Guatemala, A Belated Introduction

Greetings from The Land of Eternal Spring, and I hope 2012 is getting off to a good start for you. In reviewing previous blog entries, I realize I have not shared much about this country, far and away the most ecologically & culturally diverse land I know.

Conveniently, as per this blog entry, my current work for CEDEPCA involves revising our 20 page introduction of the country, which we disseminate to the U.S. and Canadian delegation groups we host. So in that vein, I share a slice of this with you, albeit in a more subjective fashion here.

First, I may not be an authority on Latin America. Far from it! But here’s a slice of context from which I compare Guatemala:

I’ve been blessed to visit [or rather, I have exploited my carbon footprint by flying to..! (Offset yours here)] eight Latin American countries, beginning with Honduras in 1995. I’ve climbed Machu Picchu, canoed in the Amazon, stood in Cuba’s Plaza of the Revolution, met with Honduras’ exploited Chiquita Banana workers and Osh’Kosh B’Gosh sweatshop laborers, visited torture cells found in the basement of Anastasio Samoza’s former mansion, and I’ve gone swimming in Lake Nicaragua, where the world’s lone species of freshwater shark is found. Lucky, indeed, I have been. Generous support, an adventurous spirit, and the liberty of being single (still, argh!) all make for possibilities outside the Big Box!

Perhaps the combined uniqueness of those countries matches Guatemala’s, but no one of those matches what follows. Here goes:

Flowing through Guatemala, about the size of Tennessee, are over 100 rivers; 1,000 species of orchids; three tectonic plate fault lines; coasts on both the Atlantic and the Pacific (with their respective hurricane seasons, unfortunately); 37 volcanoes with 3 currently active; fourteen distinct ecological regions, from coastal mangroves .... to cloud forests at 8,000 feet above sea level ..... to the rain forest surrounding Tikal, a 2,500 year old site of Mayan temples; Guatemala City, the largest capitol in Central America; a majority Mayan indigenous population, consisting of 23 distinct ethnic groups, each with their own distinct language; and, last, as per this list, a resurging practice of Mayan spirituality that reaches back long before the now predominant Catholic and Protestant churches arrived on the scene in the 16^th and 19^th Centuries.

What else? The list goes on, but your time does not; so, I’ll wrap up.

It’s called the Land of Eternal Spring because flora is ALWAYS growing. Cut a limb off a tree, stick it in the ground, and watch it sprout! Amidst such abundance, one wonders why a clear majority of children here are undernourished. But that’s for another blog entry. J

Thanks so much for reading. And if you have a moment, I’d love to hear from you via the comment section below or at ajenkins@cedepca.org.

Blessings & Peace,

alan

Ps. I forgot to include a theological element! How about this: God writes the Gospel, not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars. -Martin Luther, 1483-1546.

Or …

Our present ecological crisis, the biggest single practical threat to our human existence in the middle to long term, has, religious people would say, a great deal to do with our failure to think of the world as existing in relation to the mystery of God, not just as a huge warehouse of stuff to be used for our convenience. -Rowan Williams, current Archbishop of Canterbury.

Advent-ing

Advent-ing

Advent greetings from Guatemala; I pray this finds you well! Advent: coming or arrival, or perhaps in my own non-scholarly translation of the Greek“adventus," waiting with bated breath. Certainly there’s a different feel to Advent in this 67 degree weather of Guatemala City, more like April in Georgia. But if we’re talking about ‘signs of the times,’ there could not be a more appropriate place for this liturgical season.

Why an appropriate place? Living among Guatemalans is a spiritual gift and challenge, where the faithful hunker down and hold out in perpetual Advent-mode. On one front, a new president takes the helm in January. Citizens voted for this retired military general for his platform of (a) security in light of persistent theft, rampant assaults on common citizens, etc., and (b) jobs for the estimated 60% of those unemployed, underemployed, or working informally.

Second, the Mayan Calendar begins a new era in 2012. End of the world? Hardly! Mayan priests await not earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, but rather a new era characterized by peace among brothers and sisters and peace with the living Earth. It is a vision of an era that is, thankfully, a reverse of the colonial and neo-colonial projects carried out in these lands over the last 500 years.

And last, Guatemala is an appropriate, yea urgent place to Advent (used here as a verb, permission by me), because the children and all of creation cry out as a mother in birthing pangs (Romans 8:22) for the coming of the Lord – that day when tears will be no more, when all will sit under the vine & fig tree and live in peace and unafraid. Amen!

This is all to remind ourselves that Advent is not solely the expectation of celebrating JC’s birthday, though it is that. On a deeper, engaging level Advent reminds us that faith is an active practice of preparation for the coming of the fullness of God’s reign, where the wolf dwells with the lamb; trees of the fields clap their hands; where justice and peace kiss; where dividing walls between free and enslaved fall to the ground. Amen? Amen! But it does beg reflection: in what intentional, practical ways are we, individually and collectively, Advent-ing?

Other notes

I’m sure some (all?) of you would rather just have a little update as to what I’ve been up to, so here goes:

I received my first delegation group last week , from Second Presbyterian Church Kansas City. Before heading to the highlands, we received presentations on the historical and social context of Guatemala, CEDEPCA’s Disaster Assistance Ministry and their Biblical & Theological formation program. A five hour drive took us to Xela, Quetzaltenango (this is the town where I studied Español in November).

The next day, Friday, we spent the better part of the day visiting a small Presbyterian Church of the Maya Quiche Presbytery called Eben-Ezer, ensconced amid huge coffee plantations. See video of children singing about God's creation here.

Saturday morning we visited a Fair-Trade coffee plantation Finca Santa Elena, followed by visiting another Mayan Quiche Presbyterian congregation located within a huge, definitely non-Fair-Trade coffee plantation. Intense! Rarely do children get past 4th or 5th grade. Their lives are tied to the whims of the often absent landowner and of global coffee prices. We sang, shared stories, prayed, ate, discussed possible partnership.

Sunday we attended another Pres Church in Almolonga, famous for its fertile fields, carrots the size of your forearm. We reviewed the water project there, worshiped, painted a bit in their new sanctuary.

In all of these gatherings I translated conversations, meeting and two sermons, parts of which were translated by others into the local Mayan language, Quiché, given that not all locals speak Spanish fluently (I can relate!). In Eben-Ezer and Almolonga we reviewed progress and challenges regarding fancy water purification systems that 2nd Presbyterian, Kansas City, has supported over the last five years. We then returned home via Antigua for an afternoon of more touristy significance.

Ø Other work

o Studying Spanish – an ongoing ‘mission’ of sorts,

o Reviewing and revising the mission, objectives and indicators of effectiveness of CEDEPCA’s Intercultural Encounters program,

o To do before and after next delegation trip (mid-January): develope brochures based on said revisions, start up an Intercultural Encounters newsletter and Facebook page, promote Intercultural Encounters to U.S. churches, universities and seminaries, make new Guatemala-based contacts who are addressing pressing issues of ecological justice, Free Trade, and peace (in the wake of the 1960-'96 internal conflict).

Ø In my free time

o Touring the heart of this largest of Central American cities by foot,

o Attended film festival featuring a documentary about a Mayan highlands community struggling against U.S. and Canadian mining operations in their ancestral lands,

o Attended another Guatemalan documentary screening about one determined woman’s search for information about here forcibly disappeared brother during the country’s internal conflict,

o Attended worship at Guatemala’s oldest Protestant church, Central Presbyterian (founded in 1882) and an Episcopal Church (c. 1975),

o Attended celebration of International Human Rights Day, replete with youth break-dancing to their own Hip-Hop music,

o Running in my neighborhood most every evening and last but not least,

o Occasionally taste-testing products of Guatemalan breweries :).

There you have it! For those of you who *may* have read all the way to this point, I’m impressed. Thank you! And if you haven’t already, be sure to become a “follower” by clicking on the right hand side of the blog.

Advent Blessings,

Alan

ajenkins@cedepca.org

Donate at www.cedepca.us/jenkins

First week in Guatemala City

I have just finished my first week working at CEDEPCA. Being here with such committed people in such an engaging part of the world feels great! Sure, it was difficult to leave home and begin a new chapter of my life; and to be perfectly honest, I do confess shedding more than one unexpected tear on the flight down from Atlanta. Leaving you all was not easy. But not to worry! I am confident this is where I am called to be.

Aside from setting up my office space with my co-worker Emerson Morales, I participated in CEDEPCA’s planning session. Over the course of one year, the office is undergoing evaluation of its programs and reinvisioning for the next five years to come. It’s a tedious process, for sure, but what I find most intriguing is the refining of its mission. Roughly translated and not yet final, it goes something like: Promote critical consciousness and empower people, churches and communities to construct new Biblical and theological paradigms leading to transformative action. What does this mean? I’ll tell a powerful story or two in subsequent blog entries, so please stay tuned.

It’s Saturday and I’d like to get in some exercise outside before it gets dark. Briefly, though, my living arrangements are working out very well. I’m living with a Spanish literature professor, Blanca, and her two daughters in a gated community (yikes!) about a twenty minute, sometimes exhaust-filled walk to the office. As it turns out, Blanca visited Georgia back in June, the same time that I had come down here with a group from the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta. She’s got a refrigerator magnet in the form of a Swiss Alps home with “Helen, GA” at bottom! She even visited Madison, where Mom lives!

There is another woman, Auri, who comes once a week to help clean the house. Her husband works in the States, given the lack of living wage jobs here (25% of Guatemalans live off of less than $2/day). Blanca requested I not ask Auri where her husband is living, as Blanca suspects Auri is fearful of letting others know her husband’s whereabouts. He’s already been deported once.

Two more items before I post this: Last night I went for a walk near the Central Plaza with Andrea, a friend of CEDEPCA’s. One of the streets is closed off to traffic, creating open public space for pedestrians. Every Friday night there’s a rag-tag, yet very talented group of musicians in their teens and twenties who play music on the curb, under the street lights. We sat on the opposite curb for almost two hours, listening, watching, laughing, clapping. Gathered in ever-growing circle were kids who live on the streets, elderly middle class women, college students, mothers with their infants and more. If only I could figure out how to upload onto the blog the videos I took with my new camera! I’ve tried a couple of times to do, but uploading goes soooo slow. Argh! Give me hints as to how to do it faster if you know any.

Last item: My first delegation group arrives November 30th from Kansas City. We’ll be working in some rural areas outside of Xela, up high in the mountains not far from where I studied Spanish at the beginning of the month. I’m excited, but a little nervous, too. I hope my Spanish will good enough for effective translating, and that my coordination of the work and learning experiences will help provide for a rich, transformative experience for all involved. Prayers requested!

Be well, and please do drop me a short note. I love to hear from you!

Granfran's Question, Answered from Guatemala

He's not going to be called a missionary is he? This question fell at Mom´s feet from none other than Mary Frances Yates Green, affectionately known as Granfran, my grandmother. On Sundays, you´ll find this sharp-as-a-tac 95 year old Episcopalian at Christ´s Church near Ft. Frederica on St. Simon´s Island, where she remains committed to the old school liturgy of the 1929 Book of Common Prayer.

From where Granfran´s suspicious missionary question comes I cannot say, but I´ll take a stab at it. Episcopalians (I was an active Episcopalian until age 23) are not eager evangelist in the popular sense of converting souls to Jesus, and perhaps it´s that rubric that comes to Granfran´s mind when she heard of her grandson´s work plans for Guatemala. I can imagine her cringing at the thought of my preaching in the streets of Guatemala City! Regardless of how we understand what a missionary is, I´ll still address the question: Am I a missionary? Well, maybe. Sort of. Yes, but not exactly … .

Until November 11^th, I continue working on my language skills here in Xela, a chilly 7,500 feet above sea level. This city, Guatemala’s second largest, sits in the shadow of the Santa Maria Volcano and serves as the crossroads for at least four different cultures: Mam and Quiche Mayan, Ladino (non-indigenous Guatemalans who identify more with their heritage of Spain and Western culture), and International (mostly comprised of Westerners like me who have come to study in one of the many Spanish language schools). So far, I’m not a missionary, but a language student and a bit of a tourist. An example of the latter: an exhilarating, exhausting, brilliantly scenic four hour mountain bike tour up and down and around an inactive volcano with a guide and three other Gringos!

On November 14^th, however, I’ll begin working with Cedepca (see www.cedepca.org), specifically with their Intercultural Encounters program. I will assist this program’s director, Emerson Morales, in leading delegation groups coming from Canada, Europe, and the U.S. Technically speaking, these are missionary groups and I will be their guide in their mission experience here. So, in this sense, perhaps I will be a missionary of sorts. Yet my work and Cedepca’s work is more nuanced and ultimately more satisfying than simply helping Gringos help impoverished Guatemalans.

These groups come from seminaries, universities, and churches to interact with and work alongside people of widely differing cultural backgrounds, such as Guatemala’s indigenous Mayan people, children living alongside Guatemala City’s buzzard infested landfill, and Pentecostals living in remote villages. As group leaders, Emerson and I will not only translate for the groups, but we will also facilitate reflections on the life of faith in terms of the world’s broader realities. Whether it be through hands on work helping construct a birthing center in partnership with a local community; listening to human rights lawyers share about the ongoing issues of justice in the wake of Guatemala’s civil war; learning about the many layers of immigration and the myriad of ways to respond faithfully; or whether we wrestle with the complex issues of U.S. Free Trade policies and their effects on poor Guatemalan farmers, the Intercultural Encounters program creates sacred space where lives are transformed on all sides for the longer haul of faithful discipleship amidst a broken and fearful world.

CEDEPCA’s mission statement emphasizes Paul’s teaching the importance of the transformation of our minds (Rom. 12:2), connecting mind with heart for ever more faithful participation in the work God is doing here and now for peace, reconciliation, healing, and newness of life.

So, back to Granfran’s pressing question: Is Alan going to be called a missionary? Hmm??? How about my passing this question on to you? Does my work, inasmuch as I’ve shared here, make me a missionary? What is your understanding of a missionary? Or perhaps, Are all Christians called to be on a mission, regardless of location, age or work? Should we all understand ourselves as missionaries? I would LOVE to hear your response in the comment section below.

Until next entry, Shalom!

Alan

Hola amigos e amigas!

Thanks for visiting my blog on Guatemala, where i will be living and working October 25th, 2011 - April 30th, 2012. I look forward to reflecting with you about my time in this rich, challenged country.

I begin the first three works brushing up on my Spanish language skills in a town called Xela, where I'll be living with a local family and studying five hours a day. On November 15th, I begin my work with CEDEPCA, The Center for Evangelical Pastoral Studies of Central America. Of their five main areas of ministry, i'll be working with the area called "Intercultural Encounters." Here, we receive delegations groups from U.S. & Canadian churches, seminaries and universities, leading them in immersion experiences of education and work alongside local communities. You can learn more at www.cedepca.org

You can also support my time to cover basic living expenses through a tax-deductible donation at www.cedepca.us/jenkins. Just be sure to click the "Designate" line and designate for Alan Jenkins.

Muchas Gracias!

alan