SPIRITUALLY FULFILLING MISSION OUTREACH

Do you like new places? Come and go! We feed the homeless at Downtown Presbyterian Church on the third Wednesday of each month and we went with two Presbytery of Middle TN mission trips to Guatemala this year.

PRESBYTERIAN AFRICAN MISSIONARY TED WRIGHT'S 10/18/07 MESSAGE TO THE MIDDLE TENNESSEE PRESBYTERY

WHAT LONG TERM MISSION WORKERS WISH CHURCH MISSION COMMITTEES KNEW:

1. They believe domestic churches, to remain viable, will become strong mission-sending organizations. 
2. Long term mission workers do have an impact on people’s lives. 
3. Long term mission workers are serving on behalf of domestic congregations, and give the domestic congregation an opportunity to look upward and outward. 
4. Long term mission workers value their connections with congregations.
5. Long term mission workers believe that in the end their work is as important for congregations in the U.S. as it is for the overseas congregations.

WHAT GLOBAL PARTNERS (OVERSEAS CONGREGATIONS) WISH DOMESTIC CONGREGATIONS KNEW ABOUT SHORT TERM MISSION TRIPS:

1. That visitors could spend more time getting to know the global partners. And could be less task-oriented. 
2. That visitors could be as open to learning as they are to teaching.
3. That visitors could rely more upon God than upon what is in their backpacks. That it is OK to let go of control. That it is OK to depend upon God’s Spirit, and not upon what one brings from abroad, such as preconceptions and equipment from out of country.

Guatemala mission trip

See pictures below

• Brentwood First supported two mission trips to the Mayan Peten in Guatemala this year.
• Our pastor and Stella Floyd were sponsored by Brentwood First and the Presbytery of Middle Tennessee to Valle Nuevo, San Juan Acul, Tamariz, and Nuevo Canaan in the Mayan Peten, Guatemala , 6/9 - 6/16 and 7/7-7/14. They took Spanish Bibles, fluoride, and toothbrushes donated by members, helped build a sanctuary in San Juan Acul, and helped with VBS and theological training for the local pastors. With Kate Moore, NP, they evaluated the  Roosevelt Hospital  in Guatemala City for collaboration with the Healing Wings ministry. You may see pictures from mission trips to the Mayan descendents, the Kekchis, on the bulletin boards in the narthex and downstairs in the fellowship hall. Call or e-mail Stella (grownkid@comcast.net) if you wish to go with her and our pastor to Guatemala next year.
• Brentwood First supports Guatemalan missionaries Roger and Gloria Marriott, and visits them each summer. Mission connections profile.
• On 12/9, Ray Ratliff, keyboard artist, will present a FREE concert at 4:00 PM in the church sanctuary. The concert will consist of original compositions and arrangements of holiday music and more. There will be an offering taken to help support PC (USA ) Guatemalan missionaries Roger and Gloria Marriott, and for Concern America Guatemalan physicians Drs. Julie Kiser and Kate Feibusch http://www.concernamerica.org/CANewsletters/CANewsSpring07.pdf.
• Dennis Smith, missionary in Guatemala, has written three pieces, Guatemala in Context, his theology of mission, A contemporary reflection on missiology, and his latest, a piece on the recent presidential election of a candidate that many think will be favorable for the descendents of the Maya, the Kekchi, November 4 2007 election.
• Other back ground information on Guatemala: ancient history, recent history, current events.
• Guatemala has breathtaking pyramids built by the ancient Maya. The largest ruined city is at Tikal where pyramids rise above a jungle that is home to elusive jaguars, howler monkeys and brightly-colored parrots and quetzals, the national bird. Tikal, which ranks alongside Mexico's Chichen Itza among Mayan gems, is a major tourist draw.
• Coffee is a mainstay of the Guatemalan economy, with the diverse climate producing several distinct types of Arabica beans, including the internationally renowned Antigua coffee. Many large farms shut down after world prices for coffee collapsed at the beginning of this decade, causing hunger and unemployment. Those that survived began producing high quality beans to fetch higher prices.

Questions addressed to PC(USA) missionaries in Guatemala, Dennis Smith and Roger Marriott

1) How should we Americans back home vote, on which issues before the legislators in our country, to help the Kekchi indigenous

 

Says Dennis: "Rethink our support for international trade agreements.  The first data available for CAFTA (1, 2) demonstrate that folks like the Kekchi are less self-sufficient in food production and pay more for corn imported from the U.S.  Also, continued U.S. support for CICIG (1, 2), the international commission to combat impunity in Guatemala, a new U.N. body, is key."

 

2) What goods can we Americans back home purchase or avoid purchasing (other than babies and drugs, we know about that) to help the economy and reduce violence in the Peten. Are you saying we should not purchase tropical woods or beef from 2/3 world countries? Or sugar cane, bananas, or coffee from 2/3 word countries because American corporations deforest for these also? Of course, some of the deforestation occurs because of local use of firewood.

Says Dennis: "Firewood is indeed the major cause of deforestation.  So far as the other products, the key is implementing viable programs that certify that tropical hardwoods, coffee and sugar cane are produced in ways that respect the environment and labor rights.  It is best to cut bananas out of your diet and replace this fruit with locally produced seasonal fruit.  The banana industry is not environmentally sustainable."

Adoption in Guatemala (1, 2, 3, 4 ): Guatemala has the highest per-capita adoption rate in the world with close to 5,000 babies adopted from the country of just 13 million people last year alone. About 95 percent of the babies go to the United States with more than 25,000 Guatemalan children placed in U.S. homes since 1990. It is a lucrative and at times corrupt trade run by private lawyers. Some are accused by authorities of forging paperwork or paying mothers to sell their children. A recent adoption in 2007 cost $37,000. It is doubtful the biologic mother saw more than a small fraction of this.

3) What should short term missionaries focus on when they come, or even if they should be coming down or not (first do no harm, "faith tourism" etc).

Says Dennis: "Accompany, listen, learn, build friendships, reflect together on where God is present in your community and in theirs and how God's presence is made known."

        a) Ministry of presence vs ministry of doing or both. 

Says Roger: "All PCUSA mission workers work in one of 3 areas or a combination of all 3: education, health, evangelism. Everything we do falls into those areas. " 

 

Says Dennis: "Presence is best, and if doing is done, do it together, according to priorities established by the local community.  This is complicated because folks will tell you what they think you want to hear.  Don't create a situation where your presence adds to the power, wealth and prestige of particular individuals or families in the community."  

 

Says Dennis: "You might want to move beyond the emphasis on what can you DO for the folks in Peten, to what can you LEARN from them." Says Dennis: "Wonderful hospitality and enlightening relationships are experienced in the Peten, but also you note what are an undercurrent of perplexity and discomfort as you come to see some of the subtleties of what is going on in the region."

 

Says one recent short term missionary to the Peten: "One of the things we surely learn from the Guatemalans is that we can be faithful with much less. But, if we do with less, what should we do with the surplus? That is what we are try to do in Guatemala; share our abundance as scripture suggests."

One of the Presbytery of Middle TN pastors says of the ministry of doing vs the ministry of being, that we should do both. That we should subscribe to "Frank Sinatra's wisdom of do-be-do-be-do."

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        b) Saving souls for the hereafter vs saving minds, bodies, and spirits in the here and now vs both.

Says Dennis: "Eternity begins now."

        c) And who is it that saves souls anyway, God or us?

Says Dennis: "Salvation is God's gracious gift to humankind.  If anything, going to Guatemala is about what you are doing for your own salvation, since living in the states disorients  your priorities." Says Roger: "It may sound strange that most of the time the need of the missioners to serve may be greater than the need of the Kekchi to receive what is offered." 

Says a PC(USA) pastor in middle TN: "It seems to me that this (what Roger says) is at the very heart of the Gospel.  However much the Gospel is good news for the poor (literally, materially), it is also good news for the poor in spirit (who are often those who are rich in things).  As Jesus promised, we do indeed meet Christ in the face of one who is in need and are startled when we recognize a brother or sister, not just a poor person.  They call us into their suffering, and into a widening, more inclusive compassion.  They are our ticket to the Kingdom!  From that perspective, which I feel is Christ's perspective, we are the ones who are most 'helped.'   It all depends, I guess, on how you define 'need.'  Do we see ourselves as needy?  Only then can God help us.

4) How can we Americans back home help with the chronic problems of  violence, impunity, and fear in the Peten?

Says Dennis: "Support CICIG."

5) How can we Americans back home, or short term missionaries, best educate the indigenous in the Peten about water?

Says Dennis: "Education requires long-term accompaniment.  Use appropriate technology.  Explore local culture, history and world view." Says Roger: "We need to repeat the workshops soon with the same people and then add to them. And we need to use Kekchi as teachers."

6) Do you think there is an opportunity for Guatemala and the US to be more in line with CAFTA specifically to benefit the Kekchi? How do we accomplish this?

Says Dennis: "Credits and technification, and identify marketable products.  But that is not going to accomplish much as long as the drug lords run the town.  Folks don't feel the need to change things since the drug lords operate a populist system that gives selective handouts, encourages dependency and discourages local initiative."

7) How can we Americans back home or short term missionaries invest in education of Kekchi children?

Says Roger, "Education is the only antidote to poverty." Says Roger, "But there is little government investment in the education of kids--not talking about buildings but well-prepared teachers, books, school supplies."

 

Says Roger: "One of the PC(USA) churches in the Presbytery of Middle TN has partially funded a teacher in the village of Valle Nuevo. This seems to work and is something short term mission workers can do. It also allows the village to manage some money. Another middle Tennessee PC(USA) church pays to bring kids to a center in Sayaxche where they can study during the week."

 8) Should short term missionaries be concerned about safety while in Guatemala? 

None of us have ever felt unsafe in the Kekchi indigenous villages. Paradoxically and counterintuitively, the only concerns any have ever expressed are in one of the towns where we stayed at night, Sayaxche.

 

Says Roger, "Sayaxche has been the seat of drug activity for years with 75% of Colombian drugs passing through on their way to the US. This is nothing new."

 

Says Roger, "In Sayaxche one should not roam the streets at night, talk about drugs, try to score some, or hit on pretty women--but then church groups wouldn't do that anywhere. ... This is not what you offer by coming here--you offer by your presence some tangible evidence of your love of God's children who are forced to live under oppressive conditions that we cannot begin to understand. It is more than offering a days medical clinic or fluoride treatments or educational workshops. Those are merely the vehicle that enable you, or any missioner, to rationalize your presence sometimes to yourself but usually to others.  Coming here is worth doing and it's a faithful use of time and money. If one is looking for security one would have to stay home and how secure is that? Our faith, our sense of call, our love of the Kekchi and our sense of self--how it makes us feel alive or accentuates our sense of God--keep us all coming here. Where is there security?"

 

Says Roger, "We'll be fine if we follow the same simple rules we follow in the US when we are in places we don't know well."

 

In summary, says Dennis Smith, "Systemic problems require systemic solutions that must include the strengthening of the state, the strengthening of the church as a social institution, the control of corruption and the elimination of impunity."

 

Covenant agreement between the Presbytery of the Peten and the Presbytery of Middle TN.