Guatemala Trip Report

Guest post from Buzz Durham:

It is with a grateful heart that I bring greetings from our Guatemalan sisters and brothers in Iglesia Jerusalen in Coatepeque to members of Grace Covenant. They send their love and appreciation for our relationship (18 years!) and the work that we do together in Christ. Their love and prayers for us collectively and individually are strong. Each month they spend one week in community prayer and one day is set aside for our members’ needs that we have shared with them through emails. Their prayers and prayer life are strong and serve as a cornerstone for all of their gatherings and worship times.  Often in conversation they ask about the health or needs of specific members of our congregation.  I am always touched by the fact that we are known to them by name.

I was invited to visit with Jerusalen Deacons several homebound church members. Diabetes is a significant disease in Guatemala and is difficult to control and treat. Nationally, the unemployment rate exceeds 60% and often the community health clinics are without medicine and supplies for their medical labs.

The spirits and outlooks of church members remain positive and hopeful and they constantly look to the futures of their young adults and children. A number of young people I first met in 2002 are now active members of the Session, deacons or members of our Partnership council. The church has a very active Children’s Sunday school and Youth Program and both age groups serve as worship leaders.

I had the opportunity to meet with the church Session, its Deacons, the Partnership Council, the Children’s Scholarship and Health Committees and share a meal together. Because of the collective abilities of a number of their members, Diego, Alejandra and Marie to interpret for me, we were able to overcome my limited Spanish and have significant conversations.

Session

Samuel Mérida, Interim Pastor

Albina Hermández, Secretary

Diego Jimémez

Joel Torres

Otilia de Ríos

Aida de Xom

Victor Solano, Treasurer

Deacons

Edelmira de Galindo

Gladys de Solano

Gersón Villagran

Iris Velasquez

Leticia Vicente

Fidel Ramos

Wilian Hernández

Partnership Committee

María de Torres,  Moderator

Alejandra Solano, Secretary

Carmen Flores, Treasurer

Fidel Ramos

Lorenzo Delgado

School Scholarships

Victor Solano, Moderator

Diego Jiménez, Secretary

Gladys de Pérez, Parents Representative

Health Promoter

Edelmira de Galindo

Micro Loan Program

The micro loan program that we jointly developed with the IJ Partnership Committee this year was introduced to the congregation through a health workshop. 24 Ecofiltros—ceramic/clay water filters were provided to start the program. The loan recipients paid between Q (Quetzals) 10 and Q100 as a down payment and they negotiated their individual repayment schedule for the total cost of a filter - Q275, or $30.00. The workshop was conducted by the Ecofiltro staff and Samuel Merída. Samuel is a Co-leader for the Presbytery Health Committee.

The Health Workshop focused on the need for clean water, using and maintaining the Ecofiltro, basic sanitation and the causes of diarrhea. Good health, (Healthy Homes and Communities) begins with safe clean water—50% of all children’s deaths less than 5 years in Guatemala are a result of diarrhea caused by unsafe water. The Ecofiltro will save a family between $50--100 a year because the purchase of pure bottled water or purchase of fuel wood to boil water will not be necessary.

The micro loan program is directed by the Jerusalen Partnership Committee and is accountable to the Session. As loans are repaid, the money will then be available for further loans that will be available for other home health improvements, such as improved wood burning stoves, composting latrines and home gardens. They will share with us the results of the micro loan program twice yearly.

The Micro Loan Program is a new one for the Presbytery Guatemalan Partnership and has much promise to make a lasting and sustainable difference in the health of folks in the Guatemalan Communities.  The program polices and documents will be shared with other WNC and Guatemala Partner Churches through the Partnership Health Committee. Thank you, GCPC, for taking the lead and making this notable and important project happen.

School Scholarships

The scholarship program continues to be very important and highly valued by Jerusalem Church families. Without the scholarships many children would not be able to continue school. 42 students receive the Q1000 scholarship. I was fortunate to be able to meet with a grandmother and two of her grandchildren who are recipients of scholarships. They made a small presentation on behalf of all the scholarship recipients. They sent letters and notes from the recipients and a Scholarship Program report.

They would like to increase the number of scholarships to 50 and asked that GCPC consider the possible increase in 2013/14.

Health

Edelmira de Galindo is the Church’s Health Promoter. The church is recruiting another member to work with Edelmira and to receive training with all the Health Promoters in the Presbytery. As health promoter, Edelmira focuses on children’s nutrition and basic sanitation practices. Each month she conducts workshops on nutritional foods and most importantly healthy snacks. As a part of these activities Edelmira takes weights and measures of the children’s growth and provides one-on-one education about a child’s normal growth and development. As a result of a Health Project allowance she is able to provide children, vitamins and anti-parasitic medicine twice annually.   Alejandra Solano, a member of the Jerusalen congregation is attending college where she is majoring in public health and children’s nutrition which holds great promise for additional health education information being shared with Jerusalen families.—Guatemala like the USA has a significant education challenge to limit packaged, sugar laden snacks and drinks. The widespread use of sugar and carbohydrates in the diets of children, as well as adults, contributes to diabetes among Guatemalans.

Iglesia Jerusalen Land

 The IJ church continues to sponsor a number of “fund raisers” to help pay for the loan on the land for the future church. They have 16 more monthly payments of Q 5,000 before the land is full owned. These payments continue to be an on-going struggle for the congregation, yet they forge on to procure the land for their future church.  The new church site is well located and within two blocks of the National Presbyterian School.

Church to Church Visits

During my visit to Coatepeque many IJ members of councils and committees and church members asked about the possibility of hosting a GCPC delegation in the coming year. I conveyed to them that we were very interested in a possible visit and would like to see the visit built around a joint community service project. They indicated that would be a topic of conversation within the Church during November. Stay tuned.

Communications

In addition to communications via email with Alejandra Solano, Partnership Secretary the IJ members recognize the need to have an on-going exchange of communication and to insure that messages are received.  They will share additional email addresses of their members. We should do the same. Diego Jiménez maintains an Iglesia Jerusalen Blog and a Twitter account.  We should send them information about the internet sites that GCPC maintains. This need for a sudden flow of news and information is a growing need among all Guatemalan Partnership churches.

There has been a recommendation that a specific protocol be established when a formal, informational email is being sent -  the recommendation is that:  the to:  line of the email be for the member to whom you are specifically sending the information or asking for information and that: the cc line be used for others you are informing.  This protocol will help insure that there is less “room” for confusion as to who should send the more “formal” reply.