the Realm of God in Guatemala…and in Mission Presbytery.
The Thanks
Thanks are due to all those who contributed to this trip. Time and time again the missioners thanked God for the generosity of the good folks of Mission Presbytery’s congregations who made it possible for us to serve on their behalf. Thanks to CESSMAQ for trusting us as a partner. Thanks to Bernabe Garcia and the Guatemala leader team, and thanks to each member of the team without whom we never would have been able to make this difference.
The Guatemala partnership team solicits your prayerful support and encouragement of the partnership, its projects, and the Mayan people of Guatemala. If your congregation or group is interested in a "Minute for Mission" or a 20-minute video presentation, contact the partnership team.
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