Dear Sisters and Brothers,

Grace and peace to you in this Lenten season. Last Sunday I was in Antigua with the group from First Presbyterian Church of Winchester, Virginia. We attended mass at La Merced church that morning. The priest delivered a very animated sermon, one of the best I’ve heard recently. He talked about how Lent should be a time of joy because we are removing from our lives the things that separate us from God. Forgiveness also brings joy, as we learn to forgive ourselves and our neighbors. So I wish you all the joy of this season.

Yesterday was the World Day of Prayer. Perhaps some of you were able to be part of this international women’s celebration where you live. I was invited to be the preacher at the service held by the presbyterials, the organizations of Presbyterian Women, here in this part of the country. The worship service was held in the Emmaus Presbyterian Church in San Mateo, a community about 20 minutes west of Quetzaltenango. Ninety-five people came, representing the Mam, Maya-Quiche and Occidente presbyterials.  Several of the Mam women present did not speak Spanish, but they wanted to be part of the celebration. CEDEPCA also held a celebration for World Day of Prayer to bring together women from different churches.

Tomorrow, March 8, is International Women’s Day. Both here in Quetzatenango and in Guatemala City women’s organizations will be holding marches to demand an end to violence against women.  Last year a new law penalizing violence against women was passed, but the police and the courts have been slow to implement the law. Meanwhile, women continue to suffer abuse.

University-level classes at CEDEPCA have now settled into a weekly routine. On Wednesday mornings a group of nine students gathers with me to study the mission of the church. They constantly comment on the narrow vision of mission their churches have, reduced either to personal evangelism aimed at increasing membership in the local church or the sending of mission personnel to other parts of the world. The course focuses on a much broader understanding of mission as the activities through which the church lives out its call to participate in what God is doing in the world both near and far.

On Wednesday afternoons, five students are taking a course on Christian ethics. Again, they are concerned because their evangelical tradition tends to condemn  a series of individual behaviors like smoking and drinking, without any focus on the reality of social sin that binds so many to a life in poverty and suffering.

The history of Christianity course meets on Thursday mornings. There are six students who are exploring the life of Christian communities in the first centuries after Christ’s death. Much of this course focuses on academic writing, given that the final project is a research paper. Two of the students in the group hope to go to Costa Rica to study at the main campus of the Latin American Biblical University later this year, so I want to do all I can to help them prepare to be able to complete their assignments there.

In addition to these three weekly courses, another group of eight students is taking the introductory theology class with me via e-mail. One student lives in Honduras, another in Mexico. This course is an experiment to see if we can broaden the courses we are offering to folks who cannot come to weekly classes.

Here in Quetzaltenango, several students are working to finish courses they began in previous years. There is also a group of four people who have started a course on introduction to the Bible. I’m meeting with these students as my schedule and their schedules permit.

On top of these regular courses, this month we will start the preparatory phase for the first intensive course of the year. This course will focus on Ecotheology. The guest professor will be Neddy Astudillo, a Presbyterian from Venezuela who is pasturing in Chicago and finishing a D. Min. degree at Drew University. The first class in Guatemala City will be March 17. I am also going to be teaching the course here in Quetzaltenango, starting on March 23. I’m looking forward to putting my background in environment sciences to use again after many years.

All of our activities are taking place in a context marked by ongoing violence. On Tuesday, a teacher working in a prison for juveniles was brutally beaten to death by the inmates. Jorge Emilio Winter Vidaurre, age 45, was a member of Central Presbyterian Church in Guatemala City. His wife, Ada Hilda Garcia, is reportedly suffering from terminal cancer. Press reports vary as to whether the couple had two or four children. I ask that you pray for the Winter Garcia family, as well as for the young men who have been so dehumanized that they could commit such a murder.

On Thursday, three bus drivers were murdered in Guatemala City. One of the murders took place on five blocks from the CEDEPCA office. Many busses stopped circulating after the murders. The few students who made it to class on Thursday were hours late.

The violence and the seeming incapacity of the security forces to respond effectively are bringing calls from several quarters for “social cleansing”, targeted assassinations of those perceived to be criminals, especially youth involved in gangs.  Such a context calls for Christian witness to the value of life and a rejection of violence as a response to violence. Analysis of the causes of violence and proposals for responses by churches will continue to be the focus of much of our work in CEDEPCA.

A couple of weeks ago I received news from Luis Perez Alanoca, the Presbyterian pastor in La Paz, Bolivia whom I had a chance to visit in December. A landslide in the zone known as San Antonio Sud of La Paz, where Luis lived with his extended family, has left approximately seventy families homeless. The meeting space used by the congregation was also destroyed. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is exploring the possibility of a response, but is waiting for a formal request to come from those who have been affected. Please keep Luis, his family, and the congregation of the Light and Truth Presbyterian Church in your prayers.

Reading corner

Have you ever wondered how a highly perishable tropical fruit became of one the most widely-consumed foods in the world? Dan Koeppel set out to answer this question in his book, Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World. Koeppel explores both the natural history and social history of the banana. Given the broad scope of the book, at points I found myself wishing for more detail or more nuance, but the book is highly readable. The activities of United Fruit Company in Central America play a central role in the story in the mid-twentieth century.

CEDEPCA Profile

In honor of the World Day of Prayer and International Women’s Day, I’d like to introduce you to one of the national coordinators of CEDEPCA’s Women’s Ministry Program whom I’ve gotten to know over the last few months. Carmen Rendón is the coordinator in Mexico, where she lives in the capital city. Carmen has been a member of the Church of the Nazarene for fifteen years. She has a degree in psychology and she has also studied in the Bible Institute of the Assemblies of God in Mexico. She and her husband have two sons, ages 17 and 19. Carmen got to know Judith Castañeda, the general coordinator of CEDEPCA, during the year Judith spent in Mexico in 2003. When Judith returned to Guatemala, Carmen insisted that the Women’s Ministry Program should continue. Carmen works with five volunteer facilitators for the courses in Mexico. Carmen notes that participation in the courses is declining because women are feeling the crunch of the economic crisis and have less available for themselves. I ask your prayers for Carmen, the facilitators, and the women who come to CEDEPCA courses in Mexico City. 

Though Lent is a time of rejoicing because we are being drawn closer to God, it is also a time experiencing the pain in the world that shows us just how far we are from God and God’s desires for God’s creation. May this Lent be a time of reflection for all of us as we seek to commit ourselves anew to God’s call.

Blessings,

Karla